The Unexpected Downside of Paying or Sending Messages to People to Make Them Walk : Comparing Tangible Rewards and Motivational Messages to Improve Physical Activity

People do not exercise as much and as regularly as they should. To support users in adopting healthy exercise routines, app designers integrate persuasive techniques in their apps. In this study, we focus on two of these techniques, i.e., offering tangible rewards and sending motivational messages to users. Past research has demonstrated the effects of these techniques in nudging recipients to increase their physical activity levels. However, the effect of these interventions on the intrinsic motivation of the participants has not yet been studied. We conducted a 10-month study involving 208 participants; this research consisted of a 3-month baseline (pre-phase), a 4-month experiment and a 3-month follow-up (post-phase). The participants were randomly assigned to one of the following three interventions: either they receive money ((i.) through a fixed incentive or (ii.) a lottery), or (iii.) informative messages. Their daily goal was to walk 10K steps. Through their smart phones, we recorded how many steps they walked every day. These interventions had no effect on the main outcome variable (i.e., the number of steps). However, the manipulations produced a detrimental effect on the intrinsic motivation of the participants, measured through a standardized questionnaire. This negative effect extended into the follow-up period. Our study reveals that tangible rewards and motivational messages decrease the intrinsic motivation of the participants, hence their connected physical activity. In our findings, we highlight the importance of intrinsic motivation in setting up healthy exercise routines that will be carried on autonomously by the participants after the period of the intervention. Finally, we present implications for the design of persuasive apps

A 5G mobile network architecture to support vertical industries

The telecom industry is moving from a "horizontal" service delivery model, where services are defined independent of their consumers, toward a "vertical" delivery model, where the provided services are tailored to specific industry sectors and verticals. In order to enable this transition, an end-to-end comprehensive 5G architecture is needed, with capabilities to support the use cases of the different vertical industries. A key feature of this architecture is the implementation of network slicing over a single infrastructure to provision highly heterogeneous vertical services, as well as a network slicing management system capable of handling simultaneous slices. On top of the network slicing technology, functionality needs to be devised to deploy the slices required by the different vertical players and provide them with a suitable interface to manage their slice. In this article, we design a 5G mobile network architecture to support vertical industries. The proposed architecture builds on ongoing standardization efforts at 3GPP and ETSI, and incorporates additional modules to provide enhanced MANO and control functionality as well as artificial-intelligence-based data analytics. On top of these modules, a service layer is provided to offer vertical players an easyto- use interface to manage their services.This work was supported by the H2020 5G-TOURS European project (Grant Agreement No. 856950)

5G Visualization: The METIS-II Project Approach

[EN] One of the main objectives of the METIS-II project was to enable 5G concepts to reach and convince a wide audience from technology experts to decision makers from non-ICT industries. To achieve this objective, it was necessary to provide easy-to-understand and insightful visualization of 5G. This paper presents the visualization platform developed in the METIS-II project as a joint work of researchers and artists, which is a 3D visualization tool that allows viewers to interact with 5G-enabled scenarios, while permitting simulation driven data to be intuitively evaluated. The platform is a game-based customizable tool that allows a rapid integration of new concepts, allows real-time interaction with remote 5G simulators, and provides a virtual reality-based immersive user experience. As a result, the METIS-II visualization platform has successfully contributed to the dissemination of 5G in different fora and its use will be continued after METIS-II.This work has been performed in the framework of the H2020/5G-PPP project METIS-II cofunded by the EU. The authors wish to thank the rest of METIS-II colleagues who contributed to the development of the METIS-II visualization platform.Martín-Sacristán, D.; Herranz Claveras, C.; Monserrat Del Río, JF.; Szczygiel, A.; Kuruvatti, NP.; Garcia-Roger, D.; Prado-Alvarez, D.... (2018). 5G Visualization: The METIS-II Project Approach. Mobile Information Systems. 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/2084950S18Zyda, M. (2005). From visual simulation to virtual reality to games. Computer, 38(9), 25-32. doi:10.1109/mc.2005.297Johnson, C. (2004). Top scientific visualization research problems. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 24(4), 13-17. doi:10.1109/mcg.2004.20Tullberg, H., Popovski, P., Li, Z., Uusitalo, M. A., Hoglund, A., Bulakci, O., … Monserrat, J. F. (2016). The METIS 5G System Concept: Meeting the 5G Requirements. IEEE Communications Magazine, 54(12), 132-139. doi:10.1109/mcom.2016.1500799cmLee, B., Riche, N. H., Isenberg, P., & Carpendale, S. (2015). More Than Telling a Story: Transforming Data into Visually Shared Stories. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 35(5), 84-90. doi:10.1109/mcg.2015.99Yi, J. S., Kang, Y. ah, & Stasko, J. (2007). Toward a Deeper Understanding of the Role of Interaction in Information Visualization. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 13(6), 1224-1231. doi:10.1109/tvcg.2007.70515Campbell, B. D. (2016). Immersive Visualization to Support Scientific Insight. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 36(3), 17-21. doi:10.1109/mcg.2016.6

