38 research outputs found
A viability plan of a unit of research in applications of new telecommunications technologies
This project is about to develop a plan to create a dedicated unit in order to monitoring of emerging technologies in the field of telecommunications
A viability plan of a unit of research in applications of new telecommunications technologies
This project is about to develop a plan to create a dedicated unit in order to monitoring of emerging technologies in the field of telecommunications
What Makes Digital Technology? A Categorization Based on Purpose
Digital technology (DT) is creating and shaping today’s world. Building on its identity and history of technology research, the Information Systems discipline is at the forefront of understanding the nature of DT and related phenomena. Understanding the nature of DT requires understanding its purposes. Because of the growing number of DTs, these purposes are diversifying, and further examination is needed. To that end, we followed an organizational systematics paradigm and present a taxonomic theory for DT that enables its classification through its diverse purposes. The taxonomic theory comprises a multi-layer taxonomy of DT and purpose-related archetypes, which we inferred from a sample of 92 real-world DTs. In our empirical evaluation, we assessed reliability, validity, and usefulness of the taxonomy and archetypes. The taxonomic theory exceeds existing technology classifications by being the first that (1) has been rigorously developed, (2) considers the nature of DT, (3) is sufficiently concrete to reflect the diverse purposes of DT, and (4) is sufficiently abstract to be persistent. Our findings add to the descriptive knowledge on DT, advance our understanding of the diverse purposes of DT, and lay the ground for further theorizing. Our work also supports practitioners in managing and designing DTs
Innovation Diffusion Theory and Social Embeddedness - A New Perspective
This study focuses on the impact of social embeddedness on the diffusion and adoption of innovations. Historically, the primary factors influencing the adoption and diffusion of an innovation have been the perception of its’ relative advantage to other technologies, its’ perceived compatibility to previous innovations, and the degree to which the innovation is perceived to be difficult to use or understand (complexity). The additional characteristics of observability and trialability have been shown to be less important. However, with the effect of social embeddedness, this situation has likely changed. Trialability and observability, may outweigh the importance of the first three characteristics.
The goal of this study is to explore this phenomenon by reexamining the relative weight of the five characteristics of innovation with regard to innovations under the influence of social embeddedness. Therefore, provide a more informed way of looking at innovation diffusion theory. The results of this study found that social embeddedness have positive and significant effects towards all perceived characteristics of innovation. However, the ease of use was not as important if the adoption intention was for an emerging innovation; while for an enabling innovation, ease of use become important and people are willing to sacrifice the compatibility of the innovation. Results also found that observability and trialability were important factors to consider for emerging innovation, but they are less of concern when it comes to enabling innovation. Relative advantage has been consistently showing significant effects regardless of the type of innovation. The study contributes to both theory and practice by furthering the understanding of Innovation Diffusion Theory and by helping innovation providers develop better strategies when they advertise their products
Evolutionary Service Composition and Personalization Ecosystem for Elderly Care
Current demographic trends suggest that people are living longer, while
the ageing process entails many necessities, calling for care services tailored to
the individual senior’s needs and life style. Personalized provision of care
services usually involves a number of stakeholders, including relatives, friends,
caregivers, professional assistance organizations, enterprises, and other support
entities. Traditional Information and Communication Technology based care and
assistance services for the elderly have been mainly focused on the development
of isolated and generic services, considering a single service provider, and
excessively featuring a techno-centric approach.
In contrast, advances on collaborative networks for elderly care suggest the
integration of services from multiple providers, encouraging collaboration as a
way to provide better personalized services. This approach requires a support
system to manage the personalization process and allow ranking the {service,
provider} pairs.
An additional issue is the problem of service evolution, as individual’s care
needs are not static over time. Consequently, the care services need to evolve
accordingly to keep the elderly’s requirements satisfied. In accordance with these
requirements, an Elderly Care Ecosystem (ECE) framework, a Service
Composition and Personalization Environment (SCoPE), and a Service Evolution
Environment (SEvol) are proposed.
The ECE framework provides the context for the personalization and
evolution methods. The SCoPE method is based on the match between the
customer´s profile and the available {service, provider} pairs to identify suitable
services and corresponding providers to attend the needs. SEvol is a method to build an adaptive and evolutionary system based on the MAPE-K methodology
supporting the solution evolution to cope with the elderly's new life stages.
To demonstrate the feasibility, utility and applicability of SCoPE and SEvol,
a number of methods and algorithms are presented, and illustrative scenarios are
introduced in which {service, provider} pairs are ranked based on a
multidimensional assessment method. Composition strategies are based on
customer’s profile and requirements, and the evolutionary solution is
determined considering customer’s inputs and evolution plans.
For the ECE evaluation process the following steps are adopted: (i) feature
selection and software prototype development; (ii) detailing the ECE framework
validation based on applicability and utility parameters; (iii) development of a
case study illustrating a typical scenario involving an elderly and her care needs;
and (iv) performing a survey based on a modified version of the technology
acceptance model (TAM), considering three contexts: Technological,
Organizational and Collaborative environment
tCAD: a 3D modeling application on a depth enhanced tabletop computer
Tabletop computers featuring multi-touch input and object tracking are a common platform for research on Tangible User Interfaces (also known as Tangible Interaction). However, such systems are confined to sensing activity on the tabletop surface, disregarding the rich and relatively unexplored interaction canvas above the tabletop. This dissertation contributes with tCAD, a 3D modeling tool combining fiducial marker tracking, finger tracking and depth sensing in a single system. This dissertation presents the technical details of how these features were integrated, attesting to its viability through the design, development and early evaluation of the tCAD application. A key aspect of this work is a description of the interaction techniques enabled by merging tracked objects with direct user input on and above a table surface.Universidade da Madeir
Modelling of a rope-free passenger transportation system for active cabin vibration damping
Conventional vertical passenger transportation is performed by lifts. Conventional traction-drive electrical lifts use ropes to transfer the rotational motion of an electrical motor into a vertical motion of the cabin. The vertical passenger transportation system discussed in this paper does not use any ropes, the motor directly provides a driving force, which moves the cabin. This new propulsion is realized through an electrical linear motor. The use of the linear motor requires a new design of the passenger transportation system (PTS), which includes reducing the weight of the car through lightweight construction. The reduced stiffness of the lightweight design renders the construction more vulnerable to vibrations. In order to improve ride quality of the transportation system it is necessary to develop new concepts to damp the vibrations. One way to increase stiffness characteristics of the system is to introduce active damping components to be used alongside passive damping components. It is essential to derive a dynamic model of the system in order to design and also later control these damping components in the best possible way. This paper describes the fundamental steps undertaken to derive a dynamic model for designing and controlling active damping components for the new type of vertical PTS. The model is derived as a Multi-Body System (MBS), where the connections between the bodies are modelled as spring damper elements. The derivation of the MBS is demonstrated on a transportation system, consisting of three main components: a sledge, holding the rotor of the linear motor; a mounting frame, which is used to provide support for the cabin; and the actual cabin. The modelling of the propulsion system, thus the electrical part of the PTS, will not be the focus of this work