Reference Model for Interoperability of Autonomous Systems

This thesis proposes a reference model to describe the components of an Un-manned Air, Ground, Surface, or Underwater System (UxS), and the use of a single Interoperability Building Block to command, control, and get feedback from such vehicles. The importance and advantages of such a reference model, with a standard nomenclature and taxonomy, is shown. We overview the concepts of interoperability and some efforts to achieve common refer-ence models in other areas. We then present an overview of existing un-manned systems, their history, characteristics, classification, and missions. The concept of Interoperability Building Blocks (IBB) is introduced to describe standards, protocols, data models, and frameworks, and a large set of these are analyzed. A new and powerful reference model for UxS, named RAMP, is proposed, that describes the various components that a UxS may have. It is a hierarchical model with four levels, that describes the vehicle components, the datalink, and the ground segment. The reference model is validated by showing how it can be applied in various projects the author worked on. An example is given on how a single standard was capable of controlling a set of heterogeneous UAVs, USVs, and UGVs

RITThe Contributions of Traffic Management Centers in life Enhancement

This study focuses on investigating the contributions of traffic management centers to enhancing people’s driving experiences and impacting their level of satisfaction and happiness. Data was collected in the United Arab Emirates through two distinct surveys; the first aimed at drivers (number of respondents: 155), and the second aimed at traffic management center operators (number of respondents: 15). The drivers survey aimed to collect data about drivers’ pain points experienced while driving in the United Arab Emirates and showed that slow drivers on fast lanes and sudden lane changing are the biggest challenges reported. On the operators’ side, the data collected showed that operators reported observing these challenges from their side as well. Operators also notably reported the need for advanced technology to help better manage and respond to real time traffic situations remotely from traffic management centers. Both surveys conducted showed a need and potential for the contributions of traffic management centers in enhancing and upgrading the quality of life for citizens through the application of technological solutions and the development of supporting legislation. Supplementary data from similar surveys was also used to validate, expand the knowledge and provide a holistic view of the topic. The study indicated that traffic management centers can impact the happiness and satisfaction of citizens by enhancing their driving experience, given that they are designed and equipped in a way that suits the city and society trends and cultures. Recommendations for implementation of such design choices were given along five pillars considering administration (based on best practice and Benchmarking), technology (results of local and international TMC surveys), media and communication (international survey and the expansion of technology and social media), operations and legislation (Based on results of the driver’s survey, that shows some gaps in the legislations which can be enhanced)

Big Data and the Digitalizing Society in China

This thesis investigates the development of big data and the smart city, and the relationship between humans, digital technologies, and cities in the context of China. Contributing to the emerging interest of human geography in how big data and other digital technologies reshape the urban space and everyday life, the thesis presents a distinct data story about a digitalizing society of China. In a big data era, accompanying the ubiquity of digital devices and technologies is the lack of consciousness of their socio-political consequences, which nonetheless constitute an important productive aspect of society. Engaging with the discussions in human geography and beyond about the relationships between digital technologies and Deleuzian ‘societies of control’, Maurizio Lazzarato’s work on the production of subjectivity and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s conception of the machine and the organism, I argue for further understandings of the coexistence of control and discipline as distinct yet dependent modes of social control. I place specific emphasis upon the coexisting processes of dividualisation and individualisation in the operation of big data and other digital technologies. The thesis further illustrates this through the empirical analysis of the development of two smart urbanism projects, the City Brain and the Health Code, and of short video platforms in China, which for me represent two different aspects of everyday life influenced by big data that concern two different political relations, that is, biopolitics, as understood by Michel Foucault, and noopolitics (i.e., politics of the mind) as understood by Lazzarato. In order to de-fetishize big data, the thesis proceeds to discuss its technicity by characterising big data as mnemotechnics, a real-time technology, and a cosmotechnology respectively through the work of philosophers Bernard Stiegler and Yuk Hui. This intervention is also a proposal to rethink and reinvent the relations between humans and digital technology. Turning to Foucault’s ‘aesthetic of existence’, the thesis discusses the possibility of alternative ways of life in a big data era and drawing on Deleuze and Guattari’s work, proposes ‘becoming a digital nomad’ as a methodology to live with digital technologies, explore new possibilities and events, embrace unplanned encounters, and make new, temporary connections in the big data era

Geo-Design:

Geo-Design. Advances in bridging geo-information technology and design brings together a wide variety of contributions from authors with backgrounds in urban planning, landscape architecture, education and geo-information technology presenting the latest insights and applications of geodesign. Geo-Design is here understood as a hybridization of the concepts “Geo” – representing the modelling, analytical and visualisation capacities of GIS, and “Design” – representing spatial planning and design, turning existing situations into preferred ones. Through focusing on interdisciplinary design-related concepts and applications of GIS international experts share their recent findings and provide clues for the further development of geodesign. This is important since there is still much to do. Not only in the development of geo-information technology, but especially in bridging the gap with the design disciplines. The uptake on using GIS is still remarkably slow among landscape architects, urban designers and planners, and when utilised it is often restricted to the basic tasks of mapmaking and data access. Knowledge development and dissemination of applications of geodesign through research, publications and education, therefore, remain key factors. This publication draws upon the insights shared at the Geodesign Summit Europe held at the Delft University of Technology in 2014. All contributions in the book are double blind reviewed by experts in the field

A Comparison of High School Physical Education and Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps

