13 research outputs found
Fragile watermarking for image authentication using dyadic walsh ordering
A digital image is subjected to the most manipulation. This is driven by the easy manipulating process through image editing software which is growing rapidly. These problems can be solved through the watermarking model as an active authentication system for the image. One of the most popular methods is Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) which has good imperceptibility and detection capabilities. Nevertheless, SVD has high complexity and can only utilize one singular matrix S, and ignore two orthogonal matrices. This paper proposes the use of the Walsh matrix with dyadic ordering to generate a new S matrix without the orthogonal matrices. The experimental results showed that the proposed method was able to reduce computational time by 22% and 13% compared to the SVD-based method and similar methods based on the Hadamard matrix respectively. This research can be used as a reference to speed up the computing time of the watermarking methods without compromising the level of imperceptibility and authentication
Fast, Reliable, and Secure Drone Communication: A Comprehensive Survey
Drone security is currently a major topic of discussion among researchers and industrialists. Although there are multiple applications of drones, if the security challenges are not anticipated and required architectural changes are not made, the upcoming drone applications will not be able to serve their actual purpose. Therefore, in this paper, we present a detailed review of the security-critical drone applications, and security-related challenges in drone communication such as DoS attacks, Man-in-the-middle attacks, De-Authentication attacks, and so on. Furthermore, as part of solution architectures, the use of Blockchain, Software Defined Networks (SDN), Machine Learning, and Fog/Edge computing are discussed as these are the most emerging technologies. Drones are highly resource-constrained devices and therefore it is not possible to deploy heavy security algorithms on board. Blockchain can be used to cryptographically store all the data that is sent to/from the drones, thereby saving it from tampering and eavesdropping. Various ML algorithms can be used to detect malicious drones in the network and to detect safe routes. Additionally, the SDN technology can be used to make the drone network reliable by allowing the controller to keep a close check on data traffic, and fog computing can be used to keep the computation capabilities closer to the drones without overloading them.The work of Vinay Chamola and Fei Richard Yu was supported in part by the SICI SICRG Grant through the Project Artificial Intelligence Enabled Security Provisioning and Vehicular Vision Innovations for Autonomous Vehicles, and in part by the Government of Canada's National Crime Prevention Strategy and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) CREATE Program for Building Trust in Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (TrustCAV)
RobotChain: Artificial Intelligence on a Blockchain using Tezos Technology
Blockchain technology is not only growing everyday at a fast-passed rhythm, but it is also a disruptive technology that has changed how we look at financial transactions. By providing a way
to trust an unknown network and by allowing us to conduct transactions without the need for a
central authority, blockchain has grown exponentially. Moreover, blockchain also provides decentralization of the data, immutability, accessibility, non-repudiation and irreversibility properties that makes this technology a must in many industries. But, even thought blockchain
provides interesting properties, it has not been extensively used outside the financial scope.
Similarly, robots have been increasingly used in factories to automate tasks that range from
picking objects, to transporting them and also to work collaboratively with humans to perform
complex tasks. It is important to enforce that robots act between legal and moral boundaries
and that their events and data are securely stored and auditable. This rarely happens, as robots
are programmed to do a specific task without certainty that that task will always be performed
correctly and their data is either locally stored, without security measures, or disregarded. This
means that the data, especially logs, can be altered, which means that robots and manufacturers can be accused of problems that they did not cause. Henceforth, in this work, we sought
to integrate blockchain with robotics with the goal to provide enhanced security to robots, to
the data and to leverage artificial intelligence algorithms. By doing an extensive overview of
the methods that integrate blockchain and artificial intelligence or robotics, we found that this
is a growing field but there is a lack of proposals that try to improve robotic systems by using
blockchain. It was also clear that most of the existing proposals that integrate artificial intelligence and blockchain, are focused on building marketplaces and only use the latter to storage
transactions. So, in this document, we proposed three different methods that use blockchain
to solve different problems associated with robots. The first one is a method to securely store
robot logs in a blockchain by using smart-contracts as storage and automatically detect when
anomalies occur in a robot by using the data contained in the blockchain and a smart-contract.
By using smart-contracts, it is assured that the data is secure and immutable as long as the
blockchain has enough peers to participate in the consensus process. The second method goes
beyond registering events to also register information about external sensors, like a camera,
and by using smart-contracts to allow Oracles to interact with the blockchain, it was possible to
leverage image analysis algorithms that can detect the presence of material to be picked. This
information is then inserted into a smart-contract that automatically defines the movement that
a robot should have, regarding the number of materials present to be picked. The third proposal
is a method that uses blockchain to store information about the robots and the images derived
from a Kinect. This information is then used by Oracles that check if there is any person located
inside a robot workspace. If there is any, this information is stored and different Oracles try to
identify the person. Then, a smart-contract acts appropriately by changing or even stopping the
robot depending on the identity of the person and if the person is located inside the warning or
the critical zone surrounding the robot.
