Quality assessment technique for ubiquitous software and middleware

The new paradigm of computing or information systems is ubiquitous computing systems. The technology-oriented issues of ubiquitous computing systems have made researchers pay much attention to the feasibility study of the technologies rather than building quality assurance indices or guidelines. In this context, measuring quality is the key to developing high-quality ubiquitous computing products. For this reason, various quality models have been defined, adopted and enhanced over the years, for example, the need for one recognised standard quality model (ISO/IEC 9126) is the result of a consensus for a software quality model on three levels: characteristics, sub-characteristics, and metrics. However, it is very much unlikely that this scheme will be directly applicable to ubiquitous computing environments which are considerably different to conventional software, trailing a big concern which is being given to reformulate existing methods, and especially to elaborate new assessment techniques for ubiquitous computing environments. This paper selects appropriate quality characteristics for the ubiquitous computing environment, which can be used as the quality target for both ubiquitous computing product evaluation processes ad development processes. Further, each of the quality characteristics has been expanded with evaluation questions and metrics, in some cases with measures. In addition, this quality model has been applied to the industrial setting of the ubiquitous computing environment. These have revealed that while the approach was sound, there are some parts to be more developed in the future

FULLY AUTOMATIC PALLET TRANSFER SYSTEM FOR AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRIES

This project is a collaboration project with Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Berhad (PROTON), by which the department involved is Press & Tool Engineering Department, also known as Stamping Department. This project is focused on the fully automatic press machine called H-Line. As fork lifters are unable to perform many tasks simultaneously, unfilled and fully filled pallets become a problem. This project is done on a basis to minimize the workforce on the production line and to maximize the production quality. The project will cover the research on pallet transfer system and followed by simulation using Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). At the initial stage, the push button will be the input command of the PLC. Once successful, Visual Basic will be designed as the controller material that will monitor the process on the hardware. The specialty of the GUI is the system does not have to be operated at the line but instead only operates the system on a computer. Sensors and motors will control movements of every part in the Pallet Transfer System. External circuits will be added to the system to ensure the correct timing and accuracy of the movements. Mechanical parts also come in handy in designing gearings, shaft, and the roller conveyor. The significance of the project is it will be the latest design of Pallet Transfer System not just in PROTON, but also in Malaysian local automotive industries. The Pallet Transfer also will be replaced in PROTON's entire fully automatic press machine with this new design to increase the pallets management efficiency in PROTON

Imagine staying in a Shanghai hotel bedroom in 2050?

Will the future hotels of Shanghai emphasise a world of contemporary design, sustainability and technological innovations in order to deal with the growing pains of pollution, competition of urban land and decreasing availability of clean water, which will impact on the quality and price of accommodation in  the city? This paper imagines what a hotel might look like in 2050 based upon nine drivers of change, whether it is new sciences such as claytronics, or programmable matter that integrate sight, sound and feel into original ideas, allowing users to interact with three-dimensional form. The applications of claytronics would be the reconfiguration of everything, so just imagine the future hotel bed that could change its degree of comfort from a hard to a soft mattress without too much effort, the possibilities are endless. Other drivers include robotics as an alternative to a human labour supply or the behaviours of  Generation Y. The heart to the future is sustainable design and this paper discusses how the hotel will feature many of these changes in a future world in order to mitigate and adapt to a paradigm of scarcity of resources.Keywords: drivers of change, future hotels, innovations, sustainability, sustainable designResearch in Hospitality Management 2012, 1(2): 85–9

Addressing the complexity of multimedia wireless computing solutions

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-100).by William W. Graylin.S.M.M.B.A

Myriad : a distributed machine vision application framework

This thesis examines the potential for the application of distributed computing frameworks to industrial and also lightweight consumer-level Machine Vision (MV) applications. Traditional, stand-alone MV systems have many benefits in well-defined, tightly- controlled industrial settings, but expose limitations in interactive, de-localised and small-task applications that seek to utilise vision techniques. In these situations, single-computer solutions fail to suffice and greater flexibility in terms of system construction, interactivity and localisation are required. Network-connected and distributed vision systems are proposed as a remedy to these problems, providing dynamic, componentised systems that may optionally be independent of location, or take advantage of networked computing tools and techniques, such as web servers, databases, proxies, wireless networking, secure connectivity, distributed computing clusters, web services and load balancing. The thesis discusses a system named Myriad, a distributed computing framework for Machine Vision applications. Myriad is composed components, such as image processing engines and equipment controllers, which behave as enhanced web servers and communicate using simple HTTP requests. The roles of HTTP-based distributed computing servers in simplifying rapid development of networked applications and integrating those applications with existing networked tools and business processes are explored. Prototypes of Myriad components, written in Java, along with supporting PHP, Perl and Prolog scripts and user interfaces in C , Java, VB and C++/Qt are examined. Each component includes a scripting language named MCS, enabling remote clients (or other Myriad components) to issue single commands or execute sequences of commands locally to the component in a sustained session. The advantages of server- side scripting in this manner for distributed computing tasks are outlined with emphasis on Machine Vision applications, as a means to overcome network connection issues and address problems where consistent processing is required. Furthermore, the opportunities to utilise scripting to form complex distributed computing network topologies and fully-autonomous federated networked applications are described, and examples given on how to achieve functionality such as clusters of image processing nodes. Through the medium of experimentation involving the remote control of a model train set, cameras and lights, the ability of Myriad to perform traditional roles of fixed, stand-alone Machine Vision systems is supported, along with discussion of opportunities to incorporate these elements into network-based dynamic collaborative inspection applications. In an example of 2D packing of remotely-acquired shapes, distributed computing extensions to Machine Vision tasks are explored, along with integration into larger business processes. Finally, the thesis examines the use of Machine Vision techniques and Myriad components to construct distributed computing applications with the addition of vision capabilities, leading to a new class of image-data-driven applications that exploit mobile computing and Pervasive Computing trends