Updating warning systems for climate hazards: Can navigation satellites help?

Warning systems are relied on worldwide as part of disaster risk reduction. The traditional model of a government monopolistic system supplying warnings through a broadcast approach is now challenged by new media, mobile technologies and the accompanying expectations of individualised warnings to personal mobile devices. We examine this situation, and one novel approach - the use of an augmented signal from the next generation of Japanese positioning satellites - to providing individual warnings to personal devices wherever their owners are. We conclude that delivery to personal devices is feasible and already happening to some extent. Linking these new official systems with the multiple information flows of social media and crowdsourcing remains a major challenge

Application of satellite navigation system for emergency warning and alerting

One of the key responsibilities of any government is to communicate and disseminate safety information and warnings to the general public in case of an emergency. Traditionally, warnings are issued by the government through a broadcast approach using communication channels such as TV and radio. However this monopolistic approach is now challenged by new technologies and media capable of providing individualised warnings to personal mobile devices. Location-based emergency services and mobile alerts are becoming increasingly prevalent in the provision of emergency warnings. These new modes of emergency services have been adopted by several countries worldwide including Australia. One example is the Australian National Emergency Alert (EA) which is a telephone-based service enhanced with location-based capabilities. This paper introduces the concept of applying global satellite navigation systems such as the Japanese satellite system in the domain of emergency warning and alerting. The Japanese satellite warning system can be tailored to transmit real-time location-based emergency warnings to people's mobile devices while not being constrained by the limitations of ground-based communication technologies. A key advantage of satellite based communication is its high resilience to communication network overload and failure of ground systems and network infrastructure during a disaster. This enables people to obtain necessary information anywhere (outdoor) and anytime during times of disaster. A satellite-based warning system could also be integrated with existing warning services and be used as a complementary technology. This paper examines opportunities and challenges for using satellite navigation systems to deliver warnings and safety messages during emergencies and disasters

MouseField: A Simple and Versatile Input Device for Ubiquitous Computing

Abstract. Although various interaction technologies for handling information in the ubiquitous computing environment have been proposed, some techniques are too simple for performing rich interaction, and others require special expensive equipments to be installed everywhere, and cannot soon be available in our everyday environment. We propose a new simple and versatile input device called the MouseField that enables users to control various information appliances easily without huge amount of cost. A MouseField consists of an ID recognizer and motion sensors that can detect an object and its movement after the object is placed on it. The system can interpret the user’s action as a command to control the flow of information. In this paper, we show how this simple device can be used for handling information easily in ordinary environments like living rooms, kitchens, and toilets, and show the benefits of using it in the ubiquitous computing environment.

Respectful Cameras: Detecting Visual Markers in Real-Time to Address Privacy Concerns

Abstract — To address privacy concerns with digital video surveillance cameras, we propose a practical, real-time approach that preserves the ability to observe actions while obscuring individual identities. In our proposed Respectful Cameras system, people who wish to remain anonymous agree to wear colored markers such as a hat or vest. The system automatically tracks these markers using statistical learning and classification to infer the location and size of each face and then inserts elliptical overlays. Our objective is to obscure the face of each individual wearing a marker, while minimizing the overlay area in order to maximize the remaining observable region of the scene. Our approach incorporates a visual color-tracker based on a 9 dimensional color-space by using a Probabilistic AdaBoost classifier with axis-aligned hyperplanes as weak-learners. We then use Particle Filtering to incorporate interframe temporal information. We present experiments illustrating the performance of our system in both indoor and outdoor settings, where occlusions, multiple crossing targets, and lighting changes occur. Results suggest that the Respectful Camera system can reduce false negative rates to acceptable levels (under 2%). I