ETS (Efficient, Transparent, and Secured) Self-healing Service for Pervasive Computing Applications

To ensure smooth functioning of numerous handheld devices anywhere anytime, the importance of self-healing mechanism cannot be overlooked. Incorporation of efficient fault detection and recovery in device itself is the quest for long but there is no existing self-healing scheme for devices running in pervasive computing environments that can be claimed as the ultimate solution. Moreover, the highest degree of transparency, security and privacy attainability should also be maintained. ETS Self-healing service, an integral part of our developing middleware named MARKS (Middleware Adaptability for Resource discovery, Knowledge usability, and Self-healing), holds promise for offering all of those functionalities

A Trust-based Secure Service Discovery (TSSD) Model for Pervasive Computing

To cope with the challenges posed by device capacity and capability, and also the nature of ad hoc networks, a Service discovery model is needed that can resolve security and privacy issues with simple solutions. The use of complex algorithms and powerful fixed infrastructure is infeasible due to the volatile nature of pervasive environment and tiny pervasive devices. In this paper, we present a trust-based secure Service discovery model, TSSD (trust-based secure service discovery) for a truly pervasive environment. Our model is a hybrid one that allows both secure and non-secure discovery of services. This model allows Service discovery and sharing based on mutual trust. The security model handles the communication and service sharing security issues. TSSD also incorporates a trust mode for sharing Services with unknown devices

Ubi-App: A Ubiquitous Application for Universal Access from Handheld Devices

Universal access from a handheld device (such as a PDA, cell phone) at any time or anywhere is now a reality. Ubicomp Assistant (UA) (Sharmin et al. in Proceedings of the 21st annual ACM symposium on applied computing (ACM SAC 2006), Dijon, France, pp 1013–1017, 2006) is an integral service of MARKS (Sharmin et al. in Proceedings of the third international conference on information technology: new generations (ITNG 2006), Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, pp 306–313, 2006). It is a middleware developed for handheld devices, and has been designed to accommodate different types of users (e.g., education, healthcare, marketing, or business). This customizable service employs the ubiquitous nature of current short range, low-power wireless connectivity and readily available, low-cost lightweight mobile devices. These devices can reach other neighbouring devices using a free short-range ad hoc network. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the UA service is the only service designed for these devices. This paper presents the details of Ubi-App, a ubiquitous application for universal access from any handheld device, which uses UA as a service. The results of a usability test and performance evaluation of the prototype show that Ubi-App is useful, easy to use, easy to install, and does not degrade the performance of the device

Why do mobile phone-based smoking cessation interventions struggle and how can we make them more effective?

Tobacco epidemic has become one of the major threats for public health. Several intervention techniques have focused on this issue. However, due to high cost and inadequate accessibility, a vast majority of the smokers are unable to receive benefits from these interventions. Wide availability of mobile phones and growing number of users inspired researchers to utilize mobile phones as a cost-effective, accessible medium for designing smoking cessation interventions. Though promising, these interventions are struggling to support users’ needs. In this paper, we conduct a systematic review of 69 articles available in four major databases (PubMed, Web of Science, ACM Digital Library, and IEEE Xplore). Our objective is to identify areas where cessation techniques succeeded and areas that remain challenging. We propose a set of implications guided by theories of cognitive dissonance, health behavior change, and assistive technologies that can inform future research, and guide the design of smoking cessation interventions.ye

Self-healing for Autonomic Pervasive Computing

ABSTRACT Self-healing is one of the main challenges to growing autonomic pervasive computing. Fault detection and recovery are the main steps of self-healing. Due to the characteristics of pervasive computing the self-healing becomes difficult. In this paper, the challenges of self-healing have been addressed and an approach to develop a self-healing service for autonomic pervasive computing is presented. The self-healing service has been developed and integrated into the middleware named MARKS+ (Middleware Adaptability for Resource discovery, Knowledge usability, and Self-healing). The self-healing approach is being evaluated on a test bed of PDAs. An application is being developed by using the proposed service

Reflecting on Reflection in Creative Design

Reflection is an integral part of the creative design process. However, details of designers??? reflective practices are less known, painting reflection as an enigmatic, un-orderly, and irregular process. This also resulted in design tools that offer little support for facilitating reflective activities. In this paper we discuss findings from our study of creative designers??? reflective practice, aiming to understand the details of process of reflection, tools and techniques utilized, and needs surrounding this process. Through a set of contextual interviews (N=12) we found that reflection is predominantly an intentional, repetitive, and frequently practiced activity and designers have specific goals that trigger reflection. Additionally, we found that novel representations of design activities and artifacts can play an imperative role in supporting reflection. We also offer guidelines for the design of better reflection support tools.unpublishednot peer reviewe

