Pricing Methods

In order to consider the range of pricing methods available, it is first necessary to choose a definition for road pricing. The term "road pricing" has been criticised as an inaccurate description of systems which is applied to (Thompson, 1990) and there is some inconsistency regarding the extent of charging policies which are considered to be included. A liberal definition could cover any fiscal form of traffic restraint, affecting the mode, time, route, destination of frequency of journeys. In this case road pricing already exists worldwide through taxes imposed upon the purchase and licensing of vehicles and through fuel taxation. The extension of conventional taxation arrangements has been used as part of road pricing strategies in both Hong Kong and Singapore (Dawson and Brown, 1985; LPAC, 1991). However, the essence of most road pricing work has been to replace and supplement these existing charges, which do not discriminate by time, location or amount of vehicle use, with charging structures which are directly related to these issues. For this reason the descriptions road-use pricing, congestion pricing and road user charging are sometimes preferred, and some recent texts have attempted to impose a narrower definition for road pricing, in which only charging systems relating directly to the time and distance travelled are included (CIT, 1992). For the purposes of this review it is best to retain the conventional term of road pricing and apply the broadest definition

Development and evaluation of a smartphone-based system for inspection of road maintenance work

Abstract. In the road construction industry, doing work inspection is a laborious and resource-consuming job because of the distributed work site. Contractors in Finland require to capture photos of every road fix they have done as proof of their work. It is well-established that with the help of smartphone technology, these kinds of manual work can be reduced. This thesis aims to develop and evaluate a smartphone-based system to capture video evidence of task completion. The system, designed and developed in this thesis, consists of an Android application named ’Road Recorder’ and a web tool for managing the content collected by Road Recorder. While mounted to a vehicle’s dashboard used in construction work, the Road Recorder can record the videos of road surface and geo-location information and some other metadata and send them to a remote server that is inspected using the web tool. Users of different backgrounds were given the system to accomplish some tasks and were observed closely. The users were interviewed at the end, and responses were analyzed to find the usability of the applications. The results indicate the high usability of the Road Recorder application and reveal possible improvements for the Road Recorder management web application. Overall, Road Recorder is a great step towards the automation of such construction work inspection. Though there were some limitations in the evaluation process, it demonstrates that Road Recorder is easy to use and can be a useful tool in the industry

Advance Intelligent Video Surveillance System (AIVSS): A Future Aspect

Over the last few decades, remarkable infrastructure growths have been noticed in security-related issues throughout the world. So, with increased demand for Security, Video-based Surveillance has become an important area for the research. An Intelligent Video Surveillance system basically censored the performance, happenings, or changing information usually in terms of human beings, vehicles or any other objects from a distance by means of some electronic equipment (usually digital camera). The scopes like prevention, detection, and intervention which have led to the development of real and consistent video surveillance systems are capable of intelligent video processing competencies. In broad terms, advanced video-based surveillance could be described as an intelligent video processing technique designed to assist security personnel’s by providing reliable real-time alerts and to support efficient video analysis for forensic investigations. This chapter deals with the various requirements for designing a robust and reliable video surveillance system. Also, it is discussed the different types of cameras required in different environmental conditions such as indoor and outdoor surveillance. Different modeling schemes are required for designing of efficient surveillance system under various illumination conditions

Looking towards the future: the changing nature of intrusive surveillance and technical attacks against high-profile targets

In this thesis a novel Bayesian model is developed that is capable of predicting the probability of a range of eavesdropping techniques deployed, given an attacker's capability, opportunity and intent. Whilst limited attention by academia has focused on the cold war activities of Soviet bloc and Western allies' bugging of embassies, even less attention has been paid to the changing nature of the technology used for these eavesdropping events. This thesis makes four contributions: through the analysis of technical eavesdropping events over the last century, technological innovation is shown to have enriched the eavesdropping opportunities for a range of capabilities. The entry barrier for effective eavesdropping is lowered, while for the well resourced eavesdropper, the requirement for close access has been replaced by remote access opportunities. A new way to consider eavesdropping methods is presented through the expert elicitation of capability and opportunity requirements for a range of present-day eavesdropping techniques. Eavesdropping technology is shown to have life-cycle stages with the technology exploited by different capabilities at different times. Three case studies illustrate that yesterday’s secretive government method becomes today’s commodity. The significance of the egress transmission path is considered too. Finally, by using the expert elicitation information derived for capability, opportunity and life-cycle position, for a range of eavesdropping techniques, it is shown that it is possible to predict the probability of particular eavesdropping techniques being deployed. This novel Bayesian inferencing model enables scenarios with incomplete, uncertain or missing detail to be considered. The model is validated against the previously collated historic eavesdropping events. The development of this concept may be scaled with additional eavesdropping techniques to form the basis of a tool for security professionals or risk managers wishing to define eavesdropping threat advice or create eavesdropping policies based on the rigour of this technological study.Open Acces

