HeartCycle: User interaction and patient education

Cardiovascular Diseases are the most prevalent and serious chronic conditions existing nowadays. They are the primary cause of death in the world and generate enormous expenditures to the health systems. Tele-monitoring and personal health systems have proven to be good options for tackling this situation; however they are still lacking many functionalities. It is necessary to find solutions that allow health professionals to follow up patients more closely and efficiently, while reducing the non-adherence of patients to the treatment regime. HeartCycle research project (partially funded by the European Commission) has developed a personal health system for cardiovascular diseases management with the aim to address this problem. This paper describes the Patient Loop of this solution, including the different components, the adopted user interaction, and the implemented patients education and coaching strategy.

BioMet®Phon: A system to monitor phonation quality in the clinics

BioMet®Phon is a software application developed for the characterization of voice in voice quality evaluation. Initially it was conceived as plain research code to estimate the glottal source from voice and obtain the biomechanical parameters of the vocal folds from the spectral density of the estimate. This code grew to what is now the Glottex®Engine package (G®E). Further demands from users in laryngology and speech therapy fields instantiated the development of a specific Graphic User Interface (GUI’s) to encapsulate user interaction with the G®E. This gave place to BioMet®Phon, an application which extracts the glottal source from voice and offers a complete parameterization of this signal, including distortion, cepstral, spectral, biomechanical, time domain, contact and tremor parameters. The semantic capabilities of biomechanical parameters are discussed. Study cases from its application to the field of laryngology and speech therapy are given and discussed. Validation results in voice pathology detection are also presented. Applications to laryngology, speech therapy, and monitoring neurological deterioration in the elder are proposed.

