Behaviour Intentions to Use RFID Subcutaneous Microchips: A Cross-sectional Slovenian Perspective

This paper presents the second iteration results of a study investigating the possibility of radio frequency identification device subcutaneous microchip (RFID-SM) usage as a substitute for personal identification, healthcare issues, shopping or payments, and home usage. Our aim was to investigate the readiness to use SM-RFID in everyday life. In the study, we used an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to verify the main concerns regarding the use of RFID-SM among Slovenian people. The survey responses were gathered from October until December 2016. After evaluating the model, it can be concluded that the fit of the model is good and the significant path of dependence are similar as in the first study from 2014. Similar to previous results, the Health Concerns have a negative effect on the Perceived Trust and Perceived Usefulness of SM-RFID adoption. On the other hand, the Perceived Trust and Perceived Usefulness have a positive effect on the Behaviour Intention to use SM-RFID

Adoption of blockchain as a step forward in orthopedic practice

Blockchain technology has gained popularity since the invention of Bitcoin in 2008. It offers a decentralized and secure system for managing and protecting data. In the healthcare sector, where data protection and patient privacy are crucial, blockchain has the potential to revolutionize various aspects, including patient data management, orthopedic registries, medical imaging, research data, and the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This manuscript explores the applications of blockchain in orthopedics and highlights its benefits. Furthermore, the combination of blockchain with artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and deep learning can enable more accurate diagnoses and treatment recommendations. AI algorithms can learn from large datasets stored on the blockchain, leading to advancements in automated clinical decision-making. Overall, blockchain technology has the potential to enhance data security, interoperability, and collaboration in orthopedics. While there are challenges to overcome, such as adoption barriers and data sharing willingness, the benefits offered by blockchain make it a promising innovation for the field

On the Usability of Authenticity Checks for Hardware Security Tokens

The ultimate responsibility to verify whether a newly purchased hardware security token (HST) is authentic and unmodified lies with the end user. However, recently reported attacks on such tokens suggest that users cannot take the security guarantees of their HSTs for granted - even despite widely deployed authenticity checks. We present the first comprehensive market review evaluating the effectiveness and usability of authenticity checks for the most commonly used HSTs. Furthermore, we conducted a survey (n=194) to examine users’ perceptions and usage of these checks. We found that due to a lack of transparency and information, users often do not carry out - or are not aware of - essential checks but rely on less meaningful methods. Moreover, our results confirm that currently deployed authenticity checks cannot mitigate all variants of distribution attacks. Furthermore, some authenticity concepts of different manufacturers contradict each other. To address these challenges, we suggest a combination of already deployed and novel authenticity checks as well as a user-centered transparent design

How to make sense: Sensory modification in grinder subculture

This doctoral research examines the Canadian and American grinder scenes to gain insight into the role of senses in understanding and responding to social problems. Grinders, a subset of biohackers, aim to enhance themselves by assimilating emerging material technologies (including, but not limited to, electronics) with their bodies through experiments and surgeries. They opt for a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach in order to maintain a sense of agency that might be lost if pursued through traditional means, such as ‘normalized’ medical research, ethically constrained university research, or market-driven private industry. How do grinders make sense (literally and figuratively) of their bodies as a site for enhancement? The research design included three years of virtual ethnography of online grinder hubs, which were connected and contrasted with a concurrent two years of ‘real world’ participant observation ethnography at grinder laboratories and events. Data analysis applied actor-network theory to trace grinders’ sensory assemblages through a variety of on- and off-line sources. These included internet forum posts, IRC chat logs, and blogs, as well as 40 in-depth interviews, dozens of informal interviews, and direct observations of grinders planning, surgically implanting, and using their ‘enhancements.’ Results demonstrated how grinders position their bodies both broadly in relation to their current social circumstances, as well as specifically through three case studies involving magnetic implants, RFID tags, and body-computer interfaces. This study is situated in Cyborg Anthropology and Science and Technology Studies to understand the relationship between bodies, technology, and culture. Findings suggest grinders conceive of the human body as an ironic hybrid of positivism and constructionism, determined by its techno-biological material yet simultaneously amenable to endless modification. In practice, however, the results of the tension between stability and variability tend to reinforce hegemonic social and economic relationships. What grinders ultimately enhance is the ability to adapt their physical bodies to social uncertainty brought about by the accelerating digital economy of information

