Distributed sensor-driven web applications through multi-device usage patterns

C

Analysis and design of a subtitling system for ambient intelligence environments

The development of ubiquitous applications for ambient intelligence environments needs to also take into account some usability and accessibility issues in order to ensure a proper user experience and to overcome the existing content access barriers. A proper access to video subtitles, for instance, is not always available due to the technical limitations of traditional video packaging, transmission and presentation. New Web standards enable more featured applications with better multi-platform definition, so they are suitable for building ubiquitous applications for ambient intelligence environments. This work presents a video subtitling system that enables the customization and adaptation of subtitles. The benefits of Web applications compared with device-specific native applications for building the solution as well as its current platform support are analyzed. Finally, three different application use cases are presented

Accessible user interface support for multi-device ubiquitous applications: architectural modifiability considerations

The market for personal computing devices is rapidly expanding from PC, to mobile, home entertainment systems, and even the automotive industry. When developing software targeting such ubiquitous devices, the balance between development costs and market coverage has turned out to be a challenging issue. With the rise of Web technology and the Internet of things, ubiquitous applications have become a reality. Nonetheless, the diversity of presentation and interaction modalities still drastically limit the number of targetable devices and the accessibility toward end users. This paper presents webinos, a multi-device application middleware platform founded on the Future Internet infrastructure. Hereto, the platform's architectural modifiability considerations are described and evaluated as a generic enabler for supporting applications, which are executed in ubiquitous computing environments

Understanding the use of web technologies for aplications in open display networks

Open display networks represent a new paradigm for large scale networks of public displays that are open to applications and content from third party sources. Web technologies may be particularly interesting as a technological framework for third party application development in open display networks because of their portability and widespread use. However, there are also significant challenges involved that result from the specificities of this particular usage domain. In this work, we identify and characterize some of those specificities and analyze their implications for the use of web technologies. This contribution builds on our own experience with the development of multiple web-based applications for public displays and will inform the design of new models for this type of applications.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Online advertising: analysis of privacy threats and protection approaches

Online advertising, the pillar of the “free” content on the Web, has revolutionized the marketing business in recent years by creating a myriad of new opportunities for advertisers to reach potential customers. The current advertising model builds upon an intricate infrastructure composed of a variety of intermediary entities and technologies whose main aim is to deliver personalized ads. For this purpose, a wealth of user data is collected, aggregated, processed and traded behind the scenes at an unprecedented rate. Despite the enormous value of online advertising, however, the intrusiveness and ubiquity of these practices prompt serious privacy concerns. This article surveys the online advertising infrastructure and its supporting technologies, and presents a thorough overview of the underlying privacy risks and the solutions that may mitigate them. We first analyze the threats and potential privacy attackers in this scenario of online advertising. In particular, we examine the main components of the advertising infrastructure in terms of tracking capabilities, data collection, aggregation level and privacy risk, and overview the tracking and data-sharing technologies employed by these components. Then, we conduct a comprehensive survey of the most relevant privacy mechanisms, and classify and compare them on the basis of their privacy guarantees and impact on the Web.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Web-based applications for open display networks : developers’ perspective

Open Display Networks represent a new paradigm for large scale networks of public displays that are open to applications and content from third parties. Web technologies may be particularly interesting as a technological framework for third-party application development in Open Display Networks because of their portability and widespread use. However, there are also significant challenges involved that result from the specificities of this particular usage domain and the lack of specific development insights for this context. In this work, we address the concept of public display application (display app) from a development perspective. The overall goal of this paper is to identify and characterize some of the key specificities of display applications and the appropriate Web solutions that can serve in the development of this type of application. The contribution of this paper builds on our extensive experience with the application development for a real world public display infrastructure and also on a short-term experiment with third party developers. Overall, the results show that Web technologies are valuable building blocks for public displays applications and their adoption is not only a subject for adaptation procedures but also for redesigning their use according to the characteristics and user experience offered by public displays. This research will inform the design of new Web-based models of display applications and shed light on the challenges that may impede third party development and the evolution of an application ecosystem in this area.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Ubiquitous Semantic Applications

As Semantic Web technology evolves many open areas emerge, which attract more research focus. In addition to quickly expanding Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud, various embeddable metadata formats (e.g. RDFa, microdata) are becoming more common. Corporations are already using existing Web of Data to create new technologies that were not possible before. Watson by IBM an artificial intelligence computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language can be a great example. On the other hand, ubiquitous devices that have a large number of sensors and integrated devices are becoming increasingly powerful and fully featured computing platforms in our pockets and homes. For many people smartphones and tablet computers have already replaced traditional computers as their window to the Internet and to the Web. Hence, the management and presentation of information that is useful to a user is a main requirement for today’s smartphones. And it is becoming extremely important to provide access to the emerging Web of Data from the ubiquitous devices. In this thesis we investigate how ubiquitous devices can interact with the Semantic Web. We discovered that there are five different approaches for bringing the Semantic Web to ubiquitous devices. We have outlined and discussed in detail existing challenges in implementing this approaches in section 1.2. We have described a conceptual framework for ubiquitous semantic applications in chapter 4. We distinguish three client approaches for accessing semantic data using ubiquitous devices depending on how much of the semantic data processing is performed on the device itself (thin, hybrid and fat clients). These are discussed in chapter 5 along with the solution to every related challenge. Two provider approaches (fat and hybrid) can be distinguished for exposing data from ubiquitous devices on the Semantic Web. These are discussed in chapter 6 along with the solution to every related challenge. We conclude our work with a discussion on each of the contributions of the thesis and propose future work for each of the discussed approach in chapter 7

Democratic Replay: Enhancing TV Election Debates with Interactive Visualisations

This paper presents an online platform for enhancing televised election debates with interactive visualisations. Election debates are one of the highlights of election campaigns worldwide. They are also often criticised as appearing scripted, rehearsed, detached from much of the electorate, and at times too complex. Democratic Replay enhances videos of election debates with a collection of interactive tools aimed at providing a replay experience centred around citizens' needs. We present the system requirements, design and implementation, and report on an evaluation based on the ITV Leaders' Debate from the 2015 UK General Election campaign