Technology Standardization Battles: An Agent Based Analysis

A competition between two or more technologies for becoming the dominant technological standard is a regular occurrence and some popular examples include media formats, Internet browsers, operating systems, game consoles etc. This study introduces an Analytical Framework for Technological Standardization (AFTS) that helps analyze competitors involved in a technical standard competition. This paper presents case studies of technological standardization which include success of QWERTY keyboard standard, mobile operating systems like iPhone and Android, and the Fourth Generation (4G) Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) standard. Network economic concepts are useful to explain the market factors and tactics that contenders use to compete. Researchers conducting similar sorts of analysis have also relied on using economic concepts. The study extends the AFTS to set up Agent Based Model (ABM) simulations in order to mimic market conditions. The main focus of simulation models is on keyboard standard battle (historic) and the 4G BWA competition (unsettled) while employing multi methodological techniques. The ABM is set up to simulate a market with consumers and technology providers. By simulating several scenarios we can learn and explain what constitutes key drivers for these competitions. The ability to simulate a unsettled competition will be of value to the stakeholders involved

Conceptual Model for the Use of Smart Glasses in Ubiquitous Teaching (u-teaching)

Smart glasses, a wearable headset technology, currently trending provides hands-free and augmented reality features. This paper looks at the research around mediated-reality tools to improve the delivery of education. Despite its potential, it has not seen widespread use in education. A suitable implementation framework and pedagogy have been proposed so that smart glasses can be used towards creating digitally-mediated learning (DML) environments. Aurasma is recommended as the implementation framework after a comparison with other frameworks based on factors such as cost, ease-of-use, and accessibility among others. For a suitable pedagogy, new assessment strategies, content personalization, and the use of 3-D learning spaces are recommended. It is argued, that the recommended framework and the pedagogy approach have the potential to improve learning environments for teachers and students. However, there are privacy concerns due to the pervasive nature of Augmented Reality (AR). In the current research, the overall learning environment is considered

IO Vision – an integrated system to support the visually impaired

Security questions are one of the techniques used to recover passwords. The main limitation of security questions is that users find strong answers difficult to remember. This leads users to trade-off security for the convenience of an improved memorability. Previous research found that increased fun and enjoyment can lead to an enhanced memorability, which provides a better learning experience. Hence, we empirically investigate whether a serious game has the potential of improving the memorability of strong answers to security questions. For our serious game, we adopted the popular “4 Pics 1 word” mobile game because of its use of pictures and cues, which psychology research found to be important to help with memorability. Our findings indicate that the proposed serious game could potentially improve the memorability of answers to security questions. This potential improvement in memorability, could eventually help reduce the trade-off between usability and security in fall-back authentication

Mobile Health and Chronic Disease Management: Moving Towards a Holistic Approach

Mobile technologies are anticipated to offer cost effective and efficient information management solutions for the chronic care sector. The increasing incidence of chronic diseases is leading to severe pressure on healthcare services struggling to meet increased demand. Although mobile technical solutions are being developed, there is little understanding of the issues affecting acceptability and sustainability of mobile health initiatives and the requirements for the development of holistic care services. This research uses a qualitative study to determine the potential for implementation of m-health across the spectrum of chronic disease care and to identify key factors affecting the stakeholders. While study participants paint an optimistic future for m-health, there remain several challenges before a holistic approach can be achieved, not least the standardisation and integration of information across the whole health sector

Temporary Access to Medical Records in Emergency Situations

Access to patients Electronic Health Records (EHR) is a daily operation in mainstream healthcare. However, having access to EHR in emergencies while is vitally important to save patients’ life, it could potentially lead to security breaches and violating patients’ privacy. In this regards, getting access to patients’ medical records in emergency situations is one of the issues that emergency responder teams are facing. This access can be temporary until patients reach hospitals or healthcare centers. In this paper, we aim to explore different technology-based solutions to give responders temporary access to patients\u27 medical records in emergency situations. The core of this study is patients and responders authentication methods that can save precious emergency time and protect the privacy and confidentiality of patients data to the utmost. We also have explored control access mechanism and security audits to increase the security of the procedure and patient privacy