Sistema de autenticación accesible para el hogar digital

El Hogar Digital Accesible (HDA) de la ETSIST nace con el propósito de acercar las nuevas Tecnologías de la Información a las personas que precisan de necesidades concretas de accesibilidad y usabilidad, dotándoles de herramientas que les permitan aumentar su calidad de vida, confort, seguridad y autonomía. El entorno del HDA consta de elementos de control para puertas, persianas, iluminación, agua o gas, sensores de temperatura, incendios, gas, sistemas de climatización, sistemas de entretenimiento y sistemas de seguridad tales como detectores de presencia y alarmas. Todo ello apoyado sobre una arquitectura de red que proporciona una pasarela residencial y un acceso a banda ancha. El objetivo principal de este PFG ha sido el desarrollo de un sistema de autenticación para el Hogar Digital Accesible de bajo coste. La idea de integrar un sistema de autenticación en el HDA, surge de la necesidad de proteger de accesos no deseados determinados servicios disponibles dentro de un ámbito privado. Algunos de estos servicios pueden ser tales como el acceso a la lectura de los mensajes disponibles en el contestador automático, el uso de equipos multimedia, la desconexión de alarmas de seguridad o simplemente la configuración de ambientes según el usuario que esté autenticado (intensidad de luz, temperatura de la sala, etc.). En el desarrollo han primado los principios de accesibilidad, usabilidad y seguridad necesarios para la creación de un entorno no invasivo, que permitiera acreditar la identidad del usuario frente al sistema HDA. Se ha planteado como posible solución, un sistema basado en el reconocimiento de un trazo realizado por el usuario. Este trazo se usará como clave de cara a validar a los usuarios. El usuario deberá repetir el trazado que registró en el sistema para autenticarse. Durante la ejecución del presente PFG, se justificará la elección de este mecanismo de autenticación frente a otras alternativas disponibles en el mercado. Para probar la aplicación, se ha podido contar con dos periféricos de distintas gamas, el uDraw creado para la PS3 que se compone de una tableta digitalizadora y un lápiz que permite recoger los trazos realizados por el usuario de forma inalámbrica y la tableta digitalizadora Bamboo de Wacom. La herramienta desarrollada permite a su vez, la posibilidad de ser usada por otro tipo de dispositivos como es el caso del reloj con acelerómetro de 3 ejes de Texas Instruments Chronos eZ430 capaz de trasladar los movimientos del usuario al puntero de un ratón. El PFG se encuentra dividido en tres grandes bloques de flujo de trabajo. El primero se centra en el análisis del sistema y las tecnologías que lo componen, incluyendo los distintos algoritmos disponibles para realizar la autenticación basada en reconocimiento de patrones aplicados a imágenes que mejor se adaptan a las necesidades del usuario. En el segundo bloque se recoge una versión de prueba basada en el análisis y el diseño UML realizado previamente, sobre la que se efectuaron pruebas de concepto y se comprobó la viabilidad del proyecto. El último bloque incluye la verificación y validación del sistema mediante pruebas que certifican que se han alcanzado los niveles de calidad necesarios para la consecución de los objetivos planteados, generando finalmente la documentación necesaria. Como resultado del trabajo realizado, se ha obtenido un sistema que plantea una arquitectura fácilmente ampliable lograda a través del uso de técnicas como la introspección, que permiten separar la lógica de la capa de negocio del código que la implementa, pudiendo de forma simple e intuitiva sustituir código mediante ficheros de configuración, lo que hace que el sistema sea flexible y escalable. Tras la realización del PFG, se puede concluir que el producto final obtenido ha respondido de forma satisfactoria alcanzando los niveles de calidad requeridos, siendo capaz de proporcionar un sistema de autenticación alternativo a los convencionales, manteniendo unas cotas de seguridad elevadas y haciendo de la accesibilidad y el precio sus características más reseñables. ABSTRACT. Accessible Digital Home (HDA) of the ETSIST was created with the aim of bringing the latest information and communications technologies closer to the people who has special needs of accessibility and usability increasing their quality of life, comfort, security and autonomy. The HDA environment has different control elements for doors, blinds, lighting, water or gas, temperature sensors, fire protection systems, gas flashover, air conditioning systems, entertainments systems and security systems such as intruders detectors and alarms. Everything supported by an architecture net which provides a broadband residential services gateway. The main goal of this PFG was the development of a low-cost authentication system for the Accessible Digital Home. The idea of integrating an authentication system on the HDA, stems from the need to safeguard certain private key network resources from unauthorized access. Some of said resources are the access to the answering machine messages, the use of multimedia devices, the alarms deactivation or the parameter settings for each environment as programmed by the authenticated user (light intensity, room temperature, etc.). During the development priority was given to concepts like accessibility, usability and security. All of them necessary to create a non invasive environment that allows the users to certify their identity. A system based on stroke pattern recognition, was considered as a possible solution. This stroke is used as a key to validate users. The user must repeat the stroke that was saved on the system to validate access. The selection of this authentication mechanism among the others available options will be justified during this PFG. Two peripherals with different ranges were used to test the application. One of them was uDraw design for the PS3. It is wireless and is formed by a pen and a drawing tablet that allow us to register the different strokes drawn by the user. The other one was the Wacom Bamboo tablet, that supports the same functionality but with better accuracy. The developed tool allows another kind of peripherals like the 3-axes accelerometer digital wristwatch Texas Instruments Chronos eZ430 capable of transfering user movements to the mouse cursor. The PFG is divided by three big blocks that represent different workflows. The first block is focused on the system analysis and the technologies related to it, including algorithms for image pattern recognition that fits the user's needs. The second block describes how the beta version was developed based on the UML analysis and design previously done. It was tested and the viability of the project was verified. The last block contains the system verification and validation. These processes certify that the requirements have been fulfilled as well as the quality levels needed to reach the planned goals. Finally all the documentation has been produced. As a result of the work, an expandable system has been created, due to the introspection that provides the opportunity to separate the business logic from the code that implements it. With this technique, the code could be replaced throughout configuration files which makes the system flexible and highly scalable. Once the PFG has finished, it must therefore be concluded that the final product has been a success and high levels of quality have been achieved. This authentication tool gives us a low-cost alternative to the conventional ones. The new authentication system remains security levels reasonably high giving particular emphasis to the accessibility and the price.

