Spending time with money: from shared values to social connectivity

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.There is a rapidly growing momentum driving the development of mobile payment systems for co-present interactions, using near-field communication on smartphones and contactless payment systems. The design (and marketing) imperative for this is to enable faster, simpler, effortless and secure transactions, yet our evidence shows that this focus on reducing transactional friction may ignore other important features around making payments. We draw from empirical data to consider user interactions around financial exchanges made on mobile phones. Our findings examine how the practices around making payments support people in making connections, to other people, to their communities, to the places they move through, to their environment, and to what they consume. While these social and community bonds shape the kinds of interactions that become possible, they also shape how users feel about, and act on, the values that they hold with their co-users. We draw implications for future payment systems that make use of community connections, build trust, leverage transactional latency, and generate opportunities for rich social interactions

The TASTE Toolset: turning human designed heterogeneous systems into computer built homogeneous software

International audienceThe TASTE tool-set results from spin-off studies of the ASSERT project, which started in 2004 with the objective to propose innovative and pragmatic solutions to develop real-time software. One of the primary targets was satellite flight software, but it appeared quickly that their characteristics were shared among various embedded systems. The solutions that we developed now comprise a process and several tools ; the development process is based on the idea that real-time, embedded systems are heterogeneous by nature and that a unique UML-like language was not helping neither their construction, nor their validation. Rather than inventing yet another "ultimate" language, TASTE makes the link between existing and mature technologies such as Simulink, SDL, ASN.1, C, Ada, and generates complete, homogeneous software-based systems that one can straightforwardly download and execute on a physical target. Our current prototype is moving toward a marketed product, and sequel studies are already in place to support, among others, FPGA systems

MOSAR : Modular spacecraft assembly and reconfiguration demonstrator

With rapid development of space systems in recent years and their limited lives, it is imperative that a sustainable space development approach is developed to support more affordable access to space for all stakeholders. The European Commission hence funded the MOSAR project which aims to create a new paradigm technology to address this increasing challenge. This paper provides an overview of this technology’s preliminary development to enable on-orbit servicing. Building on five successful projects which collectively created all required common building blocks for both planetary explorations and in-orbit missions, a novel architecture is proposed to create a walking manipulator to demonstrate its unique capability in both space system assembly and on-orbit servicing. Preliminary design concepts of a walking manipulator and spacecraft modules are shown. A dedicated simulator is also developed to evaluate the proposed novel architecture for these targeted applications

The TASTE Toolset: Turning Human Designed Heterogeneous Systems into Computer

Abstract: The TASTE tool-set results from spin-off studies of the ASSERT project, which started in 2004 with the objective to propose innovative and pragmatic solutions to develop real-time software. One of the primary targets was satellite flight software, but it appeared quickly that their characteristics were shared among various embedded systems. The solutions that we developed now comprise a process and several tools; the development process is based on the idea that real-time, embedded systems are heterogeneous by nature and that a unique UML-like language was not helping neither their construction, nor their validation. Rather than inventing yet another “ultimate ” language, TASTE makes the link between existing and mature technologies such as Simulink, SDL, ASN.1, C, Ada, and generates complete, homogeneous software-based systems that one can straightforwardly download and execute on a physical target. Our current prototype is moving toward a marketed product, and sequel studies are already in place to support, among others, FPGA systems

Can dual-task paradigms predict Falls better than single task? – A systematic literature review

With about one third of adults aged 65 years and older being reported worldwide to fall each year, and an even higher prevalence with advancing age, aged-related falls and the associated disabilities and mortality are a major public health concern. In this context, identification of fall risk in healthy older adults is a key component of fall prevention. Since dual-task outcomes rely on the interaction between cognition and motor control, some studies have demonstrated the role of dual-task walking performance or costs in predicting future fallers. However, based on previous reviews on the topic, (1) discriminative and (2) predictive powers of dual tasks involving gait and a concurrent task are still a matter of debate, as is (3) their superiority over single tasks in terms of fall-risk prediction. Moreover, less attention has been paid to dual tasks involving postural control and transfers (such as gait initiation and turns) as motor tasks. In the present paper, we therefore systematically reviewed recent literature over the last 7 years in order to answer the three above mentioned questions regarding the future of lab-based dual tasks (involving posture, gait initiation, gait and turning) as easily applicable tests for identifying healthy older adult fallers. Despite great heterogeneity among included studies, we emphasized, among other things, the promising added value of dual tasks including turns and other transfers, such as in the Timed Up and Go test, for prediction of falls. Further investigation of these is thus warranted

Validate, Simulate and Implement ARINC653 Systems using the AADL

International audienceSafety-critical systems are widely used in different domains and lead to an increasing complexity. Such systems rely on specific services such space and time isolation as in the ARINC653 avionics standard. Their criticality requires a carefully driven design based on an appropriate development process and dedicated tools to detect and avoid problems as early as possible.Model Driven Engineering (MDE) approaches are now considered as valuable approach for building safety-critical systems. The Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL) proposes a component-based language suitable to operate MDE that fits with safety-critical systems needs.This paper presents an approach for the modeling, verification and implementation of ARINC653 systems using AADL. It details a modeling approach exploiting the new features of AADL version 2 for the design of ARINC653 architectures. It also proposes modeling patterns to represent other safety mechanisms such as the use of Ravenscar for critical applications. This approach is fully backed by tools with Ocarina (AADL toolsuite), POK (AADL/ARINC653 runtime) and Cheddar (scheduling verification). Thus, it assists system engineers to simulate and validate non functional requirements such as scheduling or resources dimensioning