Review of Tools for Early Detection and Screening of Diabetes

This paper reviews features of numerous tools, techniques and technologies that help to identify and detect early risk of diabetes. The paper uses systematic literature review (SLR) guidelines and searched most of the popular journals limiting the results tied to studies that discussed the screening and detection of the risk of diabetes. We reviewed the architecture, features and limitations of the various tools and technologies using the following classification: Continuous Glucose Monitoring Systems (CGMS), Flash Glucose Monitoring Systems (FGMS) and the Unobtrusive Systems. Under the unobtrusive system, we studied the Child Health Improvement through Computer Automation (CHICA) system and while there are pieces of evidence that proves its benefits and usefulness, we found some required enhancements in areas of decision support system, data entry automation and flexible integration with other systems. Future work will examine the usage of intelligent automation to detect early risk of diabetes during a patient-physician visit

Co-Designing a Medication Notification Application with Multi-Channel Reminders

Evidence suggests that medication adherence applications (apps) are one of the most effective methods to remind patients to take medication on time. Reminders via apps are overwhelming today, consumers discard using them after a brief period of initial usage, eventually becoming unfavourable towards them and not using them at all. This study aims to qualitatively determine the key features and design of medication reminder apps that facilitate or disrupt usage from the users perceptive. Three focus groups were conducted with participants aged between 15 and 65+ (N= 12). The participants evaluated a smart medication reminder prototype, then sketched and discussed their thoughts and perceptions within the group. Participants identified, 1) Multi-channel reminders, 2) Medication intake acknowledgement for reporting and 3) Seamless addition of medications and associated reminders as important elements. Understanding consumers needs and concerns will inform the future development of medication reminder apps that are acceptable and valuable to consumers

A Cox-based Model for Predicting the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

This research is aimed to develop a 10-year risk prediction model and identify key contributing Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) risk factors. A Cox proportional hazard regression method was adopted to design and develop the risk model. We used Framingham Original Cohort dataset of 5079 men and women aged 30 - 62 years, who had no overt symptoms of CVD at the baseline. Out of them, 3189 (62.78%) had an actual CVD event. A 10-year CVD risk model based on multiple risk factors (such as age, sex, body mass index (BMI), hypertension, systolic blood pressure, cigarettes per day, pulse rate, and diabetes) was developed in which heart rate was identified as one of the novel contributing risk factors. We validated the model via statistical and empirical validation methods. The proposed model achieved an acceptable discrimination and calibration with C-index (receiver operating characteristic (ROC)) being 0.71 from the validation dataset

Co-Designing a Medication Notification Application with Multi-Channel Reminders

Evidence suggests that medication adherence applications (apps) are one of the most effective methods to remind patients to take medication on time. Reminders via apps are overwhelming today, consumers discard using them after a brief period of initial usage, eventually becoming unfavourable towards them and not using them at all. This study aims to qualitatively determine the key features and design of medication reminder apps that facilitate or disrupt usage from the users’ perceptive. Three focus groups were conducted with participants aged between 15 and 65+ (N= 12). The participants evaluated a smart medication reminder prototype, then sketched and discussed their thoughts and perceptions within the group. Participants identified, 1) Multi-channel reminders, 2) Medication intake acknowledgement for reporting and 3) Seamless addition of medications and associated reminders as important elements. Understanding consumers’ needs and concerns will inform the future development of medication reminder apps that are acceptable and valuable to consumers

Current Challenges and Barriers to the Wider Adoption of Wearable Sensor Applications and Internet-of-Things in Health and Well-being

The aim of this review is to investigate barriers and challenges of Wearable Sensors (WS) and Internet-of-Things (IoT) solutions in healthcare. This work specifically focuses on falls and Activity of Daily Life (ADLs) for ageing population and independent living for older adults. The majority of the studies focussed on the system aspects of WS and IoT solutions including advanced sensors, wireless data collection, communication platforms and usability. The current studies are focused on a single use-case/health area using non-scalable and ‘silo’ solutions. Moderate to low usability/ userfriendly approach is reported in most of the current studies. Other issues found were, inaccurate sensors, battery/power issues, restricting the users within the monitoring area/space and lack of interoperability. The advancement of wearable technology and possibilities of using advanced technology to support ageing population is a concept that has been investigated by many studies. We believe, WS and IoT monitoring plays a critical role towards support of a world-wide goal of tackling ageing population and efficient independent living. Consequently, in this study we focus on identifying three main challenges regarding data collection and processing, techniques for risk assessment, usability and acceptability of WS and IoT in wider healthcare settings