With this work, we show how blockchain can be used in robotic environments and how it
can beneficial in contexts where multi-party cooperation, security, and decentralization of the
data is essential. We also show how Oracles can interact with the blockchain and distributively
cooperate to leverage artificial intelligence algorithms to perform analysis in the data that
allow us to detect robotic anomalies, material in images and the presence of people. We also show that smart-contracts can be used to perform more tasks than just serve the purpose of
automatically do monetary transactions. The proposed architectures are modular and can be
used in multiple contexts such as in manufacturing, network control, robot control, and others
since they are easy to integrate, adapt, maintain and extend to new domains. We expect
that the intersection of blockchain and robotics will shape part of the future of robotics once
blockchain is more widely used and easy to integrate. This integration will be very prominent
in tasks where robots need to behave under certain constraints, in swarm robotics due to the
fact that blockchain offers global information and in factories because the actions undertaken
by a robot can easily be extended to the rest of the robots by using smart-contracts.Hoje em dia Ă© possĂvel ver que a blockchain nĂŁo está apenas a crescer a um ritmo exponencial, mas que Ă© tambĂ©m uma tecnologia disruptiva que mudou a forma como trabalhamos com
transações financeiras. Ao fornecer uma maneira eficiente de confiar numa rede desconhecida
e de permitir realizar transações sem a necessidade de uma autoridade central, a blockchain
cresceu rapidamente. Além disso, a blockchain fornece também descentralização de dados,
imutabilidade, acessibilidade, não-repúdio e irreversibilidade, o que torna esta tecnologia indispensável em muitos setores. Mas, mesmo fornecendo propriedades interessantes, a blockchain não tem sido amplamente utilizada fora do âmbito financeiro. Da mesma forma, os robôs
têm sido cada vez mais utilizados em fábricas para automatizar tarefas que vão desde pegar
objetos, transportá-los e colaborar com humanos para realizar tarefas complexas. Porém, é
importante impor que os robĂ´s atuem entre certos limites legais e morais e que seus eventos
e dados são armazenados com segurança e que estes possam ser auditáveis. O problema é que
isso raramente acontece. Os robĂ´s sĂŁo programados para executar uma tarefa especĂfica sem
se ter total certeza de que essa tarefa irá ser executada sempre de maneira correta, e os seus
dados são armazenados localmente, desconsiderando a segurança dos dados. Sendo que em
muitas ocasiões, não existe qualquer segurança. Isso significa que os dados, especialmente os
logs, podem ser alterados, o que pode resultar em que os robĂ´s e, pela mesma linha de pensamento, os fabricantes, possam ser acusados de problemas que nĂŁo causaram. Tendo isto em
consideração, neste trabalho, procuramos integrar a blockchain com a robótica, com o objetivo
de proporcionar maior segurança aos robôs e aos dados que geram e potenciar ainda a utilização de algoritmos de inteligência artificial. Fazendo uma visão abrangente dos métodos que
propõem integrar a blockchain e inteligência artificial ou robótica, descobrimos que este é um
campo em crescimento, mas que há uma falta de propostas que tentem melhorar os sistemas
robóticos utilizando a blockchain. Ficou também claro que a maioria das propostas existentes
que integram inteligência artificial e blockchain estão focadas na construção de marketplaces e
só utilizam a blockchain para armazenar a informação sobre as transações que foram executadas. Assim, neste documento, propomos três métodos que utilizam a blockchain para resolver
diferentes problemas associados a robôs. O primeiro é um método para armazenar, com segurança, logs de robôs dentro de uma blockchain, utilizando para isso smart-contracts como
armazenamento. Neste método foi também proposta uma maneira de detetar anomalias em
robĂ´s automaticamente, utilizando para isso os dados contidos na blockchain e smart-contracts
para definir a lógica do algoritmo. Ao utilizar smart-contracts, é garantido que os dados são seguros e imutáveis, desde que a blockchain contenha nós suficientes a participar no algoritmo de
consenso. O segundo método vai além de registar eventos, para registar também informações
sobre sensores externos, como uma câmara, e utilizando smart-contracts para permitir que Ă“raculos interajam com a blockchain, foi possĂvel utilizar algoritmos de análise de imagens, que
podem detetar a presença de material para ser recolhido. Esta informação é então inserida
num smart-contract que define automaticamente o movimento que um robĂ´ deve ter, tendo
em consideração a quantidade de material à espera para ser recolhida. A terceira proposta é
um método que utiliza a blockchain para armazenar informações sobre robôs, e imagens provenientes de uma Kinect. Esta informação é então utilizada por Óraculos que verificam se existe
alguma pessoa dentro do um espaço de trabalho de um robô. Se existir alguém, essa informação
Ă© armazenada e diferentes Ă“raculos tentam identificar a pessoa. No fim, um smart-contract
age apropriadamente, mudando ou até mesmo parando o robô, dependendo da identidade da Com este trabalho, mostramos como a blockchain pode ser utilizada em ambientes onde existam robôs e como esta pode ser benéfica em contextos onde a cooperação entre várias entidades, a segurança e a descentralização dos dados são essenciais. Mostramos também como
Ă“raculos podem interagir com a blockchain e cooperar de forma distribuĂda, para alavancar
algoritmos de inteligência artificial de forma a realizar análises nos dados, o que nos permite
detetar anomalias robóticas, material para ser recolhido e a presença de pessoas em imagens.
