15,474 research outputs found
Engineering Crowdsourced Stream Processing Systems
A crowdsourced stream processing system (CSP) is a system that incorporates
crowdsourced tasks in the processing of a data stream. This can be seen as
enabling crowdsourcing work to be applied on a sample of large-scale data at
high speed, or equivalently, enabling stream processing to employ human
intelligence. It also leads to a substantial expansion of the capabilities of
data processing systems. Engineering a CSP system requires the combination of
human and machine computation elements. From a general systems theory
perspective, this means taking into account inherited as well as emerging
properties from both these elements. In this paper, we position CSP systems
within a broader taxonomy, outline a series of design principles and evaluation
metrics, present an extensible framework for their design, and describe several
design patterns. We showcase the capabilities of CSP systems by performing a
case study that applies our proposed framework to the design and analysis of a
real system (AIDR) that classifies social media messages during time-critical
crisis events. Results show that compared to a pure stream processing system,
AIDR can achieve a higher data classification accuracy, while compared to a
pure crowdsourcing solution, the system makes better use of human workers by
requiring much less manual work effort
Managing big data experiments on smartphones
The explosive number of smartphones with ever growing sensing and computing capabilities have brought a paradigm shift to many traditional domains of the computing field. Re-programming smartphones and instrumenting them for application testing and data gathering at scale is currently a tedious and time-consuming process that poses significant logistical challenges. Next generation smartphone applications are expected to be much larger-scale and complex, demanding that these undergo evaluation and testing under different real-world datasets, devices and conditions. In this paper, we present an architecture for managing such large-scale data management experiments on real smartphones. We particularly present the building blocks of our architecture that encompassed smartphone sensor data collected by the crowd and organized in our big data repository. The given datasets can then be replayed on our testbed comprising of real and simulated smartphones accessible to developers through a web-based interface. We present the applicability of our architecture through a case study that involves the evaluation of individual components that are part of a complex indoor positioning system for smartphones, coined Anyplace, which we have developed over the years. The given study shows how our architecture allows us to derive novel insights into the performance of our algorithms and applications, by simplifying the management of large-scale data on smartphones
Human-agent collectives
We live in a world where a host of computer systems, distributed throughout our physical and information environments, are increasingly implicated in our everyday actions. Computer technologies impact all aspects of our lives and our relationship with the digital has fundamentally altered as computers have moved out of the workplace and away from the desktop. Networked computers, tablets, phones and personal devices are now commonplace, as are an increasingly diverse set of digital devices built into the world around us. Data and information is generated at unprecedented speeds and volumes from an increasingly diverse range of sources. It is then combined in unforeseen ways, limited only by human imagination. People’s activities and collaborations are becoming ever more dependent upon and intertwined with this ubiquitous information substrate. As these trends continue apace, it is becoming apparent that many endeavours involve the symbiotic interleaving of humans and computers. Moreover, the emergence of these close-knit partnerships is inducing profound change. Rather than issuing instructions to passive machines that wait until they are asked before doing anything, we will work in tandem with highly inter-connected computational components that act autonomously and intelligently (aka agents). As a consequence, greater attention needs to be given to the balance of control between people and machines. In many situations, humans will be in charge and agents will predominantly act in a supporting role. In other cases, however, the agents will be in control and humans will play the supporting role. We term this emerging class of systems human-agent collectives (HACs) to reflect the close partnership and the flexible social interactions between the humans and the computers. As well as exhibiting increased autonomy, such systems will be inherently open and social. This means the participants will need to continually and flexibly establish and manage a range of social relationships. Thus, depending on the task at hand, different constellations of people, resources, and information will need to come together, operate in a coordinated fashion, and then disband. The openness and presence of many distinct stakeholders means participation will be motivated by a broad range of incentives rather than diktat. This article outlines the key research challenges involved in developing a comprehensive understanding of HACs. To illuminate this agenda, a nascent application in the domain of disaster response is presented
Middleware Technologies for Cloud of Things - a survey
The next wave of communication and applications rely on the new services
provided by Internet of Things which is becoming an important aspect in human
and machines future. The IoT services are a key solution for providing smart
environments in homes, buildings and cities. In the era of a massive number of
connected things and objects with a high grow rate, several challenges have
been raised such as management, aggregation and storage for big produced data.
In order to tackle some of these issues, cloud computing emerged to IoT as
Cloud of Things (CoT) which provides virtually unlimited cloud services to
enhance the large scale IoT platforms. There are several factors to be
considered in design and implementation of a CoT platform. One of the most
important and challenging problems is the heterogeneity of different objects.
This problem can be addressed by deploying suitable "Middleware". Middleware
sits between things and applications that make a reliable platform for
communication among things with different interfaces, operating systems, and
architectures. The main aim of this paper is to study the middleware
technologies for CoT. Toward this end, we first present the main features and
characteristics of middlewares. Next we study different architecture styles and
service domains. Then we presents several middlewares that are suitable for CoT
based platforms and lastly a list of current challenges and issues in design of
CoT based middlewares is discussed.Comment: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352864817301268,
Digital Communications and Networks, Elsevier (2017
Middleware Technologies for Cloud of Things - a survey
The next wave of communication and applications rely on the new services
provided by Internet of Things which is becoming an important aspect in human
and machines future. The IoT services are a key solution for providing smart
environments in homes, buildings and cities. In the era of a massive number of
connected things and objects with a high grow rate, several challenges have
been raised such as management, aggregation and storage for big produced data.
In order to tackle some of these issues, cloud computing emerged to IoT as
Cloud of Things (CoT) which provides virtually unlimited cloud services to
enhance the large scale IoT platforms. There are several factors to be
considered in design and implementation of a CoT platform. One of the most
important and challenging problems is the heterogeneity of different objects.
This problem can be addressed by deploying suitable "Middleware". Middleware
sits between things and applications that make a reliable platform for
communication among things with different interfaces, operating systems, and
architectures. The main aim of this paper is to study the middleware
technologies for CoT. Toward this end, we first present the main features and
characteristics of middlewares. Next we study different architecture styles and
service domains. Then we presents several middlewares that are suitable for CoT
based platforms and lastly a list of current challenges and issues in design of
CoT based middlewares is discussed.Comment: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352864817301268,
Digital Communications and Networks, Elsevier (2017
Urban air quality citizen science. Phase 1: review of methods and projects
This report will comprise suggestions of links with other work and possible approaches for taking the
work forward, providing a map of current and recent air quality related Citizen Science activities in
the UK, Europe and beyond.
In this deliverable, we map out the technologies and approaches currently available for air quality
monitoring and provide an overview on how they could be applied in a citizen science context. In
addition, we provide an overview of existing citizen science activities with relevance to air pollution.
The focus of this report will be on the specific aspects of air pollution monitoring in a citizen science
context; we refer to Roy et al. (2012) for a more general discourse on citizen science projects. As far
as possible, we will closely link to another SEPA funded project with a focus on citizen science for
environmental monitoring (by direct personal contact with colleagues at CEH), as well as other
ongoing and emerging projects (e.g. EU FP7 project CitiSense, Transport Scotland, etc.). The
objective of this report is not to draw final conclusions, but to provide the material and information
resources for the following phases 2 and 3 of the pilot project
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