Development of a Malaysian Sign Language interpreter using image recognition for the community to understand the deaf

In Malaysia, Person with Disabilities (PWD) with hearing problems or commonly known as the deaf, struggle to have a conversation with the communities who do not know or how to do sign language efficiently. The consequence is hearing PWD received unequal treatment in jobs and learning opportunities. This project aims to develop a Malaysian Sign Language interpreter to convert hand signs to texts, in order to facilitate the conversation between hearing PWD and the communities. The system would implement a camera and vision system to capture images of hand signs. Four hand signs have been selected. Stacks of these images were processed digitally using deep learning method, and eventually the trained network could recognize the hand signs successfully. This feasible study suggests that the proposed setup could be further implemented to train more hand signs and enrich the hand signs-to-text vocabulary

Development of a Wireless and Ambulatory Posture Monitoring System

The wireless and ambulatory posture monitoring system monitors the movement and posture change of the human body with respect to the g-line. It is crucial to monitor the posture health of the ophthalmologist who spends a prolonged period on the static sitting posture while operating on the slit lamp which leads to any painful experience. The motivation of the proposed system is to improve the ergonomics of the ophthalmologist on their working environment and reduce any occupational potential hazard which may prompt Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs). The proposed system also induced a wireless system by using XBee wireless units to reduce the use of the wire that may tangle on the study subject which causes any uncomfortable experience to the study subject during the human trial. Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensor which consists of an Accelerometer, a Gyroscope and a Magnetometer is used to measure the angle of deviation of the body segment with respect to the g-line. The data is tabulated and presented into the graphical method to identify and extract the properties of the graph on each different static sitting posture which later are used for posture recognition

Development of a wheelchair lifting system with height levelling and side transfer

Wheelchair Lifting System is one of the alternative solution to help the disabled person which have difficulties in moving from the wheelchair into the car easily. The transferring process of these disabled person from getting in or out of the car is a delicate process. Most of the situation, two or more caregivers are required, and they also need a lot of energy and time to complete that process. It is also reported that 1 in 3 caregivers might develop back injuries. Most of the injuries were occurring because the patient is heavy to lift. Besides that, the caregivers may exposed to awkward positions during the transferring process from the wheelchair to the car seat. The support device such as mechanism lifting system is needed to move the disabled person. Various tests have been done to verify the functionality of the device. The results shows that wheelchair is able to carry the maximum weight of 100kg to the car seat successfully

The Mediating Role of Perceived Constraints between Human–Pet Relationships and Willingness to Travel with Pets: A Theoretical Framework

Many modern families involve pets in most of their daily social activities. Yet, many of them do not involve pets when undertaking tourism activities. Drawing upon theories of planned behaviour and leisure constraint models, this study intends to examine how perceptions of their relationship with pets and perceived constraints may influence the willingness of owners to travel with pets. Focusing on reviewing multidisciplinary literature on human–pet relationship-oriented leisure trip activities with a method of theoretical analysis, this paper proposed an integrated theoretical framework based on recognized and synthesized patterns and similarities within the literature

A federated learning scheme meets dynamic differential privacy

Abstract Federated learning is a widely used distributed learning approach in recent years, however, despite model training from collecting data become to gathering parameters, privacy violations may occur when publishing and sharing models. A dynamic approach is proposed to add Gaussian noise more effectively and apply differential privacy to federal deep learning. Concretely, it is abandoning the traditional way of equally distributing the privacy budget ϵ and adjusting the privacy budget to accommodate gradient descent federation learning dynamically, where the parameters depend on computation derived to avoid the impact on the algorithm that hyperparameters are created manually. It also incorporates adaptive threshold cropping to control the sensitivity, and finally, moments accountant is used to counting the ϵ consumed on the privacy‐preserving, and learning is stopped only if the ϵtotal by clients setting is reached, this allows the privacy budget to be adequately explored for model training. The experimental results on real datasets show that the method training has almost the same effect as the model learning of non‐privacy, which is significantly better than the differential privacy method used by TensorFlow

Understanding COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among Tertiary Level Students in Malaysia Using the 5C Model-A Short Survey