Sistemas de gestión de sensores mediante tecnologías M2M

En el proyecto se lleva a cabo un estudio práctico sobre dos escenarios donde intervienen dispositivos relacionados con el Internet de las cosas. También se puede situar como una solución de comunicación M2M. Comunicación máquina a máquina implica un sistema central que es capaz de conectarse con otros sistemas en varios lugares. La conexión permite que el sistema central recoja o envíe datos a cada lugar remoto para su procesamiento. El primer escenario consta de la configuración y montaje de un microcontrolador conocido como Waspmote que se encarga de recoger variables atmosféricas gracias a un conjunto de sensores y enviar los datos a un router multiprotocolo Meshlium mediante tecnología Zigbee, un tipo de red orientada a redes de sensores. Este montaje tiene como fin instalar una estación meteorológica en el campus de la universidad y poder almacenar y administrar sus datos. La segunda parte dos dispositivos de hardware libre como son un Arduino con capacidad GPRS y una RaspberryPi conectada a la red cableada enviaran datos por ejemplo de temperatura y luminosidad a una red social de sensores conocida como Xively, gestionaremos nuestros dispositivos sobre esta plataforma gratuita, que nos permite dar de alta dispositivos, almacenar y representar los datos en tiempo real y consultarlos vía Web o mediante una aplicación móvil realizada para este caso por medio de funciones ofrecidas por Xively. He diseñado una aplicación Android que permite la consulta de datos y administración de sensores por un usuario, intenta abstraer al usuario de la complejidad técnica y acercar los objetos conectados, en este caso sensores. Se han detallado las configuraciones y el proceso de instalación de todos los dispositivos. Se explican conceptos para entender las tecnologías de comunicación, Zigbee y Http, este protocolo participara a nivel de aplicación realizando peticiones o enviando datos, administrando la capacidad y por tanto ahorro. ABSTRACT. The project takes a practical study on two scenarios which involved related to the Internet of Things devices. It can also be placed as a M2M communication solution. Machine to machine communication involves a central system that is able to connect with other systems in several places. The connection allows the central system to collect or send data to each remote location for processing. The first stage consists of the configuration and setup of a microcontroller known as Waspmote which is responsible to collect atmospheric variables by a set of sensors and send the data to a multiprotocol router Meshlium by Zigbee technology, a type of sensor networks oriented network. This assembly aims to set up a weather station on the campus of the university and to store and manage their data. The second part two devices free hardware like Arduino with GPRS capacity and RaspberryPi connected to the wired network send data, temperature and luminosity to a social network of sensors known as Xively, manage our devices on this free platform, which allows us to register devices, store and display data in real time and consult the web or through a mobile application on this case by means of functions offered by Xively. I have designed an Android application that allows data consultation and management of sensors by a user, the user tries to abstract the technical complexity and bring the connected objects, in this case sensors. Were detailed settings and the installation of all devices. Concepts are explained to understand communication technologies, Zigbee and Http, this protocol participate performing application-level requests or sending data, managing capacity and therefore savings.

Plataformas de desarrollo de WSAN y MiddleWare para despliegue

Son muchos los dominios de aplicación que han surgido en los últimos años con motivo de los avances tecnológicos. Algunos como eHealth, Smart Building o Smart Grid están teniendo una gran aceptación por parte de empresas que incrementan sus inversiones en este tipo de campos. Las redes inalámbricas de sensores y actuadores juegan un papel fundamental en el desarrollo de este tipo de aplicaciones. A través de este tipo de redes inalámbricas es posible monitorizar y actuar sobre un entorno gracias a nodos sensores y actuadores de forma cómoda y sencilla. Las WSANs (Wireless Sensors and Actuators Networks) junto con la robótica y M2M (Machine-to-Machine) están forjando el camino hacia el Internet of Things (IoT), un futuro en el que todo esté conectado entre sí. Cada vez aparecen dispositivos más pequeños y autónomos, que junto con el crecimiento de las redes, propician la interconexión de “el todo”. Este Proyecto Fin de Carrera tiene como objetivo contribuir en este avance, desarrollando parcialmente una solución middleware que abstraiga al usuario de la complejidad del hardware, implementando ciertas funcionalidades ofrecidas por el middleware nSOM desarrollado por la UPM. Para conseguir este objetivo se realizará un estudio del Estado del Arte actual y una comparativa de las diferentes plataformas hardware involucradas en las Redes Inalámbricas de Sensores y Actuadores (Wireless Sensor-Actuator Networks). Este estudio tendrá como fin la elección de una de las plataformas hardware para su futuro uso en un despliegue parcial del mencionado middleware nSOM. Posteriormente, se diseñará e implementará un sistema para ejemplificar un caso de uso sobre dicha plataforma integrando la publicación de las características y servicios de cada nodo final y el envío de peticiones y la recepción de respuestas. Finalmente se obtendrá un conjunto de conclusiones a partir de los resultados obtenidos y se detallarán posibles líneas de trabajo. ABSTRACT. There are many applications domains that have arisen because of technological advances in recent years. Some as eHealth, Smart Building or Smart Grid are having a great acceptance by companies that increase their investments in such fields. Wireless sensors and actuators networks play a fundamental role in the development of such applications. By means of this kind of wireless network it is possible to monitor and act upon an environment with the assistance of sensors and actuators nodes, readily. The WSANs (Wireless Sensors and Actuators Networks) together with robotics and M2M (Machine-to-Machine) are forging the way towards the Internet of Things (IoT), a future in which all of them are connected among themselves. Smaller and more autonomous devices are appearing that, along with the growth of networks, foster the interconnection of ‘the whole’. This Degree Final Project aims to contribute to this breakthrough, developing partially a middleware solution that abstracts the user from the complexity of hardware, implementing certain functionalities offered by the nSOM middleware solution carried out by UPM. To achieve this objective a study of the current state of the art and a comparison of the different hardware platforms involved in the Wireless and Actuators Sensor Networks (Wireless Sensor-Actuator Networks) will be performed. This study will aim the election of one of the hardware platforms for its future use in a partial deployment of the mentioned middleware nSOM. Subsequently, a system will be designed and implemented to exemplify a use case on the platform mentioned before integrating the publication of the features and services of each end node and sending requests and receiving responses. Finally a set of conclusions from the results will be stated and possible lines of future works will be detailed.

