Monitoring in Hybrid Cloud-Edge Environments

The increasing number of mobile and IoT(Internet of Things) devices accessing cloud services contributes to a surge of requests towards the Cloud and consequently, higher latencies. This is aggravated by the possible congestion of the communication networks connecting the end devices and remote cloud datacenters, due to the large data volume generated at the Edge (e.g. in the domains of smart cities, smart cars, etc.). One solution for this problem is the creation of hybrid Cloud/Edge execution platforms composed of computational nodes located in the periphery of the system, near data producers and consumers, as a way to complement the cloud resources. These edge nodes offer computation and data storage resources to accommodate local services in order to ensure rapid responses to clients (enhancing the perceived quality of service) and to filter data, reducing the traffic volume towards the Cloud. Usually these nodes (e.g. ISP access points and onpremises servers) are heterogeneous, geographically distributed, and resource-restricted (including in communication networks), which increase their management’s complexity. At the application level, the microservices paradigm, represented by applications composed of small, loosely coupled services, offers an adequate and flexible solution to design applications that may explore the limited computational resources in the Edge. Nevertheless, the inherent difficult management of microservices within such complex infrastructure demands an agile and lightweight monitoring system that takes into account the Edge’s limitations, which goes behind traditional monitoring solutions at the Cloud. Monitoring in these new domains is not a simple process since it requires supporting the elasticity of the monitored system, the dynamic deployment of services and, moreover, doing so without overloading the infrastructure’s resources with its own computational requirements and generated data. Towards this goal, this dissertation presents an hybrid monitoring architecture where the heavier (resource-wise) components reside in the Cloud while the lighter (computationally less demanding) components reside in the Edge. The architecture provides relevant monitoring functionalities such as metrics’ acquisition, their analysis and mechanisms for real-time alerting. The objective is the efficient use of computational resources in the infrastructure while guaranteeing an agile delivery of monitoring data where and when it is needed.Tem-se vindo a verificar um aumento significativo de dispositivos móveis e do domínio IoT(Internet of Things) em áreas emergentes como Smart Cities, Smart Cars, etc., que fazem pedidos a serviços localizados normalmente na Cloud, muitas vezes a partir de locais remotos. Como consequência, prevê-se um aumento da latência no processamento destes pedidos, que poderá ser agravado pelo congestionamento dos canais de comunicação, da periferia até aos centros de dados. Uma forma de solucionar este problema passa pela criação de sistemas híbridos Cloud/Edge, compostos por nós computacionais que estão localizados na periferia do sistema, perto dos produtores e consumidores de dados, complementando assim os recursos computacionais da Cloud. Os nós da Edge permitem não só alojar dados e computações, garantindo uma resposta mais rápida aos clientes e uma melhor qualidade do serviço, como também permitem filtrar alguns dos dados, evitando deste modo transferências de dados desnecessárias para o núcleo do sistema. Contudo, muitos destes nós (e.g. pontos de acesso, servidores proprietários) têm uma capacidade limitada, são bastante heterogéneos e/ou encontram-se espalhados geograficamente, o que dificulta a gestão dos recursos. O paradigma de micro-serviços, representado por aplicações compostas por serviços de reduzida dimensão, desacoplados na sua funcionalidade e que comunicam por mensagens, fornece uma solução adequada para explorar os recursos computacionais na periferia. No entanto, o mapeamento adequado dos micro-serviços na infra-estrutura, além de ser complexo, é difícil de gerir e requer um sistema de monitorização ligeiro e ágil, que considere as capacidades limitadas da infra-estrutura de suporte na periferia. A monitorização não é um processo simples pois deve possibilitar a elasticidade do sistema, tendo em conta as adaptações de "deployment", e sem sobrecarregar os recursos computacionais ou de rede. Este trabalho apresenta uma arquitectura de monitorização híbrida, com componentes de maior complexidade na Cloud e componentes mais simples na Edge. A arquitectura fornece funcionalidades importantes de monitorização, como a recolha de métricas variadas, a sua análise e alertas em tempo real. O objetivo é rentabilizar os recursos computacionais garantindo a entrega dos dados mais relevantes quando necessário