Objective: To explore the attitudes of the tertiary level students in Malaysia towards COVID-19 vaccines to analyze the leading cause of vaccine hesitancy among this group. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted from January to February 2021 among undergraduates from 5 different private tertiary institutions across Malaysia. The data was obtained through an online survey using Google Forms and analyzed using Smart PLS 3 software. Results: The validity of the measurement model led to the structural model after bootstrapping. From the data analysis, it was confirmed that Collective Responsibility and Confidence had a significant positive relationship with vaccine hesitancy, while complacency, constraints and calculation did not seem to contribute to vaccine hesitancy Conclusion: Most respondents have good knowledge about the vaccines and generally have a positive attitude towards COVID-19. The respondents were hesitant to get the COVID-19 vaccines because they were concerned about the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines as they are new and rapidly developed

Factors influencing live-stream shopping behaviour among Malaysian consumers

This research generally examines the driving factors that influencing the live-stream shopping behaviour among Malaysian consumers. There were 200 users from Facebook Livestream Channel chosen in the study by applying the method of simple random sampling. Data were collected through self-administered questionnaires and five-point Likert scale were adopted. The results of this research showed that live-stream shopping behaviour had positive significant relationship with perceived usefulness (r=0.724; p=0.001), perceived ease of use (r=0.559; p=0.001), perceived enjoyment (r=0.663; p=0.001), and perceived interactivity (r- =0.604; p=0.001) among Malaysian Consumers. Perceived usefulness is the most significant factor that contributed to the live-stream shopping behaviour among Malaysian consumers in this study. The regression model which consisting of four factors has contributed about 79.4% according to the result of multiple linear regression. Consumer should adopt the live-stream commerce for online purchasing due to its benefit of usefulness. Moreover, online vendors should promote and create awareness to public about features and benefits as well as encourage consumers to use live-stream commerce during purchasing

Development of a novel open platform controller machining module for 3-Axis CNC milling machine

CNC machines have gone through tremendous upgrades along the years. However, conventional CNC machines could not find its place in the new era of machining due to its limitation in compatibility, language difference and control has caused increase in terms of repurchase cost, reinstallations, reconfigurations and also training. This paper covers the system which has been designed and developed from outdated and conventional PROLIGHT 1000 Milling CNC machine from Light Intelitek which further discussed in detail based upon upgrades of hardware, architecture, and algorithm design. Based on the system and software developed, there are several interfaces for the software classified based on different information needed and explained in the paper. Then, the flow process of using the application will be explained along with the data to be inputted, function of buttons and other features. The designed system software is established as UTHM Open CNC Controller (UOCC) under the ISO 14649 of STEP-NC environment

Employee satisfaction in the telecommunications industry in Malaysia

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a decline in employee satisfaction. It would appear that ensuring the contentment of one's workforce in their place of employment is the most significant obstacle that companies must overcome. Therefore, this study examined the effects of wages and welfare, relations with superiors, and learning and development on employee satisfaction in Malaysia. The study employed a cross-sectional design, and the research instruments were adapted from several prior studies. Employees working for a telecommunications company in Malaysia completed a total of 162 questionnaires online. The research hypotheses were analysed using SPSS Version 26.0. The findings show that although relations with superiors had a significant positive effect on employee satisfaction, learning and development had an even stronger positive effect. On the other hand, wages and welfare did not display a significant effect on employee satisfaction. This study makes a unique contribution to theoretical understanding by investigating these factors in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic as intrinsic and extrinsic components impacting employee satisfaction. Additionally, this research gives corporate organisations vital insights to ensure they can maintain a competitive edge in their industry

The implementation of a novel Augmented Reality (AR) based mobile application on open platform controller for CNC machining operation

Manufacturing technology has reached to a point where there is a need for online platform for users’ easy access. Essentially, the trend for Industry 4.0 towards automation and Cyber Physical System (CPS) has become a compulsory addition to any system, manufacturing is not an exception to the need of that technological improvement. With the number of mobile users growing by the day, open CNC system has risen to merge the idea of controlling, monitoring, and utilizing the mobile platform to its advantage. This paper proposes the implementation of an Augmented Reality (AR) based mobile application for guiding users to improve CNC machining operation as well as remotely control the system from mobile phone. The CNC system is developed from conventional PROLIGHT 1000 Milling CNC machine from Light Intelitek based on novel controller established as UTHM Open CNC Controller (UOCC) under the ISO 14649 of STEP-NC environment. The UOCC have efficient ability to operate and monitor the CNC machine from a distance which would reduce the risk of accidents and hazards from occurring while eliminating the use of paper and increasing machining efficiency