2,035 research outputs found
Service Platform for Converged Interactive Broadband Broadcast and Cellular Wireless
A converged broadcast and telecommunication
service platform is presented that is able to create, deliver, and
manage interactive, multimedia content and services for consumption
on three different terminal types. The motivations of
service providers for designing converged interactive multimedia
services, which are crafted for their individual requirements, are
investigated. The overall design of the system is presented with
particular emphasis placed on the operational features of each
of the sub-systems, the flows of media and metadata through the
sub-systems and the formats and protocols required for inter-communication
between them. The key features of tools required for
creating converged interactive multimedia content for a range of
different end-user terminal types are examined. Finally possible
enhancements to this system are discussed. This study is of particular
interest to those organizations currently conducting trials
and commercial launches of DVB-H services because it provides
them with an insight of the various additional functions required
in the service provisioning platforms to provide fully interactive
services to a range of different mobile terminal types
From Lord Coke to Internet Privacy: The Past, Present, and Future of Electronic Contracting
Contract law is applied countless times every day, in every manner of transaction large or small. Rarely are those transactions reflected in an agreement produced by a lawyer; quite the contrary, almost all contracts are concluded by persons with no legal training and often by persons who do not have a great deal of education. In recent years, moreover, technological advances have provided novel methods of creating contracts. Those facts present practitioners of contract law with an interesting conundrum: The law must be sensible and stable if parties are to have confidence in the security of their arrangements; but contract law also must be able to handle changing social and economic circumstances, changes that occur at an ever-increasing speed. Contract law, originally designed to handle agreements reached by persons familiar with one another, evolved over time to solve the problems posed by contract formation that was done at a distance ā that is, contract law had developed to handle first paper, then telegraphic, and finally telephonic communications. It has handled those changes very well. In the 1990s, however, things began to change. The rise in computer use by individuals coupled with the advent of the World Wide Web gave rise to two parallel developments, both of which challenged the law of contract formation. Increased computer use created a demand for software programs designed for the consumer market, and those programs were commonly transferred to users by way of standard-form licenses that were packaged with the software and thus unavailable before the consumer paid for the software. Also, parties in large numbers began to use electronic means ā the computer ā to enter into bargained-for relationships. The turn of the millennium brought two electronic contracting statutes, the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (āE-Signā) and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (āUETAā), which removed any doubts that contracts entered into electronically could satisfy the Statute of Frauds. Encouraged by the certainty given by those statutes, internet businesses started offering contract terms on their websites, asking customers to consent to terms by clicking an icon, or by not seeking express assent at all by presenting terms of use by hyperlink. The ease of presenting terms comprised of thousands of words by an internet hyperlink makes it easy for a vendor in its terms of use and terms of service to ask us to give up privacy rights and intellectual property rights. Modern communications technologies therefore make it easier for parties to engage in risky transactions. Nevertheless, we believe that, with few exceptions, the common law of contracts is sufficiently malleable to address the problems arising out of that behavior and where it is not, regulation of contract terms is appropriate. This Article examines those developments
Ecosystem-Driven Design of In-Home Terminals Based on Open Platform for the
AbstractāIn-home healthcare services based on the Internet-of-Things (IoT) have great business potentials. To turn it into reality, a business ecosystem should be established first. Technical solutions should therefore aim for a cooperative ecosystem by meeting the interoperability, security, and system integration requirements. In this paper, we propose an ecosystem-driven design strategy and apply it in the design of an open-platform-based in-home healthcare terminal. A cooperative business ecosystem is formulated by merging the traditiona
Anthropomorphism of AI-based Intelligent Customer Service, and Its Affective and Behavioral Consequences
Recently, as many users turn to social media to interact with service providers, organizations apply Artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the operation. This type of customer service system is called intelligent customer service (ICS) which one of the most commonly adopted tools is chatbot. Since chatbot is AI-empowered, whether this system can effectively interact with customers and solve their problems is critical. However, the quality of ICS has received significant attention recently, and a lack of systematic study on the outcomes of anthropomorphism leaves this question unanswered in an ICS context. Based on a cognitive-affective-behavioral framework, this study attempts to understand whether anthropomorphism can promote desired behaviors (including usage and citizen-ship behaviors) through enhancing affective out-comes, such as satisfaction and identity. Data collected from 183 chatbot-ICS users, this study illustrates how anthropomorphism can increase quality, enhance satisfaction and identity. Furthermore, we also show that satisfaction and identity lead to further usage and citizenship behaviors. This highlights the importance of increasing anthropomorphism for the chatbot-ICS
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