Enhancing the use of online 3d multimedia content through the analysis of user interactions

De plus en plus de contenus 3D interactifs sont disponibles sur la toile. Visualiser et manipuler ces contenus 3D en temps réel, de façon naturelle et intuitive, devient donc une nécessité. Les applications visées sont nombreuses : le e-commerce, l'éducation et la formation en ligne, la conception, ou l'architecture dans le contexte par exemple de musées virtuels ou de communautés virtuelles. L'utilisation de contenus 3D en ligne ne propose pas de remplacer les contenus traditionnels, tels que les textes, les images ou les vidéos, mais plutôt d'utiliser la 3D en complément, pour enrichir ces contenus. La toile est désormais une plate-forme où les contenus hypertexte, hypermédia, et 3D sont simultanément disponibles pour les utilisateurs. Cette utilisation des contenus 3D pose cependant deux questions principales. Tout d'abord, les interactions 3D sont souvent lourdes puisqu'elles comprennent de nombreux degrés de liberté; la navigation dans les contenus 3D peut s'en trouver inefficace et lente. Nous abordons ce problème en proposant un nouveau paradigme basé sur l'analyse des interactions (crowdsourcing). En analysant les interactions d'utilisateurs 3D, nous identifions des régions d'intérêt (ROI), et générons des recommandations pour les utilisateurs suivants. Ces recommandations permettent à la fois de réduire le temps d'interaction pour identifier une ROI d'un objet 3D et également de simplifier les interactions 3D nécessaires. De plus, les scènes ou objets 3D contiennent une information visuelle riche. Les sites Web traditionnels contiennent, eux, principalement des informations descriptives (textuelles) ainsi que des hyperliens pour permettre la navigation. Des sites contenants d'une part de l'information textuelle, et d'autre part de l'information 3D peuvent s'avérer difficile à appréhender pour les utilisateurs. Pour permettre une navigation cohérente entre les informations 3D et textuelles, nous proposons d'utiliser le crowdsourcing pour la construction d'associations sémantiques entre le texte et la visualisation en 3D. Les liens produits sont proposés aux utilisateurs suivants pour naviguer facilement vers un point de vue d'un objet 3D associé à un contenu textuel. Nous évaluons ces deux méthodes par des études expérimentales. Les évaluations montrent que les recommandations réduisent le temps d'interaction 3D. En outre, les utilisateurs apprécient l'association sémantique proposée, c'est-à-dire, une majorité d'utilisateurs indique que les recommandations ont été utiles pour eux, et préfèrent la navigation en 3D proposée qui consiste à utiliser les liens sémantiques ainsi que la souris par rapport à des interactions utilisant seulement la souris. ABSTRACT : Recent years have seen the development of interactive 3D graphics on the Web. The ability to visualize and manipulate 3D content in real time seems to be the next evolution of the Web for a wide number of application areas such as e-commerce, education and training, architecture design, virtual museums and virtual communities. The use of online 3D graphics in these application domains does not mean to substitute traditional web content of texts, images and videos, but rather acts as a complement for it. The Web is now a platform where hypertext, hypermedia, and 3D graphics are simultaneously available to users. This use of online 3D graphics, however, poses two main issues. First, since 3D interactions are cumbersome as they provide numerous degrees of freedom, 3D browsing may be inefficient. We tackle this problem by proposing a new paradigm based on crowdsourcing to ease online 3D interactions, that consists of analyzing 3D user interactions to identify Regions of Interest (ROIs), and generating recommendations to subsequent users. The recommendations both reduce 3D browsing time and simplify 3D interactions. Second, 3D graphics contain purely rich visual information of the concepts. On the other hand, traditional websites mainly contain descriptive information (text) with hyperlinks as navigation means. The problem is that viewing and interacting with the websites that use two very different mediums (hypertext and 3D graphics) may be complicated for users. To address this issue, we propose to use crowdsourcing for building semantic associations between texts and 3D visualizations. The produced links are suggested to upcoming users so that they can readily locate 3D visualization associated with a textual content. We evaluate the proposed methods with experimental user studies. The evaluations show that the recommendations reduce 3D interaction time. Moreover, the results from the user study showed that our proposed semantic association is appreciated by users, that is, a majority of users assess that recommendations were helpful for them, and browsing 3D objects using both mouse interactions and the proposed links is preferred compared to having only mouse interactions

