21,577 research outputs found

    Power and energy visualization for the micro-management of household electricity consumption

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    The paper describes a pilot system for the detailed management of domestic electricity consumption aimed at minimizing demand peaks and consumer cost. Management decisions are made both interactively by consumers themselves, and where practical, automatically by computer. These decisions are based on realtime pricing and availability information, as well as current and historic usage data. The benefits of the energy strategies implied by such a system are elaborated, showing the potential for significant peak demand reduction and slowing of the need for growth in generation capacity. An overview is provided of the component technologies and interaction methods we have designed, but the paper focuses on the communication of real-time information to the consumer through a combination of specific and ambient visualizations. There is a need for both overview information (eg how much power is being used right now; how much energy have we used so far today; what does it cost?) and information at the point-of-use (is it OK to turn this dryer on now, or should I wait until later?). To assist the design of these visualizations, a survey is underway aimed at establishing people's understanding of power and energy concepts

    Discrete event simulation and virtual reality use in industry: new opportunities and future trends

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    This paper reviews the area of combined discrete event simulation (DES) and virtual reality (VR) use within industry. While establishing a state of the art for progress in this area, this paper makes the case for VR DES as the vehicle of choice for complex data analysis through interactive simulation models, highlighting both its advantages and current limitations. This paper reviews active research topics such as VR and DES real-time integration, communication protocols, system design considerations, model validation, and applications of VR and DES. While summarizing future research directions for this technology combination, the case is made for smart factory adoption of VR DES as a new platform for scenario testing and decision making. It is put that in order for VR DES to fully meet the visualization requirements of both Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet visions of digital manufacturing, further research is required in the areas of lower latency image processing, DES delivery as a service, gesture recognition for VR DES interaction, and linkage of DES to real-time data streams and Big Data sets

    VIRTUE : integrating CFD ship design

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    Novel ship concepts, increasing size and speed, and strong competition in the global maritime market require that a ship's hydrodynamic performance be studied at the highest level of sophistication. All hydrodynamic aspects need to be considered so as to optimize trade-offs between resistance, propulsion (and cavitation), seakeeping or manoeuvring. VIRTUE takes a holistic approach to hydrodynamic design and focuses on integrating advanced CFD tools in a software platform that can control and launch multi-objective hydrodynamic design projects. In this paper current practice, future requirements and a potential software integration platform are presented. The necessity of parametric modelling as a means of effectively generating and efficiently varying geometry, and the added-value of advanced visualization, is discussed. An illustrating example is given as a test case, a container carrier investigation, and the requirements and a proposed architecture for the platform are outlined

    Social media analytics: a survey of techniques, tools and platforms

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    This paper is written for (social science) researchers seeking to analyze the wealth of social media now available. It presents a comprehensive review of software tools for social networking media, wikis, really simple syndication feeds, blogs, newsgroups, chat and news feeds. For completeness, it also includes introductions to social media scraping, storage, data cleaning and sentiment analysis. Although principally a review, the paper also provides a methodology and a critique of social media tools. Analyzing social media, in particular Twitter feeds for sentiment analysis, has become a major research and business activity due to the availability of web-based application programming interfaces (APIs) provided by Twitter, Facebook and News services. This has led to an ‘explosion’ of data services, software tools for scraping and analysis and social media analytics platforms. It is also a research area undergoing rapid change and evolution due to commercial pressures and the potential for using social media data for computational (social science) research. Using a simple taxonomy, this paper provides a review of leading software tools and how to use them to scrape, cleanse and analyze the spectrum of social media. In addition, it discussed the requirement of an experimental computational environment for social media research and presents as an illustration the system architecture of a social media (analytics) platform built by University College London. The principal contribution of this paper is to provide an overview (including code fragments) for scientists seeking to utilize social media scraping and analytics either in their research or business. The data retrieval techniques that are presented in this paper are valid at the time of writing this paper (June 2014), but they are subject to change since social media data scraping APIs are rapidly changing

    Integrating body scanning solutions into virtual dressing rooms

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    The world is entering its 4th Industrial Revolution, a new era of manufacturing characterized by ubiquitous digitization and computing. One industry to benefit and grow from this revolution is the fashion industry, in which Europe (and Italy in particular) has long maintained a global lead. To evolve with the changes in technology, we developed the IT- SHIRT project. In the context of this project, a key challenge relies on developing a virtual dressing room in which the final users (customers) can virtually try different clothes on their bodies. In this paper, we tackle the aforementioned issue by providing a critical analysis of the existing body scanning solutions, identifying their strengths and weaknesses towards their integration within the pipeline of virtual dressing rooms

    Taking time to understand: articulating relationships between technologies and organizations

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    Dynamic relationships between technologies and organizations are investigated through research on digital visualization technologies and their use in the construction sector. Theoretical work highlights mutual adaptation between technologies and organizations but does not explain instances of sustained, sudden, or increasing maladaptation. By focusing on the technological field, I draw attention to hierarchical structuring around inter-dependent levels of technology; technological priorities of diverse groups; power asymmetries and disjunctures between contexts of development and use. For complex technologies, such as digital technologies, I argue these field-level features explain why organizations peripheral to the field may experience difficulty using emerging technology
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