Towards reliable video transmission over sparse MANETs in emergencies

Video delivery in a mobile ad-hoc network that can be deployed by members of an emergency service in an incident zone is an appealing tool for emergency and rescue services, but has not been studied yet. In order to design and test a suitable solution, we have generated realistic evaluation scenarios by modeling fireman action plans and GPS traces from real situations. We propose an overlay network solution with routing and reliability mechanisms. The Emergency Overlay Routing (EOR) protocol is a reactive protocol integrated into a store-carry-forward architecture. It selects ferry nodes to transport video data from a camera in the Incident Area to the Incident Chief’s node, looking for the minimum delay, but reliable, candidate. We also propose a simple credit based mechanism (RTCP+) to improve the communication reliability. The evaluation of the whole system shows a great improvement against previous results and promising expectations

Towards reliable video transmission over sparse MANETs in emergencies

Video delivery in a mobile ad-hoc network that can be deployed by members of an emergency service in an incident zone is an appealing tool for emergency and rescue services, but has not been studied yet. In order to design and test a suitable solution, we have generated realistic evaluation scenarios by modeling fireman action plans and GPS traces from real situations. We propose an overlay network solution with routing and reliability mechanisms. The Emergency Overlay Routing (EOR) protocol is a reactive protocol integrated into a store-carry-forward architecture. It selects ferry nodes to transport video data from a camera in the Incident Area to the Incident Chief’s node, looking for the minimum delay, but reliable, candidate. We also propose a simple credit based mechanism (RTCP+) to improve the communication reliability. The evaluation of the whole system shows a great improvement against previous results and promising expectations

An Overlay Routing Protocol for Video over sparse MANETs in Emergencies

Video delivery over a mobile ad-hoc network that can be deployed by members of an emergency service in an incident zone is an appealing tool for emergency and rescue services, but has not be studied yet. In order to design and test a suitable solution, we have generated realistic evaluation scenarios by modeling fireman action plans and GPS traces from real situations. The Emergency Overlay Routing (EOR) protocol is a reactive protocol integrated into a store-carry-forward architecture. It selects ferry nodes to transport video data from a camera in the Incident Area to the Incident Chief’s node, looking for the minimum delay, but reliable, candidate. The evaluation of EOR shows its superiority to the well-known DTN routing protocol, PROPHET, under this conditions

COVID-19 and its effects on the driving style of spanish drivers

Spain is one of the countries most affected by COVID-19. Until May 5, 2021 there have been 3.54 million people infected and 78,399 deaths according to the Johns Hopkins Institute. This has meant that Spain is one of the countries in the world where the most restrictive measures have been adopted and which have had a strong impact on the economic, social, and mental health of citizens. One of the consequences of this pandemic is a severe increase in the strain on the healthcare system. Many of those infected had to be admitted to hospitals and even to Intensive Care Units (ICU). In this scenario, it is essential to reduce traffic accidents in order to avoid overcrowded hospitals. However, the Spanish General Directorate of Traffic highlights in several traffic reports that despite the decrease in the volume and distance of trips, the number of traffic accidents has not altered significantly and even during some periods has been higher than before the pandemic. The aim of this work is to establish if there has been a change in the driving style of drivers during the pandemic and to identify the group of people adopting a more inefficient and unsafe driving style. To this end, a study was carried out with 30 volunteers and their current driving style was compared with their driving style before the pandemic. The results show that drivers have adopted a more aggressive driving style than before the pandemic, especially women and those who have suffered anxiety due to COVID-19.5311-8814-F0ED | Sara Maria da Cruz Maia de Oliveira PaivaN/

Analysis of mobility changes caused by COVID-19 in a context of moderate restrictions using data collected by mobile devices

Since its inception, COVID-19 has changed several dynamics in society, both on a personal and professional level. Mobility was one of the most affected aspects, as a result of the necessary social distancing and preventive measures that had to be enacted by the various countries and which restricted, at various times, freedom of movement. The impact that COVID-19 had, and still has, on mobility is important to be understood so that the necessary measures can be taken in order to return to normality and, for example, not regress in the steps that were being taken in encouraging the use of public transport as a measure to combat the carbon footprint as well as traffic congestion in cities. This paper intends to analyze the reality of Spain and Portugal, in the period between May 10th and July 2nd, 2021, in which both countries had already finished restricting mobility measures. The study used data from Google Community Mobility Reports and was done by regions, taking into account the average age of inhabitants and the number of inhabitants in each region. The analysis focused on different categories of places such as retail and recreation, groceries and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residential. One of the main conclusions of this study is the lower use of public transports for fear of a greater risk of infection. This could be a problem in the medium term if this trend continues. On the other hand, it is important to highlight a greater presence in parks after the end of the lockdown, which promotes healthy habits that combat problems such as overweight or obesity. COVID-19 can be seen as an opportunity to promote more active mobility through the creation of infrastructure, such as for bicycles.5311-8814-F0ED | Sara Maria da Cruz Maia de Oliveira PaivaN/