Mostramos também que os smart-contracts podem ser utilizados para executar mais tarefas do
que servir o propósito de fazer transações monetárias de forma automática. As arquiteturas
propostas neste trabalho são modulares e podem ser utilizadas em vários contextos, como no
fabrico de peças, controle de robô e outras. Devido ao facto de que as arquiteturas propostas,
sĂŁo fáceis de integrar, adaptar, manter e estender a novos domĂnios. A nossa opiniĂŁo Ă© que a
interseção entre a blockchain e a robótica irá moldar parte do futuro da robótica moderna assim
que a blockchain seja mais utilizada e fácil de integrar em sistemas robóticos. Esta integração
será muito proeminente em tarefas onde os robôs precisam de se comportar sob certas restrições, em enxames de robôs, devido ao fato de que a blockchain fornece informação global sobre
o estado da rede, e também em fábricas, porque as ações realizadas por um robô podem ser
facilmente estendidas ao resto dos robôs, e porque fornece um mecanismo extra de segurança
aos dados e a todas as ações que são efetuadas com ajuda de smart-contracts
Blockchain Technology for Intelligent Transportation Systems: A Systematic Literature Review
The use of Blockchain technology has recently become widespread. It has emerged as an essential tool in various academic and industrial fields, such as healthcare, transportation, finance, cybersecurity, and supply chain management. It is regarded as a decentralized, trustworthy, secure, transparent, and immutable solution that innovates data sharing and management. This survey aims to provide a systematic review of Blockchain application to intelligent transportation systems in general and the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) in particular. The survey is divided into four main parts. First, the Blockchain technology including its opportunities, relative taxonomies, and applications is introduced; basic cryptography is also discussed. Next, the evolution of Blockchain is presented, starting from the primary phase of pre-Bitcoin (fundamentally characterized by classic cryptography systems), followed by the Blockchain 1.0 phase, (characterized by Bitcoin implementation and common consensus protocols), and finally, the Blockchain 2.0 phase (characterized by the implementation of smart contracts, Ethereum, and Hyperledger). We compared and identified the strengths and limitations of each of these implementations. Then, the state of the art of Blockchain-based IoV solutions (BIoV) is explored by referring to a large and trusted source database from the Scopus data bank. For a well-structured and clear discussion, the reviewed literature is classified according to the research direction and implemented IoV layer. Useful tables, statistics, and analysis are also presented. Finally, the open problems and future directions in BIoV research are summarized
A patient agent controlled customized blockchain based framework for internet of things
Although Blockchain implementations have emerged as revolutionary technologies for various industrial applications including cryptocurrencies, they have not been widely deployed to store data streaming from sensors to remote servers in architectures known as Internet of Things. New Blockchain for the Internet of Things models promise secure solutions for eHealth, smart cities, and other applications. These models pave the way for continuous monitoring of patient’s physiological signs with wearable sensors to augment traditional medical practice without recourse to storing data with a trusted authority. However, existing Blockchain algorithms cannot accommodate the huge volumes, security, and privacy requirements of health data. In this thesis, our first contribution is an End-to-End secure eHealth architecture that introduces an intelligent Patient Centric Agent. The Patient Centric Agent executing on dedicated hardware manages the storage and access of streams of sensors generated health data, into a customized Blockchain and other less secure repositories. As IoT devices cannot host Blockchain technology due to their limited memory, power, and computational resources, the Patient Centric Agent coordinates and communicates with a private customized Blockchain on behalf of the wearable devices. While the adoption of a Patient Centric Agent offers solutions for addressing continuous monitoring of patients’ health, dealing with storage, data privacy and network security issues, the architecture is vulnerable to Denial of Services(DoS) and single point of failure attacks. To address this issue, we advance a second contribution; a decentralised eHealth system in which the Patient Centric Agent is replicated at three levels: Sensing Layer, NEAR Processing Layer and FAR Processing Layer. The functionalities of the Patient Centric Agent are customized to manage the tasks of the three levels. Simulations confirm protection of the architecture against DoS attacks. Few patients require all their health data to be stored in Blockchain repositories but instead need to select an appropriate storage medium for each chunk of data by matching their personal needs and preferences with features of candidate storage mediums. Motivated by this context, we advance third contribution; a recommendation model for health data storage that