Ibeacon based proximity and indoor localization system

User location can be leveraged to provide a wide range of services in a variety of indoor locations including retails stores, hospitals, airports, museums and libraries etc. The widescale proliferation of user devices such as smart phones and the interconnectivity among different entities, powered by Internet of Things (IoT), makes user device-based localization a viable approach to provide Location Based Services (LBS). Location based services can be broadly classified into 1) Proximity based services that provides services based on a rough estimate of users distance to any entity, and 2) Indoor localization that locates a user\u27s exact location in the indoor environment rather than a rough estimate of the distance. The primary requirements of these services are higher energy efficiency, localization accuracy, wide reception range, low cost and availability. Technologies such as WiFi, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Ultra Wideband (UWB) have been used to provide both indoor localization and proximity based services. Since these technologies are not primarily intended for LBS, they do not fulfill the aforementioned requirements. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) enabled beacons that use Apple\u27s proprietary iBeacon protocol are mainly intended to provide proximity based services. iBeacons satisfy the energy efficiency, wide reception range and availability requirements of LBS. However, iBeacons are prone to noise due to their reliance on Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), which drastically fluctuates in indoor environments due to interference from different obstructions. This limits its proximity detection accuracy. In this thesis, we present an iBeacon based proximity and indoor localization system. We present our two server-based algorithms to improve the proximity detection accuracy by reducing the variation in the RSSI and using the RSSI-estimated distance, rather than the RSSI itself, for proximity classification. Our algorithms Server-side Running Average and Server-side Kalman Filter improves the proximity detection accuracy by 29% and 32% respectively in contrast to Apple\u27s current approach of using moving average of RSSI values for proximity classification. We utilize a server-based approach because of the greater computing power of servers. Furthermore, server-based approach helps reduce the energy consumption of user device. We describe our cloud based architecture for iBeacon based proximity detection. We also use iBeacons for indoor localization. iBeacons are not primarily intended for indoor localization as their reliance on RSSI makes them unsuitable for accurate indoor localization. To improve the localization accuracy, we use Bayesian filtering algorithms such as Particle Filter (PF), Kalman Filter (KF), and Extended Kalman Filter (EKF). We show that by cascading Kalman Filter and Extended Kalman Filter with Particle Filter, the indoor localization accuracy can be improved by 28% and 33.94% respectively when compared with only using PF. The PF, KFPF and PFEKF algorithm on the server side have average localization error of 1.441 meters, 1.0351 meters and 0.9519 meters respectively

Measurement and Prediction of the Viscosity of Hydrocarbon Mixtures and Crude Oils

Crude oil is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons whose physical properties vary significantly with its composition, temperature and pressure. Viscosity is a particularly important property influencing the flow of oil in hydrocarbon reservoirs and its displacement by water and other fluids during production processes. The modelling and optimisation of such processes would be greatly aided by models which predict the viscosity of crude oils at (high) reservoir temperatures and pressures (HTHP), ideally from a knowledge of the oil composition. This research has involved making accurate HTHP viscosity measurements on a range of hydrocarbon systems and using these to evaluate the ability of an effective hard-sphere model to predict the data with minimal calibration. In the first phase, the viscosity and density of a range of pure hydrocarbons, representative of those found in crude oils, and their mixtures, were measured at temperatures and pressures covering typical reservoir conditions (up to 448.15 K and 135 MPa). The vibrating wire technique was used for viscosity in conjunction with a vibrating U-tube densimeter. The ability of the Dymond-Assael (DA) effective hard-sphere model to correlate and predict the viscosity of both the pure components and the complex mixtures was investigated. Agreement for pure components was within ± 5 % whereas for the mixtures this ranged from ± 5% to ± 25 % depending on the complexity. The same thermophysical properties were determined for two North Sea crude oil samples at temperatures ranging from (298.15 to 448.15) K and pressures up to 135 MPa. The effect of adding an alkane mixture diluent was also investigated. It was found that by treating the crude oils as effective single hydrocarbon components, the Dymond-Assael model could correlate their viscosity to within the experimental uncertainty and that of the diluted crudes to within ±10%. The overall study gives encouragement that a limited number of calibration viscosity/density measurements on a crude oil should enable prediction of its viscosity over a wide range of temperatures and pressures and enable viscosity changes to be predicted when crude oils are mixed with components whose DA parameters are known

Key schedule algorithm based on coordinate geometry of a three-dimensional hybrid cube

