The great lockdown: was it worth it? CEPS Policy Insights No 2020-11 / May 2020

What the IMF calls the ‘great lockdown’ has thrown Europe and the global economy into a deep recession. When putting their countries into lockdown, governments essentially pushed the panic button, mostly in the face of rising fatalities. Was this the right choice? The answer to this question is usually framed in terms of the lives saved versus jobs lost. However, a closer look at the actual expenses for medical care that the pandemic has engendered so far and a bottomup calculation for hospitalisation costs suggests that the economic costs of the great lockdown, while very large, might still be lower than the medical costs that an unchecked spread of the virus would have caused. There might thus be no need to assign an economic value to the lives saved to come to the conclusion that a

Implementation of a Wireless Bank Surveillance System with a Nomadic Monitoring Unit

Most countries of the world are experiencing a rising spate of crime and security challenges. Specifically, the banking sector is seriously imperilled by the menace of armed bandits as recent robbery incidents are targeted mainly at banks. Most security agencies are incapacitated due to the absence of efficient means for intelligence gathering. To this end, this paper reports the implementation of a Wireless Nomadic Bank Surveillance System which comprises of three intelligent sub-units namely the asset tracking unit, the panic button unit and the IP surveillance unit. The asset tracking unit is an assembly of an embedded system together with a programmed hybrid GPS/GSM module. The panic button system is also an embedded system that operates with a GSM module. The IP surveillance unit is used to remotely monitor the banking hall through covert IP cameras placed in the banking hall. All of the three sub-units are monitored and controlled by a nomadic system which is a mini computer system specially assembled for this purpose. The system is used to query the bag and money tracker for the present location. The Google earth software installed on the nomadic system is used to map the received longitude and latitude format to the actual position. To serve as a redundancy to the panic button system, a web application is developed using PHP, JavaScript and MySQL for managing the video feeds and forwarding SMS alert messages to security agencies saved in the database in case of a robbery

Improving the detection of the transport mode in the MobilitApp Android application

Millorar els algorismes de detecció del medi de transport dels ciutadans de l'Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona.El objetivo ha sido el de mejorar la aplicación MobilitApp ya existente, para ello se han añadido dos módulos. El primer módulo que se ha añadido ha sido un detector de accidentes. Debido a que en los anteriores trabajos se estaba tratando con el acelerómetro, nos pareció interesante intentar sacar más provecho al acelerómetro e incluir la funcionalidad de poder detectar cuando el móvil ha sufrido un impacto. Una vez el impacto ha sido detectado se envía un mensaje de emergencia. El segundo módulo consiste en un podómetro, MobilitApp cuenta los pasos del usuario y se presenta junto a una aproximación de la distancia recorrida y del número de calorías quemadas. Como último paso, hemos realizado un análisis sobre las gráficas que se han obtenido de los usuarios tomadas del acelerómetro sobre metro o tren, y hemos comprobado su parecido con una señal sinusoidal. Esta característica ayudará en futuros trabajos para identificar mejor el tipo de sistema de transporte utilizado por el usuario. Además, sería de gran ayuda para ahorrar batería ya que la señal GPS sería menos utilizada.This study aims to improve an existing application for citizen mobility analytics: MobilitApp. Two modules were added to the app in order to develop the desired functionalities. The first module has been added is an accident detector. Because of the previous work involves dealing with the accelerometer, it seemed interesting to try to get more out of the accelerometer and include the functionality to detect when the phone has suffered an impact. Once the impact has been detected, an emergency message is sent. The second module consists of a pedometer, MobilitApp counts the number of the user’s steps and presents them with an approximation of the distance walked and the number of calories burned. As a last step, we have made an analysis of the graphs that have been obtained from the user’s accelerometers travelling on train or subway, and we have checked their resemblance to a sinusoidal signal. This feature will help in future works to better identify the type of public transportation system being used by the user. Besides, it would help to save battery since the GPS signal will be less used.L’objectiu ha estat el de millorar l’aplicació MobilitApp ja existent, per això s’han afegit dos mòduls. El primer mòdul que s’ha afegit ha estat un detector d’accidents. A causa que en els anteriors treballs s’estava tractant amb l’acceleròmetre, ens va semblar interessant intentar treure més profit a l’acceleròmetre e incloure la funcionalitat de poder detectar quan el mòbil ha patit un impacte. Un cop l’impacte ha estat detectat s’envia un missatge d’emergència. El segon mòdul consisteix en un podòmetre, MobilitApp compte els passos de l’usuari i se’ls presenta amb una aproximació de la distància recorreguda y de les calories cremades. Com a últim pas, em fet un anàlisi sobre les gràfiques que s’han obtingut dels usuaris preses de l’acceleròmetre sobre metro o tren, i hem comprovat la seva semblança amb una senyal sinusoïdal. Aquesta característica ens ajudarà en treballs futurs per identificar millor el tipus de sistema de transport utilitzat per l’usuari. A més, seria de gran ajuda per estalviar bateria ja que el senyal GPS seria menys utilitzat

CHILDREN AIMED INTERFACES FOR ANDROID RUNNING DEVICES

The paper focuses on the development of mobile interfaces for children. The Android operating system is presented from appearance with its features, hardware support and its advantages over others operating systems. Mobile software development requirements on different platforms for mobile devices are identified and described. A graphical interface aiming children is designed and its features are presented. The interface includes an application for managing the school related tasks and time. Children manage the time of the days of the week differently. They have access to a task management system and a progress reporting tool. The advantages and development requirements are identified and discussed.mobile, software, development, Android, devices, interfaces, children

Playing in a virtual bedroom: youth leisure in the Facebook generation

The rapidly changing uses of online social networking sites (SNS) have led to moral panics, most notably framed in terms of 'stranger danger'. However, the risks to young people from access to un-mediated content available via SNS, and most particularly to user-generated content is not generally seen as being dangerous. However, adults would not generally consider many of the activities engaged in via SNS as safe were they conducted in the real world. This paper explores the ways in which young people use SNS to mediate complex issues of social identity in a virtual environment

Implementation of a Community Emergency Security Alert System

Emergency alert and response is carried out in different ways around the world. Governments, corporate bodies and individuals take emergencies very seriously and continue to develop ingenious ways of responding to emergencies very swiftly. Most Urban areas have well-developed emergency response systems but this is not true of rural and sub-urban settlements. Security risk keeps increasing by the day due to rapid population growth. This is particularly true at the grassroots or community level. This paper proposes a very effective and economical way of alerting a community to all kinds of security emergencies. It incorporates the use of a mobile application that was codenamed “CEMAS” (Community Emergency Alarm System). The mobile application with a “Panic button” on it provides all inhabitants of the community with the means of triggering two SMS-activated central alarms. The first alarm is located at the community center and the second at the community police station. The central alarm system is activated by pressing the “Panic Button” whenever there is a security threat. The designed and implemented system worked satisfactorily well