Sistemas de introducción de texto en aplicaciones de TV interactiva

En los últimos años se han llevado a cabo cambios regulatorios en muchos países para la implantación de servicios de televisión digital interactivos. La aparición de estos servicios conduce a un clima de mayor competencia, en el que los proveedores de contenidos ofrecen servicios cada vez más innovadores. Muchos de estos servicios requieren capacidades de interacción y, más concretamente, de inserción de texto. No obstante, surge un nuevo problema que emana del hecho de que el principal dispositivo de interacción en estos servicios es el mando a distancia (control remoto), elemento que no ha sido pensado para la escritura de texto. En este trabajo se presenta un proyecto que persigue encontrar métodos efectivos de escritura de texto para entornos de Televisión Digital Interactiva mediante un mando a distancia convencional.Facultad de Informátic

Sistemas de introducción de texto en aplicaciones de TV interactiva

En los últimos años se han llevado a cabo cambios regulatorios en muchos países para la implantación de servicios de televisión digital interactivos. La aparición de estos servicios conduce a un clima de mayor competencia, en el que los proveedores de contenidos ofrecen servicios cada vez más innovadores. Muchos de estos servicios requieren capacidades de interacción y, más concretamente, de inserción de texto. No obstante, surge un nuevo problema que emana del hecho de que el principal dispositivo de interacción en estos servicios es el mando a distancia (control remoto), elemento que no ha sido pensado para la escritura de texto. En este trabajo se presenta un proyecto que persigue encontrar métodos efectivos de escritura de texto para entornos de Televisión Digital Interactiva mediante un mando a distancia convencional.Facultad de Informátic

Sistemas de introducción de texto en aplicaciones de TV interactiva

En los últimos años se han llevado a cabo cambios regulatorios en muchos países para la implantación de servicios de televisión digital interactivos. La aparición de estos servicios conduce a un clima de mayor competencia, en el que los proveedores de contenidos ofrecen servicios cada vez más innovadores. Muchos de estos servicios requieren capacidades de interacción y, más concretamente, de inserción de texto. No obstante, surge un nuevo problema que emana del hecho de que el principal dispositivo de interacción en estos servicios es el mando a distancia (control remoto), elemento que no ha sido pensado para la escritura de texto. En este trabajo se presenta un proyecto que persigue encontrar métodos efectivos de escritura de texto para entornos de Televisión Digital Interactiva mediante un mando a distancia convencional.Facultad de Informátic

Adaptive Streaming: A subjective catalog to assess the performance of objective QoE metrics

Scalable streaming has emerged as a feasible solution to resolve users' heterogeneity problems. SVC is the technology that has served as the definitive impulse for the growth of streaming adaptive systems. Systems seek to improve layer switching efficiency from the network point of view but, with increasing importance, without jeopardizing user perceived video quality, i.e., QoE. We have performed extensive subjective experiments to corroborate the preference towards adaptive systems when compared to traditional non-adaptive systems. The resulting subjective scores are correlated with most relevant Full Reference (FR) objective metrics. We obtain an exponential relationship between human decisions and the same decisions expressed as a difference of objective metrics. A strong correlation with subjective scores validates objective metrics to be used as aid in the adaptive decision taking algorithms to improve overall systems performance. Results show that, among the evaluated objective metrics, PSNR is the metric that provide worse results in terms of reproducing the human decision

Impact of Efficient Driving in Professional Bus Fleets

Diesel engines of the vehicles in the transport sector are responsible for most of the CO2 emissions into the environment. An alternative to reduce fuel consumption is to promote efficient driving techniques. The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of efficient driving on fuel consumption in professional fleets. Data captured from the engine control unit (ECU) of the vehicles are complemented with external information from weather stations and context data from the transport companies. The paper proposes linear and quadratic models in order to quantify the impact of all the terms influencing energy consumption. The analysis was made from the traces captured from a passenger transport company in Spain with more than 50 bus routes. 20 vehicles of five different models were monitored and 58 drivers participated in the study. The results indicate that efficient driving has significant influence on fuel consumption, which confirms efficient driving as a valid and economical option for reducing consumption and therefore emissions of harmful particles into the atmosphere. According to the proposed model, in average external conditions, a driver that increases efficiency from 25% to 75% can reach savings in fuel consumption of up to 16 L/100 km in the analysed bus fleet, which is a significant improvement considering the long distances covered by professionals of the transport sector