The appraisal of Facebook online community: An exposition of mobile commerce in social media reviews

Peer reviewe

Real-Life Experiments based on IQRF IoT Testbed: From Sensors to Cloud

Master's thesis Information- and communication technology IKT590 - University of Agder 2018Internet of things (IoT) is the next generation internet technology which connects devices and objects intelligently to control data collected by diverse types of sensors, radio frequency identification and other physical objects. To address the challenges in IoT such as integrating artificial intelligent techniques with IoT concept, developing green IoT technologies and combining IoT and cloud computing, various platforms which support reliable and low power wireless connectivity are required. IQRF is a recently developed platform for wireless connectivity. It provides low power, low speed, reliable and easy to use wireless connectivity in sub-GHz bands for telemetry and industrial control and building automation. The applications are used for scientific knowledge in practical purposes, especially in industrial usage. It is extensively non-identical from what we are accustomed to nowadays. It has been designed to use IQMESH technology. The purpose for IQMESH is to ensure wireless connectivity wherever it is necessary, covering tens of hundreds of meters up to several kilometers. In this master’s thesis, we implemented an IQRF platform-based testbed for IoT related application scenarios which can measure various environmental conditions and perform required communications. The research work of this thesis is carried out in three directions, i.e., single-hop and multi-hop communication for temperature measurements, light intensity measurements via integrated light dependent resistors and cloud-based connectivity for IQRF sensors. The work performed in this thesis provides a valuable result because IQRF does not only solve problems regarding wireless technology, but it also supports industrial control, remote control and cloud control as well. Also, as the devices come with different input/output pins, they are easily maneuverable to connect different external sensors to get accurate results. In this thesis, the employed research methods, experiments, readings and related discussions have been presented accordingly. Key words: IQRF, IoT, Wireless Sensor Network, Light Dependent Resistor, GSM Gateway, IEEE 802.15.4, IQRF Clou

Cognitive Hyperconnected Digital Transformation

Cognitive Hyperconnected Digital Transformation provides an overview of the current Internet of Things (IoT) landscape, ranging from research, innovation and development priorities to enabling technologies in a global context. It is intended as a standalone book in a series that covers the Internet of Things activities of the IERC-Internet of Things European Research Cluster, including both research and technological innovation, validation and deployment. The book builds on the ideas put forward by the European Research Cluster, the IoT European Platform Initiative (IoT-EPI) and the IoT European Large-Scale Pilots Programme, presenting global views and state-of-the-art results regarding the challenges facing IoT research, innovation, development and deployment in the next years. Hyperconnected environments integrating industrial/business/consumer IoT technologies and applications require new IoT open systems architectures integrated with network architecture (a knowledge-centric network for IoT), IoT system design and open, horizontal and interoperable platforms managing things that are digital, automated and connected and that function in real-time with remote access and control based on Internet-enabled tools. The IoT is bridging the physical world with the virtual world by combining augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to support the physical-digital integrations in the Internet of mobile things based on sensors/actuators, communication, analytics technologies, cyber-physical systems, software, cognitive systems and IoT platforms with multiple functionalities. These IoT systems have the potential to understand, learn, predict, adapt and operate autonomously. They can change future behaviour, while the combination of extensive parallel processing power, advanced algorithms and data sets feed the cognitive algorithms that allow the IoT systems to develop new services and propose new solutions. IoT technologies are moving into the industrial space and enhancing traditional industrial platforms with solutions that break free of device-, operating system- and protocol-dependency. Secure edge computing solutions replace local networks, web services replace software, and devices with networked programmable logic controllers (NPLCs) based on Internet protocols replace devices that use proprietary protocols. Information captured by edge devices on the factory floor is secure and accessible from any location in real time, opening the communication gateway both vertically (connecting machines across the factory and enabling the instant availability of data to stakeholders within operational silos) and horizontally (with one framework for the entire supply chain, across departments, business units, global factory locations and other markets). End-to-end security and privacy solutions in IoT space require agile, context-aware and scalable components with mechanisms that are both fluid and adaptive. The convergence of IT (information technology) and OT (operational technology) makes security and privacy by default a new important element where security is addressed at the architecture level, across applications and domains, using multi-layered distributed security measures. Blockchain is transforming industry operating models by adding trust to untrusted environments, providing distributed security mechanisms and transparent access to the information in the chain. Digital technology platforms are evolving, with IoT platforms integrating complex information systems, customer experience, analytics and intelligence to enable new capabilities and business models for digital business