Advanced data acquisition system implementation for the ITER Neutron Diagnostic use case using EPICS and FlexRIO technology on a PXIe platform

In the framework of the ITER Control Breakdown Structure (CBS), Plant System Instrumentation & Control (I&C) defines the hardware and software required to control one or more plant systems [1]. For diagnostics, most of the complex Plant System I&C are to be delivered by ITER Domestic Agencies (DAs). As an example for the DAs, ITER Organization (IO) has developed several use cases for diagnostics Plant System I&C that fully comply with guidelines presented in the Plant Control Design Handbook (PCDH) [2]. One such use case is for neutron diagnostics, specifically the Fission Chamber (FC), which is responsible for delivering time-resolved measurements of neutron source strength and fusion power to aid in assessing the functional performance of ITER [3]. ITER will deploy four Fission Chamber units, each consisting of three individual FC detectors. Two of these detectors contain Uranium 235 for Neutron detection, while a third "dummy" detector will provide gamma and noise detection. The neutron flux from each MFC is measured by the three methods: . Counting Mode: measures the number of individual pulses and their location in the record. Pulse parameters (threshold and width) are user configurable. . Campbelling Mode (Mean Square Voltage): measures the RMS deviation in signal amplitude from its average value. .Current Mode: integrates the signal amplitude over the measurement period

Constructed Fashion: The Catwalk System as an Architectural Project

Teniendo en cuenta que no hay nada que se escape de la moda 1, y extendiendonos más allá de esta manida discusión sobre intersecciones formales, esta investigación propone la pasarela como un lugar real de mediación entre moda y arquitectura. Asumiendo esta condición, la pasarela encarna nuevos modos de producción apropiándose de su espacio y estructura, y convierténdose en una máquina capaz de generar múltiples y más bien infinitos significados. La moda es sin duda un proyecto creativo, que ha venido utilizando la pasarela como un marco para la reordenación de su narrativa visual, renovándose asi mismo como fenómeno social. Este proyecto de investigación plantea, que contrariamente las tipologías actuales de las pasarelas no nos facilitan la comprensión de una colección – que suele ser el objetivo principal. Presentan en cambio un entorno en el que se acoplan diferentes formatos visuales, -con varias capas-, conviéndolo en una compleja construcción y provocando nunerosas fricciones con el espacio-tiempo-acción durante el proceso de creación de otros territorios. Partiendo de la idea de la pasarela como un sistema, en el que sus numerosas variables pueden producir diversas combinaciones, esta investigación plantea la hipótesis por la cual un nuevo sistema de pasarela se estaría formando enteramente con capas de información. Este escenario nos conduciría a la inmersión final de la moda en los tejidos de la virtualidad. Si bien el debate sobre la relevancia de los desfiles de moda se ha vuelto más evidente hoy en día, esta investigación especula con la posibilidad del pensamiento arquitectónico y como este puede introducir metodologías de análisis en el marco de estos desfiles de moda, proponiendo una lectura de la pasarela como un sistema de procedimientos específicos inherente a los proyectos/procesos de la arquitectura. Este enfoque enlaza ambas prácticas en un territorio común donde el espacio, el diseño, el comportamiento, el movimiento, y los cuerpos son ordenados/organizados en la creación de estas nuevas posibilidades visuales, y donde las interacciones activan la generación de la novedad y los mensajes. PALABRAS CLAVES moda, sistema, virtual, información, arquitectura Considering that there is nothing left untouched by fashion2, and going beyond the already exhausted discussion about formal intersections, this research introduces the catwalk as the real arena of mediation between fashion and architecture. By assuming this condition, the catwalk embodies new modes of production that appropriates its space and turns it into a machine for generating multiple if not infinite meanings. Fashion, as a creative project, has utilized the catwalk as a frame for rearranging its visual narrative and renewing itself as social phenomena. This research disputes, however, that the current typologies of catwalks do not facilitate the understanding of the collection – as its primary goal - but, instead, present an environment composed of multi-layered visual formats, becoming a complex construct that collides space-time-action in the creation of other territories. Departing from the analysis of the catwalk as a system and how its many variables can produce diverse combinations, this research presents the hypothesis that a new system is being formed entirely built out of information. Such scenario indicates fashion´s final immersion into the fabrics of virtuality. While the discussion about the relevance of fashion shows has become more evident today, this research serves as an introductory speculation on how architectural thinking can introduce methodologies of analysis within the framework of the fashion shows, by proposing a reading of the catwalk as a system through specific procedures that are inherent to architectural projects. Such approach intertwines both practices into a common territory where space, design, behaviour, movement, and bodies are organized for the creation of visual possibilities, and where interactions are triggered in the making of novelty and messages. KEYWORDS fashion, system, virtual, information, architectural