can accommodate patient preferences and make storage decisions rapidly, in real-time, even with streamed data. The mapping between health data features and characteristics of each repository is learned using machine learning. The Blockchain’s capacity to make transactions and store records without central oversight enables its application for IoT networks outside health such as underwater IoT networks where the unattended nature of the nodes threatens their security and privacy. However, underwater IoT differs from ground IoT as acoustics signals are the communication media leading to high propagation delays, high error rates exacerbated by turbulent water currents. Our fourth contribution is a customized Blockchain leveraged framework with the model of Patient-Centric Agent renamed as Smart Agent for securely monitoring underwater IoT. Finally, the smart Agent has been investigated in developing an IoT smart home or cities monitoring framework. The key algorithms underpinning to each contribution have been implemented and analysed using simulators.Doctor of Philosoph
Applied Metaheuristic Computing
For decades, Applied Metaheuristic Computing (AMC) has been a prevailing optimization technique for tackling perplexing engineering and business problems, such as scheduling, routing, ordering, bin packing, assignment, facility layout planning, among others. This is partly because the classic exact methods are constrained with prior assumptions, and partly due to the heuristics being problem-dependent and lacking generalization. AMC, on the contrary, guides the course of low-level heuristics to search beyond the local optimality, which impairs the capability of traditional computation methods. This topic series has collected quality papers proposing cutting-edge methodology and innovative applications which drive the advances of AMC
Designing Data Spaces
This open access book provides a comprehensive view on data ecosystems and platform economics from methodical and technological foundations up to reports from practical implementations and applications in various industries. To this end, the book is structured in four parts: Part I “Foundations and Contexts” provides a general overview about building, running, and governing data spaces and an introduction to the IDS and GAIA-X projects. Part II “Data Space Technologies” subsequently details various implementation aspects of IDS and GAIA-X, including eg data usage control, the usage of blockchain technologies, or semantic data integration and interoperability. Next, Part III describes various “Use Cases and Data Ecosystems” from various application areas such as agriculture, healthcare, industry, energy, and mobility. Part IV eventually offers an overview of several “Solutions and Applications”, eg including products and experiences from companies like Google, SAP, Huawei, T-Systems, Innopay and many more. Overall, the book provides professionals in industry with an encompassing overview of the technological and economic aspects of data spaces, based on the International Data Spaces and Gaia-X initiatives. It presents implementations and business cases and gives an outlook to future developments. In doing so, it aims at proliferating the vision of a social data market economy based on data spaces which embrace trust and data sovereignty
Applied Methuerstic computing
For decades, Applied Metaheuristic Computing (AMC) has been a prevailing optimization technique for tackling perplexing engineering and business problems, such as scheduling, routing, ordering, bin packing, assignment, facility layout planning, among others. This is partly because the classic exact methods are constrained with prior assumptions, and partly due to the heuristics being problem-dependent and lacking generalization. AMC, on the contrary, guides the course of low-level heuristics to search beyond the local optimality, which impairs the capability of traditional computation methods. This topic series has collected quality papers proposing cutting-edge methodology and innovative applications which drive the advances of AMC
The drivers of Corporate Social Responsibility in the supply chain. A case study.
Purpose: The paper studies the way in which a SME integrates CSR into its corporate strategy, the practices it puts in place and
how its CSR strategies reflect on its suppliers and customers relations.
Methodology/Research limitations: A qualitative case study methodology is used. The use of a single case study limits the
generalizing capacity of these findings.
Findings: The entrepreneur’s ethical beliefs and value system play a fundamental role in shaping sustainable corporate strategy.
Furthermore, the type of competitive strategy selected based on innovation, quality and responsibility clearly emerges both in
terms of well defined management procedures and supply chain relations as a whole aimed at involving partners in the process of
sustainable innovation.
Originality/value: The paper presents a SME that has devised an original innovative business model. The study pivots on the
issues of innovation and eco-sustainability in a context of drivers for CRS and business ethics. These values are considered
fundamental at International level; the United Nations has declared 2011 the “International Year of Forestry”