Physical education is recommended for its potential to promote and provide physical activity. However, in high school settings students can commonly participate in other specified physical activity related programs in lieu of physical education and these programs are referred to as physical education waivers. Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) is a common physical education waiver program. Although the criteria used to establish JROTC as a waiver program for physical education is unclear, anecdotally similar accrual of physical activity appears to be a main rationale. The primary purpose of this study was to examine student physical activity levels, lesson contexts, and the promotion of physical activity outside of class time in physical education and JROTC. The secondary purpose was to describe curricular goals and objectives in physical education and JROTC. Forty high school physical education lessons and 40 JROTC lessons from four high schools were systematically observed using the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time (SOFIT). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics to describe physical activity levels, lesson contexts, and the time teachers spent promoting physical activity outside of class time in physical education and JROTC lessons. Results showed that students were engaged in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) 60% of time in physical education and 24% of the time in JROTC. Additionally, promotion of physical activity outside of class time was minimal in both settings but much greater in JROTC (23 times) than in physical education (3 times). Furthermore, physical education and JROTC programs contrasted greatly relative to course syllabi goals, objectives and policies. Physical education and JROTC had more differences than program similarities. The most critical difference was that students in physical education were engaged in MVPA three times as much than students in JROTC. The fee structure in physical education was fairly consistent, around $20.00, and the fees in JROTC ranged from$15.00 to $50.00 with additional fees that would occur throughout the course of the school year. Program cost differences may default lower SES students to enrollment in physical education while, higher SES students have opportunity to choose waiver options. Policy requiring annual program evaluation and teacher professional development in physical education and JROTC would likely promote optimal PA outcomes

Internet of Things From Hype to Reality

The Internet of Things (IoT) has gained significant mindshare, let alone attention, in academia and the industry especially over the past few years. The reasons behind this interest are the potential capabilities that IoT promises to offer. On the personal level, it paints a picture of a future world where all the things in our ambient environment are connected to the Internet and seamlessly communicate with each other to operate intelligently. The ultimate goal is to enable objects around us to efficiently sense our surroundings, inexpensively communicate, and ultimately create a better environment for us: one where everyday objects act based on what we need and like without explicit instructions

LOCATIVE MEDIA, AUGMENTED REALITIES AND THE ORDINARY AMERICAN LANDSCAPE

This dissertation investigates the role of annotative locative media in mediating experiences of place. The overarching impetus motivating this research is the need to bring to bear the theoretical and substantive concerns of cultural landscape studies on the development of a methodological framework for interrogating the ways in which annotative locative media reconfigure experiences of urban landscapes. I take as my empirical cases i) Google Maps with its associated Street View and locational placemark interface, and ii) Layar, an augmented reality platform combining digital mapping and real-time locational augmentation. In the spirit of landscape studies’ longstanding and renewed interest in what may be termed “ordinary” residential landscapes, and reflecting the increasing imbrication of locative media technologies in everyday lives, the empirical research is based in Kenwick, a middleclass, urban residential neighborhood in Lexington, Kentucky. Overall, I present an argument about the need to consider the digital, code (i.e. software), and specifically locative media, in the intellectual context of critical geographies in general and cultural landscape studies in particular

Attention Driven Solutions for Robust Digital Watermarking Within Media

As digital technologies have dramatically expanded within the last decade, content recognition now plays a major role within the control of media. Of the current recent systems available, digital watermarking provides a robust maintainable solution to enhance media security. The two main properties of digital watermarking, imperceptibility and robustness, are complimentary to each other but by employing visual attention based mechanisms within the watermarking framework, highly robust watermarking solutions are obtainable while also maintaining high media quality. This thesis firstly provides suitable bottom-up saliency models for raw image and video. The image and video saliency algorithms are estimated directly from within the wavelet domain for enhanced compatibility with the watermarking framework. By combining colour, orientation and intensity contrasts for the image model and globally compensated object motion in the video model, novel wavelet-based visual saliency algorithms are provided. The work extends these saliency models into a unique visual attention-based watermarking scheme by increasing the watermark weighting parameter within visually uninteresting regions. An increased watermark robustness, up to 40%, against various filtering attacks, JPEG2000 and H.264/AVC compression is obtained while maintaining the media quality, verified by various objective and subjective evaluation tools. As most video sequences are stored in an encoded format, this thesis studies watermarking schemes within the compressed domain. Firstly, the work provides a compressed domain saliency model formulated directly within the HEVC codec, utilizing various coding decisions such as block partition size, residual magnitude, intra frame angular prediction mode and motion vector difference magnitude. Large computational savings, of 50% or greater, are obtained compared with existing methodologies, as the saliency maps are generated from partially decoded bitstreams. Finally, the saliency maps formulated within the compressed HEVC domain are studied within the watermarking framework. A joint encoder and a frame domain watermarking scheme are both proposed by embedding data into the quantised transform residual data or wavelet coefficients, respectively, which exhibit low visual salience

Off-Base: Rethinking New Media Technologies and Military Everydayness

Off-Base: Rethinking New Media Technologies and Military Everdayness, provides an alternative account of contemporary military transformations, particularly in their relation to new media technologies and formations. While many academic discussions of contemporary militarization focus on its more general impacts, and the new types of weapons and warfare it deploys and makes possible, this work provides an account of some of the seemingly banal deployments of new military technologies and techniques, particularly the ways in which they construct different modes of military embodiment and military space--for example, the way new media technologies and mobile health platforms reconfigure understandings of military health or wellness, or the ways in which affectively charged robots or animals are used to change understandings of soldiering or military families. It draws on a diverse archive of policy documents, media texts, and new technologies to provide an account of how notions like resilience, wellness, and post-traumatic growth are increasingly central to military culture, and are envisioned as being desirable and achievable through a combination of new forms of governmentality and new media technologies (like PTSD mobile applications, immersive virtual environments, etc.) This dissertation develops an account of the technologies of military everydayness, to be placed in conversation with some of the more developed discourses and accounts of the militarization of everyday life.Doctor of Philosoph