Automated end user-centred adaptation of web components through automated description logic-based reasoning

Context: This paper addresses one of the major end-user development (EUD) challenges, namely, how to pack today?s EUD support tools with composable elements. This would give end users better access to more components which they can use to build a solution tailored to their own needs. The success of later end-user software engineering (EUSE) activities largely depends on how many components each tool has and how adaptable components are to multiple problem domains. Objective: A system for automatically adapting heterogeneous components to a common development environment would offer a sizeable saving of time and resources within the EUD support tool construction process. This paper presents an automated adaptation system for transforming EUD components to a standard format. Method: This system is based on the use of description logic. Based on a generic UML2 data model, this description logic is able to check whether an end-user component can be transformed to this modeling language through subsumption or as an instance of the UML2 model. Besides it automatically finds a consistent, non-ambiguous and finite set of XSLT mappings to automatically prepare data in order to leverage the component as part of a tool that conforms to the target UML2 component model. Results: The proposed system has been successfully applied to components from four prominent EUD tools. These components were automatically converted to a standard format. In order to validate the proposed system, rich internet applications (RIA) used as an operational support system for operators at a large services company were developed using automatically adapted standard format components. These RIAs would be impossible to develop using each EUD tool separately. Conclusion: The positive results of applying our system for automatically adapting components from current tool catalogues are indicative of the system?s effectiveness. Use of this system could foster the growth of web EUD component catalogues, leveraging a vast ecosystem of user-centred SaaS to further current EUSE trends.

Validation Study of the Use of Matlab/Simulink Synchronous-Machine Block for Accurate Power-Plant Stability Studies

This paper presents results of the validity study of the use of MATLAB/Simulink synchronous-machine block for power-system stability studies. Firstly, the waveforms of the theoretical synchronous-generator short-circuit currents are described. Thereafter, the comparison between the currents obtained through the simulation model in the sudden short-circuit test, are compared to the theoretical ones. Finally, the factory tests of two commercial generating units are compared to the response of the synchronous generator simulation block during sudden short-circuit, set with the same real data, with satisfactory results. This results show the validity of the use of this generator block for power plant simulation.

New On-Line Excitation-System Ground Fault Location Method Tested in a 106 MVA Synchronous Generator

In this paper, a novel excitation-system ground-fault location method is described and tested in a 106 MVA synchronous machine. In this unit, numerous rotor ground-fault trips took place always about an hour after the synchronization to the network. However, when the field winding insulation was checked after the trips, there was no failure. The data indicated that the faults in the rotor were caused by centrifugal forces and temperature. Unexpectedly, by applying this new method, the failure was located in a cable between the excitation transformer and the automatic voltage regulator. In addition, several intentional ground faults were performed along the field winding with different fault resistance values, in order to test the accuracy of this method to locate defects in rotor windings of large generators. Therefore, this new on-line rotor ground-fault detection algorithm is tested in high-power synchronous generators with satisfactory results.

