Quality of Experience in the context of mobile applications

Mobile devices are among the most-popular means of browsing the Internet, sending and receiving e-mail, and sharing content on social networks. People use mobile devices and the applications installed on them in different situations throughout the day. In order to ensure that users are satisfied with a mobile application, its author has to ensure a high Quality of Experience level. The problem of automatic evaluation of the QoE parameter is a very interesting research area. Quality of Experience is a broad issue and requires the analysis of many aspects not only graphical user interfaces but also, inter alia, Quality of Service and user ratings

Assessment of the Viability of a Biometric Characteristic in the Context of Biometric Authentication on Mobile Devices

The issue of safe utilization of mobile devices is becoming an increasingly important problem, among others due to the widespread use of such devices to access sensitive data (such as electronic documents or banking data). In our work we analyze the use of biometric techniques in order to secure a mobile device, with particular emphasis on the viability of selected biometric characteristics. For this purpose, we investigate the possibility of applying machine learning models to assess the authenticity of a biometric characteristic. Results of our tests have shown that the most effective method of assessing the viability of a biometric characteristic involves blink and smile detection

Agent-Based System for Mobile Service Adaptation Using Online Machine Learning and Mobile Cloud Computing Paradigm

An important aspect of modern computer systems is their ability to adapt. This is particularly important in the context of the use of mobile devices, which have limited resources and are able to work longer and more efficiently through adaptation. One possibility for the adaptation of mobile service execution is the use of the Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) paradigm, which allows such services to run in computational clouds and only return the result to the mobile device. At the same time, the importance of machine learning used to optimize various computer systems is increasing. The novel concept proposed by the authors extends the MCC paradigm to add the ability to run services on a PC (e.g. at home). The solution proposed utilizes agent-based concepts in order to create a system that operates in a heterogeneous environment. Machine learning algorithms are used to optimize the performance of mobile services online on mobile devices. This guarantees scalability and privacy. As a result, the solution makes it possible to reduce service execution time and power consumption by mobile devices. In order to evaluate the proposed concept, an agent-based system for mobile service adaptation was implemented and experiments were performed. The solution developed demonstrates that extending the MCC paradigm with the simultaneous use of machine learning and agent-based concepts allows for the effective adaptation and optimization of mobile services

Learning Agent for a Service-Oriented Context-Aware Recommender System in Heterogeneous Environment

Traditional recommender systems provide users with customized recommendations of products or services. They employ various technologies and algorithms in order to search and select the best options available while taking into account the user's context. Increasingly often, such systems run on devices in heterogeneous environments (including mobile devices) making use of their functionalities: various sensors (e.g. movement, light), wireless data transmission technologies and positioning systems (e.g. GPS) among others. In this paper, we propose an innovative recommender system that determines the best service (including photo and movie conversion) and simultaneously accommodates the context of the device in a heterogeneous environment. The system allows the choice between various service providers that make their resources available using cloud computing as well as having the services performed locally. In order to determine the best possible recommendation for users, we employ the concept of learning agents, which has not been thoroughly researched in connection with recommender systems so far

Multi-Platform Intelligent System for Multimodal Human-Computer Interaction

We present a flexible human--robot interaction architecture that incorporates emotions and moods to provide a natural experience for humans. To determine the emotional state of the user, information representing eye gaze and facial expression is combined with other contextual information such as whether the user is asking questions or has been quiet for some time. Subsequently, an appropriate robot behaviour is selected from a multi-path scenario. This architecture can be easily adapted to interactions with non-embodied robots such as avatars on a mobile device or a PC. We present the outcome of evaluating an implementation of our proposed architecture as a whole, and also of its modules for detecting emotions and questions. Results are promising and provide a basis for further development

Susceptibility to risky sexual behaviours in the polish population aged 15-63

Frequent involvement in risky sexual behaviors among members of society is a threat to their health. It’s also a social problem, as it increases the risk of spreading STDs and unwanted pregnancies. The aim of the study was to check the susceptibility to risky sexual behaviors in the Polish population aged 15-63. The research method was an original online questionnaire. A total of 294 responses were obtained from people of different gender, age, place of residence and level of education. The results were then statistically analyzed. 84% of respondents had undergone sexual initiation. The remaining respondents were excluded from further study. The average age of initiation was 18.2 years. 73% of respondents claim to never use condoms during oral sex. 22% of respondents use other methods instead of condoms. In the past 12 months, 21% of respondents had more than 1 sexual partner and 36% often had sex after drinking alcohol. 60% of respondents have never tested for STDs, and only 5% do it regularly when changing sexual partners. Subjects of concern are: large proportion of respondents who do not protect themselves during oral sex, a small number of respondents who regularly get tested for STDs, and a significant group of people who declare that they frequently have sex under the influence of alkohol

Network management services based on the OpenFlow environment

The subject of this article is network management through web service calls, which allows software applications to exert an influence on network traffic. In this manner, software can make independent decisions concerning the direction of requests so that they can be served as soon as possible. This is important because only proper cooperation including all architecture layers can ensure the best performance, especially when software that largely depends on computer networks and utilizes them heavily is involved. To demonstrate that the approach described above is feasible and can be useful at the same time, this article presents a switch-level load balancer developed using OpenFlow. Client software communicates with the balancer through REST web service calls, which are used to provide information on current machine load and its ability to serve incoming requests. The result is a cheap, highly customizable and extremely fast load balancer with considerable potential for further development

DISTRIBUTED WEB SERVICE REPOSITORY

The increasing availability and popularity of computer systems has resulted in a demand for new, language- and platform-independent ways of data exchange. That demand has in turn led to a significant growth in the importance of systems based on Web services. Alongside the growing number of systems accessible via Web services came the need for specialized data repositories that could offer effective means of searching of available services. The development of mobile systems and wireless data transmission technologies has allowed the use of distributed devices and computer systems on a greater scale. The accelerating growth of distributed systems might be a good reason to consider the development of distributed Web service repositories with built-in mechanisms for data migration and synchronization

Public cloud computing for Software as a Service platforms

As cloud computing becomes increasingly popular among enterprises, organizations and developers, it is time to consider how Software as a Service solutions can be built rapidly and cost effectively. This paper presents the possibility of using a service-based architecture operating within the framework of the public cloud computing model and implementing Software as a Service. It also describes the architecture, implementation and testing of sample applications. The conclusions drawn with respect to related work and the results obtained shed more light on the application of public cloud systems for Software as a Service purposes