Why Digital Policing is Different

Many Fourth Amendment debates boil down to following argument: if police can already do something in an analog world, why does it matter that new digital technology allows them to do it better, more efficiently, or faster? This Article addresses why digital is, in fact, different when it comes to police surveillance technologies. The Article argues that courts should think of these digital technologies not as enhancements of traditional analog policing practices but as something completely different, warranting a different Fourth Amendment approach. Properly understood, certain digital searches should be legally distinguishable from analog search precedent such that the older cases no longer control the analysis

Smart Contracts and the Limits of Computerized Commerce

Having recently celebrated its ten-year anniversary, Bitcoin should be considered a qualified success. In October 2020, each unit1 was worth about $10,700, and the entire market capitalization was approximately$200 billion.2 Bitcoin is a significant economic force with sizable market value. Despite this success, however, Bitcoin has not been widely adopted as a method of payment, which was its intended use.3 By providing a template for a durable cryptocurrency, Bitcoin also blazed a path for other cryptocurrency projects. In terms of market capitalization and current importance, Ethereum is comfortably in second place.4 In October 2020, it had a market capitalization of approximately $40 billion.5 Unlike Bitcoin, however, Ethereum was not designed primarily to serve as a method of payment. Ethereum supports a system of sophisticated “smart contracts” that would not work on the Bitcoin system. Smart contracts and cryptocurrencies have sparked considerable interest among legal scholars in recent years, and a growing body of scholarship focuses on whether smart contracts and cryptocurrencies can sidestep law and regulation altogether.6 Bitcoin is famously decentralized, without any central actor controlling the system. Its users remain largely anonymous, using alphanumeric addresses instead of legal names. Ethereum shares these traits and also supports smart contracts that can automate the transfer of the Ethereum cryptocurrency (known as ether). Ethereum also supports specialized “tokens” that can be tied to the ownership of assets, goods, and services that exist completely outside of the Ethereum blockchain. The goal of this Article is to evaluate the degree to which cryptocurrencies and smart contracts can operate outside the reach of law and regulation. By some accounts, cryptocurrencies and smart contracts will revolutionize private law.7 Some argue they have the potential to displace contract and property law. For example, in a previous article, I argued that Bitcoin represents a system of private property that exists wholly outside of traditional legal structures.8 In this Article, I will argue that a complete revolution is not inexorable.9 Facing the technical and complicated nature of this subject, we should keep in mind a simple fact: cryptocurrencies and smart contracts are computer data and computer programs. To a large extent, they will have legal force only if given force by judges, regulators, and legislators. Part II describes Bitcoin and how it creates a system of property that exists outside of legal structures. Bitcoin is special because it controls no external assets (like securities, dollars, or gold). It is purely “notional” property that exists only on a computer file. Part III describes Ethereum and how it builds upon the principles of Bitcoin. The primary innovation of Ethereum is smart contracts, which allow for variable and conditional transfers of cryptocurrency. To be of commercial value, however, smart contracts must incorporate economic or financial information (e.g., interest rates or exchange rates). Ethereum allows users to incorporate this information using third party “oracles.” While oracles allow for sophisticated transactions, their presence illustrates some of the limits of smart contracts. Part IV extends the discussion of Ethereum and explains how many developers use it as a way to effectuate property transactions. Tokens are specialized smart contracts used to represent ownership of assets or certain privileges. Conceivably, ownership in any asset— homes, cars, etc.—could be represented by Ethereum tokens. Rather than using a deed of transfer, owners could simply transfer the representative tokens. Part V develops what this Article calls a “remote-computer model” of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Because Bitcoin and Ethereum are computer programs and computer data, we can view each as constituting a single computer. This hypothetical computer is remote in the sense that judges, regulators, and legislators can exercise little control over it directly. The remote computer controls ownership of cryptocurrency units, leaving direct cryptocurrency transactions outside the scope of traditional legal institutions. That being said, smart contracts often purport to control external resources and rights. For example, a smart contract might purport to control the transfer of land or stock in a corporation. These transactions have effects outside the hypothetical remote computer and can potentially be subject to control by legal institutions