Collaboration with agents in VR environments

Virtual reality is gaining on importance in many fields – scientific simulation, training, therapy and also more and more in entertainment. All these applications require the human user to interact with virtual worlds inhabited by intelligent characters and to solve simulated or real problems. This thesis will present an integrated approach to simulated problem solving in virtual reality environments, with the emphasis on teamwork and the ability to control the simulations. A simulation framework satisfying these goals will be presented. A unified approach to the representation of semantic information in virtual environments based on predicate calculus will be introduced, including the representation of the world state, action semantics and basic axioms holding in the simulated world. Afterwards, the focus will be on the collaboration model based on task delegation and facilitator-centric architecture. A simple but efficient facilitator design will be presented. The issues of the collaborative problem solving will be examined. A new technique using propositional (STRIPS-like) planning with delegated actions and object-specific planning will be described. A control technique for virtual characters/objects will be detailed, enabling run-time exchange of control and control sharing over a virtual entity between multiple autonomous agents and/or human users. Finally, a set of case studies will be shown, illustrating the possible applications of the techniques developed and described in this dissertation

Enhancing the museum experience with a sustainable solution based on contextual information obtained from an on-line analysis of users’ behaviour

Human computer interaction has evolved in the last years in order to enhance users’ experiences and provide more intuitive and usable systems. A major leap through in this scenario is obtained by embedding, in the physical environment, sensors capable of detecting and processing users’ context (position, pose, gaze, ...). Feeded by the so collected information flows, user interface paradigms may shift from stereotyped gestures on physical devices, to more direct and intuitive ones that reduce the semantic gap between the action and the corresponding system reaction or even anticipate the user’s needs, thus limiting the overall learning effort and increasing user satisfaction. In order to make this process effective, the context of the user (i.e. where s/he is, what is s/he doing, who s/he is, what are her/his preferences and also actual perception and needs) must be properly understood. While collecting data on some aspects can be easy, interpreting them all in a meaningful way in order to improve the overall user experience is much harder. This is more evident when we consider informal learning environments like museums, i.e. places that are designed to elicit visitor response towards the artifacts on display and the cultural themes proposed. In such a situation, in fact, the system should adapt to the attention paid by the user choosing the appropriate content for the user’s purposes, presenting an intuitive interface to navigate it. My research goal is focused on collecting, in a simple,unobtrusive, and sustainable way, contextual information about the visitors with the purpose of creating more engaging and personalized experiences

Enhancing Exploratory Analysis across Multiple Levels of Detail of Spatiotemporal Events

Crimes, forest fires, accidents, infectious diseases, human interactions with mobile devices (e.g., tweets) are being logged as spatiotemporal events. For each event, its spatial location, time and related attributes are known with high levels of detail (LoDs). The LoD of analysis plays a crucial role in the user’s perception of phenomena. From one LoD to another, some patterns can be easily perceived or different patterns may be detected, thus requiring modeling phenomena at different LoDs as there is no exclusive LoD to study them. Granular computing emerged as a paradigm of knowledge representation and processing, where granules are basic ingredients of information. These can be arranged in a hierarchical alike structure, allowing the same phenomenon to be perceived at different LoDs. This PhD Thesis introduces a formal Theory of Granularities (ToG) in order to have granules defined over any domain and reason over them. This approach is more general than the related literature because these appear as particular cases of the proposed ToG. Based on this theory we propose a granular computing approach to model spatiotemporal phenomena at multiple LoDs, and called it a granularities-based model. This approach stands out from the related literature because it models a phenomenon through statements rather than just using granules to model abstract real-world entities. Furthermore, it formalizes the concept of LoD and follows an automated approach to generalize a phenomenon from one LoD to a coarser one. Present-day practices work on a single LoD driven by the users despite the fact that the identification of the suitable LoDs is a key issue for them. This PhD Thesis presents a framework for SUmmarizIng spatioTemporal Events (SUITE) across multiple LoDs. The SUITE framework makes no assumptions about the phenomenon and the analytical task. A Visual Analytics approach implementing the SUITE framework is presented, which allow users to inspect a phenomenon across multiple LoDs, simultaneously, thus helping to understand in what LoDs the phenomenon perception is different or in what LoDs patterns emerge