D7.2 Preliminary 5G Visualization

This deliverable summarizes the concept and current status of the open source visualization platform, which at this point in the timeframe of the project is able to showcase a subset of the 5G RAN design concepts investigated in METIS-II. Different alternatives for visualization are presented and the roadmap and further steps in this topic are also discussed.Monserrat Del Río, JF.; Herranz Claveras, C.; Martín-Sacristán Gandía, D.; Szczygieł, A.; Boldi, M.; Queseth, O.; Huang, G.... (2016). D7.2 Preliminary 5G Visualization. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.18670.0032

Hexa-X the European 6G Flagship Project

Hexa-X will pave the way to the next generation of wireless networks (Hexa) by explorative research (X). The Hexa-X vision is to connect human, physical, and digital worlds with a fabric of sixth generation (6G) key enablers. The vision is driven by the ambition to contribute to objectives of growth, global sustainability, trustworthiness, and digital inclusion. Key 6G value indicators and use cases are defined against the background of technology push, society and industry pull as well as objectives of technology sovereignty. Key areas of research have been formulated accordingly to include connecting intelligence, network of networks, sustainability, global service coverage, extreme experience, and trustworthiness. Critical technology enablers for 6G are developed in the project including, sub-THz transceiver technologies, accurate stand-alone positioning and radio-based imaging, improved radio performance, artificial intelligence (AI) / machine learning (ML) inspired radio access network (RAN) technologies, future network architectures and special purpose solutions including future ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) schemes. Besides technology enablers, early trials will be carried out to help assess viability and performance aspects of the key technology enablers. The 6G Hexa-X project is integral part of European and global research effort to help define the best possible next generation of networks

Hexa-X the European 6G Flagship Project

Hexa-X will pave the way to the next generation of wireless networks (Hexa) by explorative research (X). The Hexa-X vision is to connect human, physical, and digital worlds with a fabric of sixth generation (6G) key enablers. The vision is driven by the ambition to contribute to objectives of growth, global sustainability, trustworthiness, and digital inclusion. Key 6G value indicators and use cases are defined against the background of technology push, society and industry pull as well as objectives of technology sovereignty. Key areas of research have been formulated accordingly to include connecting intelligence, network of networks, sustainability, global service coverage, extreme experience, and trustworthiness. Critical technology enablers for 6G are developed in the project including, sub-THz transceiver technologies, accurate stand-alone positioning and radio-based imaging, improved radio performance, artificial intelligence (AI) / machine learning (ML) inspired radio access network (RAN) technologies, future network architectures and special purpose solutions including future ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) schemes. Besides technology enablers, early trials will be carried out to help assess viability and performance aspects of the key technology enablers. The 6G Hexa-X project is integral part of European and global research effort to help define the best possible next generation of networks

Coordinated MultiPoint Systems for IMT-Advanced in the Framework of Winner+ Project

The growing demand for improved performance in cellular radio networks led to the investigation of novel techniques able to cope for these needs. One of the most promising, currently evaluated in the framework of standardization bodies following ITU-R process for IMT-Advanced, is the so-called Coordinated MultiPoint (CoMP) access network architecture and related approaches and algorithms. CoMP is one of the most extensively studied topics in the context of Winner+ CELTIC European project. CoMP brings forward the concept of Advanced Antenna systems, introducing a degree of collaboration among a multiplicity of nodes exchanging information among them. Consequently, CoMP aims to exploit concurrently signals coming from all the nodes, transforming inter-cell interfering signals in useful ones, especially for cell-border users. In this paper some possible CoMP architectures are listed and the first results of simulations on CoMP systems, starting from ideal assumptions, are reported

Coordinated MultiPoint Systems for IMT-Advanced in the Framework of Winner+ Project

The growing demand for improved performance in cellular radio networks led to the investigation of novel techniques able to cope for these needs. One of the most promising, currently evaluated in the framework of standardization bodies following ITU-R process for IMT-Advanced, is the so-called Coordinated MultiPoint (CoMP) access network architecture and related approaches and algorithms. CoMP is one of the most extensively studied topics in the context of Winner+ CELTIC European project. CoMP brings forward the concept of Advanced Antenna systems, introducing a degree of collaboration among a multiplicity of nodes exchanging information among them. Consequently, CoMP aims to exploit concurrently signals coming from all the nodes, transforming inter-cell interfering signals in useful ones, especially for cell-border users. In this paper some possible CoMP architectures are listed and the first results of simulations on CoMP systems, starting from ideal assumptions, are reported

5G system design : architectural and functional considerations and long term research

xliv, 557 p. : ill. ; 25 cm