Cryptographic algorithms play an important role in information security where it ensures the security of data across the network or storage. A key schedule algorithm is the mechanism that generates and schedules all session-keys for the encryption process. The 2-dimensional hybrid cube is generated based on permutation and combination of integer numbers that are utilized in the construction of encryption and decryption key in the non-binary block cipher. The generation of key space by using the 2-dimensional hybrid cubes are not sufficient to resist attacks and could easily be exploited. Therefore, the large key space is more desirable to resist any attack on the secret key. This research proposed a new Key Schedule Algorithm based on the coordinate geometry of a Hybrid Cube (KSAHC) for the non-binary block cipher. By using the three-dimensional hybrid cube in KSAHC transformation, encryption keys are represented as n × n × n matrix of integer numbers and used in the development of the permutation and substitution of order 4 square matrix. Triangular Coordinate Extraction (TCE) technique has also been introduced to extract the coordinates during the rotation of Hybrid Cube surface (HCs) and plays an important role in the development of KSAHC algorithm. The Hybrid Cube Encryption Algorithm (HiSea) has been implemented to validate the encryption keys that are generated from the proposed algorithm. The strength of the keys and ciphertext are compared with the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), HiSea, and Dynamic Key Schedule Algorithm (DKSA). The proposed KSAHC algorithm has been validated using the randomness test proposed and recommended by NIST, the average result of avalanche test is 93%, entropy is 0.9968, correlation assessment test is -0.000601 and having large key space 2.70 × 1067 keys that makes the Brute Force attack difficult and time-consuming. Therefore, it can be concluded that the strength and validity of KSAHC algorithm have been enhanced as compared to other algorithms and can serve as the alternative algorithm in designing security systems

Seismic response trends evaluation and finite element model calibration of an instrumented RC building considering soil-structure interaction and non-structural components

Peer reviewedPostprin

Seismic response trends evaluation via long term monitoring and finite element model updating of an RC building including soil-structure interaction

Peer reviewedPostprin

Using audio and visual information for single channel speaker separation

This work proposes a method to exploit both audio and vi- sual speech information to extract a target speaker from a mix- ture of competing speakers. The work begins by taking an ef- fective audio-only method of speaker separation, namely the soft mask method, and modifying its operation to allow visual speech information to improve the separation process. The au- dio input is taken from a single channel and includes the mix- ture of speakers, where as a separate set of visual features are extracted from each speaker. This allows modification of the separation process to include not only the audio speech but also visual speech from each speaker in the mixture. Experimen- tal results are presented that compare the proposed audio-visual speaker separation with audio-only and visual-only methods us- ing both speech quality and speech intelligibility metrics

Drag Reducing Agent for Water System Using Natural Polymer (Aloe Vera)

Research and development of new chemicals to ensure flow assurance of hydrocarbon in turbulent pipe flow has been done throughout the years since the first introduction of Drag Reducing Agent (DRA) by Tom back in 1948. Drag had caused several problems to the flow line such as power pumping losses, decreasing in production capacity and pipelines corrosion. Thus, the drag reduction applications have brought a lot of improvement in crude oil transportation and water injection for last few decades. Comprehensive research regarding drag reduction in turbulent pipe flow is important which should focus both experimental and theoretical area. However, information on the usage and reliability of natural polymer DRA are still limited compared to synthetic polymers. To make use of these abundant sources of various organic and natural polymers, their effectiveness in reducing frictional drag in pipeline flow must be put into test before it can be introduced and commercialize to the industrial field. Thus, the objective of this project is to determine the effectiveness of new formulated DRA using natural polymer (Aloe Vera). The 5 different concentrations of Aloe Vera (AV) solutions which are ranging from 800ppm, 900ppm, 1000ppm, 1300ppm, 1500ppm were prepared and pumped in the open flow liquid system of water at the injection point to see the effect on the pressure loss and flow rate. The mixed solution is tested in the 4 meter testing section (1” diameter galvanized pipe) and the pressure reading is observed at two points (P1 and P2) using the pressure gauge. Two pressure gauge is used to monitor the pressure drop obtained along the test section for each concentrations tested. Flow rate of the flow also recorded and compared with each different concentrations of AV solution which will be used to compare the increment of the pipe flow capacity. The drag reduction percentage (DR %) is calculated using the value of pressure loss data obtained in the experiment. The effects of DRA concentration towards the drag reduction and pressure loss were analysed. The result shows that AV solution can increase the drag reduction percentage (%DR) in water flow up to 33% at 1500ppm concentration. The results agree with the theory of DRA polymer reduces the frictional pressure loss in the pipe flow by reducing the degree of turbulence flow, thus increase the transportation flow efficiency

Islamabad and Allies must win hearts and minds of flood victims with humane aid delivery

Even though the flood water is receding from Southern parts of Pakistan, the majority poor in Pakistan, in the North and elsewhere, are still suffering from the month long flood’s devastation. To redress this situation and to play the offensive strategically, the United States has pushed through a large aid package designed to re-acquaint the mostly poor people of Pakistani to the idea that the U.S. is out for something other than its immediate short-term interests. That narrative—the U.S. is Pakistan’s partner in its social and economic developmental goals– now seems to have been undercut by video-images that show inadequate, incompetent aid delivery and the unruly, violent fights that seem to spontaneously burst in flames in over-populated, shoddily built relief camps each time an aid delivery goes awry. These images register a violent state of nature, where animalistic dominance prevails over long-observed culturally sensitive tribal honor. The losers of these vicious fights ramble away, their dignity lost