The usefulness of Usability and User Experience evaluation methods on an e-Learning platform development from a developer's perspective: A case study

The development of a web platform is a complex and interdisciplinary task, where people with different roles such as project manager, designer or developer participate. Different usability and User Experience evaluation methods can be used in each stage of the development life cycle, but not all of them have the same influence in the software development and in the final product or system. This article presents the study of the impact of these methods applied in the context of an e-Learning platform development. The results show that the impact has been strong from a developer's perspective. Developer team members considered that usability and User Experience evaluation allowed them mainly to identify design mistakes, improve the platform's usability and understand the end users and their needs in a better way. Interviews with potential users, clickmaps and scrollmaps were rated as the most useful methods. Finally, these methods were considered unanimously very useful in the context of the entire software development, only comparable to SCRUM meetings and overcoming the rest of involved factors.

Ontology-driven legal support-system in air transport passenger domain

This paper aims to present a preliminary version of asupport-system in the air transport passenger domain. This system relies upon an underlying on-tological structure representing a normative framework to facilitatethe provision of contextualized relevant legal information.This information includes the pas-senger's rights and itenhances self-litigation and the decision-making process of passengers.Our contribution is based in the attempt of rendering a user-centric-legal informationgroundedon case-scenarios of the most pronounced incidents related to the consumer complaints in the EU.A number ofadvantages with re-spect to the current state-of-the-art services are discussed and a case study illu-strates a possible technological application.

Development of a visual object tracking system using a compressive sensing framework for modeling the appearance

En el presente trabajo se aborda el problema del seguimiento de objetos, cuyo objetivo es encontrar la trayectoria de un objeto en una secuencia de video. Para ello, se ha desarrollado un método de seguimiento-por-detección que construye un modelo de apariencia en un dominio comprimido usando una nueva e innovadora técnica: “compressive sensing”. La única información necesaria es la situación del objeto a seguir en la primera imagen de la secuencia. El seguimiento de objetos es una aplicación típica del área de visión artificial con un desarrollo de bastantes años. Aun así, sigue siendo una tarea desafiante debido a varios factores: cambios de iluminación, oclusión parcial o total de los objetos y complejidad del fondo de la escena, los cuales deben ser considerados para conseguir un seguimiento robusto. Para lidiar lo más eficazmente posible con estos factores, hemos propuesto un algoritmo de tracking que entrena un clasificador Máquina Vector Soporte (“Support Vector Machine” o SVM en sus siglas en inglés) en modo online para separar los objetos del fondo de la escena. Con este fin, hemos generado nuestro modelo de apariencia por medio de un descriptor de características muy robusto que describe los objetos y el fondo devolviendo un vector de dimensiones muy altas. Por ello, se ha implementado seguidamente un paso para reducir la dimensionalidad de dichos vectores y así poder entrenar nuestro clasificador en un dominio mucho menor, al que denominamos domino comprimido. La reducción de la dimensionalidad de los vectores de características se basa en la teoría de “compressive sensing”, que dice que una señal con poca dispersión (pocos componentes distintos de cero) puede estar bien representada, e incluso puede ser reconstruida, a partir de un conjunto muy pequeño de muestras. La teoría de “compressive sensing” se ha aplicado satisfactoriamente en este trabajo y diferentes técnicas de medida y reconstrucción han sido probadas para evaluar nuestros vectores reducidos, de tal forma que se ha verificado que son capaces de preservar la información de los vectores originales. También incluimos una actualización del modelo de apariencia del objeto a seguir, mediante el reentrenamiento de nuestro clasificador en cada cuadro de la secuencia con muestras positivas y negativas, las cuales han sido obtenidas a partir de la posición predicha por el algoritmo de seguimiento en cada instante temporal. El algoritmo propuesto ha sido evaluado en distintas secuencias y comparado con otros algoritmos del estado del arte de seguimiento, para así demostrar el éxito de nuestro método.