A Trust Based Secure Resource Discovery (TSRD) Model for Pervasive Computing

Pervasive computing is an emerging field of research that aims to design and develop computing models for the 21st century\u27s day to day ubiquitous applications. Particularly, tremendous developments in wireless and mobile technologies, remarkable growth of handheld devices and device users, and smart spaces have contributed to the rapid evolution of pervasive computing platforms. Resource discovery is an integral part of every system running in a pervasive computing environment. This process explores devices capable of offering a specific resource. Devices running in a pervasive computing environment have numerous limitations, which lead to their dependency on other devices for resources. This dependency in tum causes security threats. The traditional security mechanism does not work in this environment, as the devices are computationally poor and the notion of physical security is not applicable. To cope with the challenges posed by device capacity and capability, and also the nature of ad-hoc networks, a resource discovery model is needed that can resolve security and privacy issues with simple solutions. In this thesis, we present a trust based secure resource discovery model, TSRD (Trust Based Secure Resource Discovery). This model contains a trust, risk, and security model and is designed for truly pervasive environments

ReflectionSpace: an interactive visualization tool for supporting reflection-on-action in design

Designers move forward by looking back at past experiences. Reflection is a central activity of creative design which allows designers to develop new insight into their designs, generate alternative solutions, and reframe the problem. Researchers have emphasized the positive impact of reflection on design outcomes - recognizing the effectiveness of reflection as a learning tool and suggesting that designers who adopt reflective practices acquire better understanding of their design processes. This dissertation examines novel ways to augment reflective practice through design process visualization. The hypothesis of this dissertation is that a visual representation of design materials that captures and communicates the design process and context of design activity will better foster reflection-on-action. In support of this hypothesis, this dissertation makes three contributions to the field of human-computer interaction; (i) it reports results from three field studies of reflective practice and re-appropriation during the early phases of creative design; (ii) it describes the design and implementation of an interactive visualization tool supporting reflection-on-action; and (iii) it provides empirical evidence of the effectiveness of design process visualization for supporting reflection-on-action. To investigate the benefits of reflection support tools for creative design, we developed ReflectionSpace, an interactive visualization tool supporting reflective activities. The key innovation in ReflectionSpace is that it maps existing design materials to appropriate design phases and contexts of use and places corresponding representations into a time- and activity-centric visualization that can be navigated at different levels of detail. Results from a laboratory study indicate that a visual representation of design process is preferred over a file-centric approach for supporting reflection-on-action. Our work provides empirical evidence that interactive visualization of design process benefits designers by supporting reflection-on-action and contributes lessons that can guide the design of a new generation of design support tools

Ahamed, “Ubicomp Assistant: An Omnipresent Customizable Service using

ABSTRACT Due to the pervasive nature of current short range, low-power wireless connectivity and easy availability of low-cost light weight mobile devices, it is necessary to have an omnipresent customizable service. It can be used by different types of users different fields such as education, healthcare, marketing, or business, at any time, and at any place. These devices can reach ubiquitously to neighboring devices using a free short range ad hoc network. Unfortunately, to the best of our knowledge, no one has designed such a service. In this paper, we present the details of the Ubicomp Assistant (UA), which is designed to accomplish the above objectives. To evaluate the design, we have developed an application which uses UA as a service. It uses MARKS (Middleware Adaptability for Resource Discovery, Knowledge Usability and Self-healing) as an underlying core service provider

Ubicomp Assistant: An Omnipresent Customizable Service Using MARKS (Middleware Adaptability for Resource Discovery, Knowledge Usability and Self-Healing)

Due to the pervasive nature of current short range, low-power wireless connectivity and easy availability of low-cost light weight mobile devices, it is necessary to have an omnipresent customizable service. It can be used by different types of users different fields such as education, healthcare, marketing, or business, at any time, and at any place. These devices can reach ubiquitously to neighboring devices using a free short range ad hoc network. Unfortunately, to the best of our knowledge, no one has designed such a service. In this paper, we present the details of the Ubicomp Assistant (UA), which is designed to accomplish the above objectives. To evaluate the design, we have developed an application which uses UA as a service. It uses MARKS (Middleware Adaptability for Resource Discovery, Knowledge Usability and Self-healing) as an underlying core service provider