Transportation System Performance Measures Using Internet of Things Data

The transportation system is undergoing a rapid change with innovative and promising technologies that provide real-time data for a variety of applications. As we transition into a technology-driven era and Internet of Things (IoT) applications, where everything is connected via a network of smart sensors and cloud computing, there will be an increasing amount of real-time data that will allow a better understanding of the transportation system. Devices emerging as a part of this connected environment can provide new and valuable data sources in a variety of transportation areas including safety, mobility, operations and intelligent transportation systems. Agencies and transportation professionals require effective performance measures and visualization tools to mine this big data to make design, operation, maintenance and investment decisions to improve the overall system performance. This dissertation discusses the development and demonstration of performance measures that leverage data from these emerging IoT devices to support analysis and guide investment decisions. Selected case studies are presented that demonstrate the impact of these new data sources on design, operation, and maintenance decisions. Performance measures such as vibration, noise levels and retroreflectivity were used to conduct a comprehensive assessment of different rumble strip configurations in the roadway and aviation environment. The results indicated that the 12 in sinusoidal wavelength satisfied the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) recommendations and reduced the noise exposure to adjacent homeowners. The application of low-cost rumble strips to mitigate runway incursions at general aviation airports was evaluated using the accelerations on the airframe. Although aircraft are designed for significant g-forces on landing, the results of analyzing accelerometers installed on airframes showed that long-term deployment of rumble strips is a concern for aircraft manufacturers as repeated traversal on the rumble strips may lead to excessive airframe fatigue. A suite of web dashboards and performance measures were developed to evaluate the impact of signal upgrades, signal retiming and maintenance activities on 138 arterials in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. For five corridors analyzed before and after an upgrade, the study found a reduction of 1.2 million veh-hours of delay, 10,000 tons of CO2 and an economic benefit of $32 million. Several billion dollars per year is expended upon security checkpoint screening at airports. Using wait time data from consumer electronic devices over a one-year period, performance dashboards identified periods of the day with high median wait times. The performance measures outlined in this study provided scalable techniques to analyze operating irregularities and identify opportunities for improving service. Reliability and median wait times were also used as performance measures to compare the standard and expedited security screening. The results found that the expedited screening was highly reliable than the standard screening and had a median wait time savings of 5.5 minutes. Bike sharing programs are an eco-friendly mode of transportation gaining immense popularity all over the world. Several performance measures are discussed which analyze the usage patterns, user behaviors and effect of weather on a bike sharing program initiated at Purdue University. Of the 1626 registered users, nearly 20% of them had at least one rental and around 6% had more than 100 rentals, with four of them being greater than 500 rentals. Bikes were rented at all hours of the day, but usage peaked between 11:00 and 19:00 on average. On a yearly basis, the rentals peaked in the fall semester, especially during September, but fell off in October and November with colder weather. Preliminary results from the study also identified some operating anomalies, which allowed the stakeholders to implement appropriate policy revisions. There are a number of outlier filtering algorithms proposed in the literature, however, their performance has never been evaluated. A curated travel time dataset was developed from real-world data, and consisted of 31,621 data points with 243 confirmed outliers. This dataset was used to evaluate the efficiency of three common outlier filtering algorithms, median absolute deviation, modified z-score and, box and whisker plots. The modified Z-score had the best performance with successful removal of 70% of the confirmed outliers and incorrect removal of only 5% of the true samples. The accuracy of vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communication is an important metric for connected vehicle applications. Traffic signal state indication is an early development in the V2I communication that allows connected vehicles to display the current traffic signal status on the driver dashboard as the vehicle approaches an intersection. The study evaluated the accuracy of this prediction with on-field data and results showed a degraded performance during phase omits and force-offs. Performance measures such as, the probability of expected phase splits and the probability of expected green for a phase, are discussed to enhance the accuracy of the prediction algorithm. These measures account for the stochastic variations due to detectors actuations and will allow manufacturers and vendors to improve their algorithm. The application of these performance measures across three transportation modes and the transportation focus areas of safety, mobility and operations will provide a framework for agencies and transportation professionals to assess the performance of system components and support investment decisions