Information Management in Supply Chain Partnering: Improving Maintenance Processes in Dutch Housing Associations

From the article: "Abstract Maintenance processes of Dutch housing associations are often still organized in a traditional manner. Contracts are based on lowest price instead of ‘best quality for lowest price’ considering users’ demands. Dutch housing associations acknowledge the need to improve their maintenance processes in order to lower maintenance cost, but are not sure how. In this research, this problem is addressed by investigating different supply chain partnering principles and the role of information management. The main question is “How can the organisation of maintenance processes of Dutch housing associations, in different supply chain partnering principles and the related information management, be improved?” The answer is sought through case study research.

Cognitive Hyperconnected Digital Transformation

Cognitive Hyperconnected Digital Transformation provides an overview of the current Internet of Things (IoT) landscape, ranging from research, innovation and development priorities to enabling technologies in a global context. It is intended as a standalone book in a series that covers the Internet of Things activities of the IERC-Internet of Things European Research Cluster, including both research and technological innovation, validation and deployment. The book builds on the ideas put forward by the European Research Cluster, the IoT European Platform Initiative (IoT-EPI) and the IoT European Large-Scale Pilots Programme, presenting global views and state-of-the-art results regarding the challenges facing IoT research, innovation, development and deployment in the next years. Hyperconnected environments integrating industrial/business/consumer IoT technologies and applications require new IoT open systems architectures integrated with network architecture (a knowledge-centric network for IoT), IoT system design and open, horizontal and interoperable platforms managing things that are digital, automated and connected and that function in real-time with remote access and control based on Internet-enabled tools. The IoT is bridging the physical world with the virtual world by combining augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to support the physical-digital integrations in the Internet of mobile things based on sensors/actuators, communication, analytics technologies, cyber-physical systems, software, cognitive systems and IoT platforms with multiple functionalities. These IoT systems have the potential to understand, learn, predict, adapt and operate autonomously. They can change future behaviour, while the combination of extensive parallel processing power, advanced algorithms and data sets feed the cognitive algorithms that allow the IoT systems to develop new services and propose new solutions. IoT technologies are moving into the industrial space and enhancing traditional industrial platforms with solutions that break free of device-, operating system- and protocol-dependency. Secure edge computing solutions replace local networks, web services replace software, and devices with networked programmable logic controllers (NPLCs) based on Internet protocols replace devices that use proprietary protocols. Information captured by edge devices on the factory floor is secure and accessible from any location in real time, opening the communication gateway both vertically (connecting machines across the factory and enabling the instant availability of data to stakeholders within operational silos) and horizontally (with one framework for the entire supply chain, across departments, business units, global factory locations and other markets). End-to-end security and privacy solutions in IoT space require agile, context-aware and scalable components with mechanisms that are both fluid and adaptive. The convergence of IT (information technology) and OT (operational technology) makes security and privacy by default a new important element where security is addressed at the architecture level, across applications and domains, using multi-layered distributed security measures. Blockchain is transforming industry operating models by adding trust to untrusted environments, providing distributed security mechanisms and transparent access to the information in the chain. Digital technology platforms are evolving, with IoT platforms integrating complex information systems, customer experience, analytics and intelligence to enable new capabilities and business models for digital business