Methodology for developing an advanced communications system for the Deaf in a new domain

A methodology for developing an advanced communications system for the Deaf in a new domain is presented in this paper. This methodology is a user-centred design approach consisting of four main steps: requirement analysis, parallel corpus generation, technology adaptation to the new domain, and finally, system evaluation. During the requirement analysis, both the user and technical requirements are evaluated and defined. For generating the parallel corpus, it is necessary to collect Spanish sentences in the new domain and translate them into LSE (Lengua de Signos Española: Spanish Sign Language). LSE is represented by glosses and using video recordings. This corpus is used for training the two main modules of the advanced communications system to the new domain: the spoken Spanish into the LSE translation module and the Spanish generation from the LSE module. The main aspects to be generated are the vocabularies for both languages (Spanish words and signs), and the knowledge for translating in both directions. Finally, the field evaluation is carried out with deaf people using the advanced communications system to interact with hearing people in several scenarios. In this evaluation, the paper proposes several objective and subjective measurements for evaluating the performance. In this paper, the new considered domain is about dialogues in a hotel reception. Using this methodology, the system was developed in several months, obtaining very good performance: good translation rates (10% Sign Error Rate) with small processing times, allowing face-to-face dialogues.

CompactRIO: advanced data acquisition systems integration in CODAC Core System

Las herramientas de configuración basadas en lenguajes de alto nivel como LabVIEW permiten el desarrollo de sistemas de adquisición de datos basados en hardware reconfigurable FPGA muy complejos en un breve periodo de tiempo. La estandarización del ciclo de diseño hardware/software y la utilización de herramientas como EPICS facilita su integración con la plataforma de adquisición y control ITER CODAC CORE SYSTEM (CCS) basada en Linux. En este proyecto se propondrá una metodología que simplificará el ciclo completo de integración de plataformas novedosas, como cRIO, en las que el funcionamiento del hardware de adquisición puede ser modificado por el usuario para que éste se amolde a sus requisitos específicos. El objetivo principal de este proyecto fin de master es realizar la integración de un sistema cRIO NI9159 y diferentes módulos de E/S analógica y digital en EPICS y en CODAC CORE SYSTEM (CCS). Este último consiste en un conjunto de herramientas software que simplifican la integración de los sistemas de instrumentación y control del experimento ITER. Para cumplir el objetivo se realizarán las siguientes tareas: • Desarrollo de un sistema de adquisición de datos basado en FPGA con la plataforma hardware CompactRIO. En esta tarea se realizará la configuración del sistema y la implementación en LabVIEW para FPGA del hardware necesario para comunicarse con los módulos: NI9205, NI9264, NI9401.NI9477, NI9426, NI9425 y NI9476 • Implementación de un driver software utilizando la metodología de AsynDriver para integración del cRIO con EPICS. Esta tarea requiere definir todos los records necesarios que exige EPICS y crear las interfaces adecuadas que permitirán comunicarse con el hardware. • Implementar la descripción del sistema cRIO y del driver EPICS en el sistema de descripción de plantas de ITER llamado SDD. Esto automatiza la creación de las aplicaciones de EPICS que se denominan IOCs. SUMMARY The configuration tools based in high-level programing languages like LabVIEW allows the development of high complex data acquisition systems based on reconfigurable hardware FPGA in a short time period. The standardization of the hardware/software design cycle and the use of tools like EPICS ease the integration with the data acquisition and control platform of ITER, the CODAC Core System based on Linux. In this project a methodology is proposed in order to simplify the full integration cycle of new platforms like CompactRIO (cRIO), in which the data acquisition functionality can be reconfigured by the user to fits its concrete requirements. The main objective of this MSc final project is to develop the integration of a cRIO NI-9159 and its different analog and digital Input/Output modules with EPICS in a CCS. The CCS consists of a set of software tools that simplifies the integration of instrumentation and control systems in the International Thermonuclear Reactor (ITER) experiment. To achieve such goal the following tasks are carried out: • Development of a DAQ system based on FPGA using the cRIO hardware platform. This task comprehends the configuration of the system and the implementation of the mandatory hardware to communicate to the I/O adapter modules NI9205, NI9264, NI9401, NI9477, NI9426, NI9425 y NI9476 using LabVIEW for FPGA. • Implementation of a software driver using the asynDriver methodology to integrate such cRIO system with EPICS. This task requires the definition of the necessary EPICS records and the creation of the appropriate interfaces that allow the communication with the hardware. • Develop the cRIO system’s description and the EPICS driver in the ITER plant description tool named SDD. This development will automate the creation of EPICS applications, called IOCs.