Designing Discoverable Digital Tabletop Menus for Public Settings

Ease of use with digital tabletops in public settings is contingent on how well the system invites and guides interaction. The same can be said for the interface design and individual graphical user interface elements of these systems. One such interface element is menus. Prior to a menu being used however, it must first be discovered within the interface. Existing research pertaining to digital tabletop menu design does not address this issue of discovering or opening a menu. This thesis investigates how the interface and interaction of digital tabletops can be designed to encourage menu discoverability in the context of public settings. A set of menu invocation designs varying on the invocation element and use of animation are proposed. These designs are then evaluated through an observational study at a museum to observe users interactions in a realistic public setting. Findings from this study propose the use of discernible and recognizable interface elements – buttons – supported by the use of animation to attract and guide users as a discoverable menu invocation design. Additionally, findings posit that when engaging with a public digital tabletop display, users transition through exploration and discovery states before becoming competent with the system. Finally, insights from this study point to a set of design recommendations for improving menu discoverability

In Search of the DomoNovus: Speculative Designs for the Computationally-Enhanced Domestic Environment

Edited version embargoed until 01.02.2018 Full version: Access restricted permanently due to 3rd party copyright restrictions. Restriction set on 01.02.2017 by SC, Graduate schoolThe home is a physical place that provides isolation, comfort, access to essential needs on a daily basis, and it has a strong impact on a person’s life. Computational and media technologies (digital and electronic objects, devices, protocols, virtual spaces, telematics, interaction, social media, and cyberspace) become an important and vital part of the home ecology, although they have the ability to transform the domestic experience and the understanding of what a personal space is. For this reason, this work investigates the domestication of computational media technology; how objects, systems, and devices become part of the personal and intimate space of the inhabitants. To better understand the taming process, the home is studied and analysed from a range of perspectives (philosophy, sociology, architecture, art, and technology), and a methodological process is proposed for critically exploring the topic with the development of artworks, designs, and computational systems. The methodology of this research, which consists of five points (Context, Media Layers, Invisible Matter, Diffusion, and Symbiosis), suggests a procedure that is fundamental to the development and critical integration of the computationally enhanced home. Accordingly, the home is observed as an ecological system that contains numerous properties (organic, inorganic, hybrid, virtual, augmented), and is viewed on a range of scales (micro, meso and macro). To identify the “choreographies” that are formed between these properties and scales, case studies have been developed to suggest, provoke, and speculate concepts, ideas, and alternative realities of the home. Part of the speculation proposes the concept of DomoNovus (the “New Home”), where technological ubiquity supports the inhabitants’ awareness, perception, and imagination. DomoNovus intends to challenge our understanding of the domestic environment, and demonstrates a range of possibilities, threats, and limitations in relation to the future of home. This thesis, thus, presents methods, experiments, and speculations that intend to inform and inspire, as well as define creative and imaginative dimensions of the computationally-enhanced home, suggesting directions for the further understanding of the domestic life.Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundatio