Developing Accessible Collection and Presentation Methods for Observational Data

The processes of collecting, cleaning, and presenting data are critical in ensuring the proper analysis of data at a later date. An opportunity exists to enhance the data collection and presentation process for those who are not data scientists – such as healthcare professionals and businesspeople interested in using data to help them make decisions. In this work, creating an observational data collection and presentation tool is investigated, with a focus on developing a tool prioritizing user-friendliness and context preservation of the data collected. This aim is achieved via the integration of three approaches to data collection and presentation.In the first approach, the collection of observational data is structured and carried out via a trichotomous, tailored, sub-branching scoring (TTSS) system. The system allows for deep levels of data collection while enabling data to be summarized quickly by a user via collapsing details. The system is evaluated against the stated requirements of usability and extensibility, proving the latter by providing examples of various evaluations created using the TTSS framework.Next, this approach is integrated with automated data collection via mobile device sensors, to facilitate the efficient completion of the assessment. Results are presented from a system used to combine the capture of complex data from the built environment and compare the results of the data collection, including how the system uses quantitative measures specifically. This approach is evaluated against other solutions for obtaining data about the accessibility of a built environment, and several assessments taken in the field are compared to illustrate the system’s flexibility. The extension of the system for automated data capture is also discussed.Finally, the use of accessibility information for data context preservation is integrated. This approach is evaluated via investigation of how accessible media entries improve the quality of search for an archival website. Human-generated accessibility information is compared to computer-generated accessibility information, as well as simple reliance on titles/metadata. This is followed by a discussion of how improved accessibility can benefit the understanding of gathered observational data’s context

The 1995 Goddard Conference on Space Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Information Technologies

This publication comprises the papers presented at the 1995 Goddard Conference on Space Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Information Technologies held at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, on May 9-11, 1995. The purpose of this annual conference is to provide a forum in which current research and development directed at space applications of artificial intelligence can be presented and discussed

The mobile information access experience - A user perspective

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Mobile technologies, such as mobile phones, smartphones and Palmtop computers, are in an upwards trend and earliest models of such devices are already available to end-users to communicate and access multimedia content on-the-move. As a logical outcome of this development in mobile technologies and devices, content provider companies have already started investing and piloting mobile multimedia content distribution and broadcasting technologies. Nevertheless, no matter how cutting-edge technology is and no matter how stylish the mobile devices are, the ultimate success of wireless communication technologies and devices are directly associated with the user adoption and embrace of these new equipment and technologies. In this perspective, since multimedia content, for mobile or not, is ultimately produced for the education and/or enjoyment of viewers, the user's perspective concerning the presentation quality is surely of equal importance as objective Quality of Service (QoS) technical parameters, to defining distributed multimedia quality. In order to comprehensively understand user experiences whilst accessing information using mobile devices and technologies, we investigate user-mobile device interaction and look into the surrounding issues in a uniform manner by combining multiple aspects: user initial device experience (Out-of-Box Experience), mobile information access in a real-world context, device impact on user information access and perceptually tailored multimedia content impact on user information assimilation and satisfaction. Accordingly, an extensive experimental investigation has been undertaken to see how user experiences varied based on device familiarity, device type, real-world context and variable locations. The findings has shown that the overall perception, and effectively the user information access experience, is affected and improved when multimedia content is tailored according to user device type and context. Thus highlights that the future of mobile computing necessitates two-faceted research, which should combine both a user as well as a technical perspective

Distributed multi-agent based traffic management system

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Vision 21: Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in the Era of Cyberspace

The symposium Vision-21: Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in the Era of Cyberspace was held at the NASA Lewis Research Center on March 30-31, 1993. The purpose of the symposium was to simulate interdisciplinary thinking in the sciences and technologies which will be required for exploration and development of space over the next thousand years. The keynote speakers were Hans Moravec, Vernor Vinge, Carol Stoker, and Myron Krueger. The proceedings consist of transcripts of the invited talks and the panel discussion by the invited speakers, summaries of workshop sessions, and contributed papers by the attendees

The Sixth Annual Workshop on Space Operations Applications and Research (SOAR 1992)

This document contains papers presented at the Space Operations, Applications, and Research Symposium (SOAR) hosted by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) on 4-6 Aug. 1992 and held at the JSC Gilruth Recreation Center. The symposium was cosponsored by the Air Force Material Command and by NASA/JSC. Key technical areas covered during the symposium were robotic and telepresence, automation and intelligent systems, human factors, life sciences, and space maintenance and servicing. The SOAR differed from most other conferences in that it was concerned with Government-sponsored research and development relevant to aerospace operations. The symposium's proceedings include papers covering various disciplines presented by experts from NASA, the USAF, universities, and industry

Systemic Design for the innovation of home appliances The meaningfulness of data in designing sustainable systems

This work addressed the domestic environment considering this context as a complex system characterised by significant impacts in terms of resource consumption. Within the theoretical framework of Systemic Design (SD), this thesis focused on home appliances, in order to understand how to reduce the impact directly attributable to them, while optimising and simplifying daily tasks for the user. A design methodology towards environmental sustainability has been structured, by focusing on the use of data for design purposes and on creating value for the user through meaningful products. It considers the user, the product and the environment as central topics, by giving them the same relevance and the literature review is structured accordingly, investigating needs and requirements, ethical issues, but also current products and future scenarios. During my experience at TU Delft, I spent six months in the Department of Internet of Things at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering. Together with computer scientists, we developed a prototype to collect some missing data, establishing the importance of grounding the decision-making on reliable information. IoT and data gathering open a variety of possibilities in monitoring, accessing more precise knowledge of products and households useful for design purposes, up to understand how to fill the gap perceived by the user between needs and solutions. It considered the potential benefits of using IoT indicators to collect missing information about both the product, its use and its operating environment to address critical aspects in the design stage, thus extending products’ lifetime. This thesis highlighted the importance of building multidisciplinary design teams to investigate different classes of requirements, and the need for flexible tools to cope with complex and evolving requirements, the co-evolution of problem and solutions and investigating open-ended questions. This approach leaves room for addressing every step of the traditional life-cycle in a more circular way, shifting the focus from the life-cycle centrality of the previous century to a more complex vision about the product

31th International Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases

Information modelling is becoming more and more important topic for researchers, designers, and users of information systems.The amount and complexity of information itself, the number of abstractionlevels of information, and the size of databases and knowledge bases arecontinuously growing. Conceptual modelling is one of the sub-areas ofinformation modelling. The aim of this conference is to bring together experts from different areas of computer science and other disciplines, who have a common interest in understanding and solving problems on information modelling and knowledge bases, as well as applying the results of research to practice. We also aim to recognize and study new areas on modelling and knowledge bases to which more attention should be paid. Therefore philosophy and logic, cognitive science, knowledge management, linguistics and management science are relevant areas, too. In the conference, there will be three categories of presentations, i.e. full papers, short papers and position papers