Multi-Resolution Texture Coding for Multi-Resolution 3D Meshes

We present an innovative system to encode and transmit textured multi-resolution 3D meshes in a progressive way, with no need to send several texture images, one for each mesh LOD (Level Of Detail). All texture LODs are created from the finest one (associated to the finest mesh), but can be re- constructed progressively from the coarsest thanks to refinement images calculated in the encoding process, and transmitted only if needed. This allows us to adjust the LOD/quality of both 3D mesh and texture according to the rendering power of the device that will display them, and to the network capacity. Additionally, we achieve big savings in data transmission by avoiding altogether texture coordinates, which are generated automatically thanks to an unwrapping system agreed upon by both encoder and decoder.

Contribution to multiuser videoconferencing systems based on cloud computing

Multi-user videoconferencing systems offer communication between more than two users, who are able to interact through their webcams, microphones and other components. The use of these systems has been increased recently due to, on the one hand, improvements in Internet access, networks of companies, universities and houses, whose available bandwidth has been increased whilst the delay in sending and receiving packets has decreased. On the other hand, the advent of Rich Internet Applications (RIA) means that a large part of web application logic and control has started to be implemented on the web browsers. This has allowed developers to create web applications with a level of complexity comparable to traditional desktop applications, running on top of the Operating Systems. More recently the use of Cloud Computing systems has improved application scalability and involves a reduction in the price of backend systems. This offers the possibility of implementing web services on the Internet with no need to spend a lot of money when deploying infrastructures and resources, both hardware and software. Nevertheless there are not many initiatives that aim to implement videoconferencing systems taking advantage of Cloud systems. This dissertation proposes a set of techniques, interfaces and algorithms for the implementation of videoconferencing systems in public and private Cloud Computing infrastructures. The mechanisms proposed here are based on the implementation of a basic videoconferencing system that runs on the web browser without any previous installation requirements. To this end, the development of this thesis starts from a RIA application with current technologies that allow users to access their webcams and microphones from the browser, and to send captured data through their Internet connections. Furthermore interfaces have been implemented to allow end users to participate in videoconferencing rooms that are managed in different Cloud provider servers. To do so this dissertation starts from the results obtained from the previous techniques and backend resources were implemented in the Cloud. A traditional videoconferencing service which was implemented in the department was modified to meet typical Cloud Computing infrastructure requirements. This allowed us to validate whether Cloud Computing public infrastructures are suitable for the traffic generated by this kind of system. This analysis focused on the network level and processing capacity and stability of the Cloud Computing systems. In order to improve this validation several other general considerations were taken in order to cover more cases, such as multimedia data processing in the Cloud, as research activity has increased in this area in recent years. The last stage of this dissertation is the design of a new methodology to implement these kinds of applications in hybrid clouds reducing the cost of videoconferencing systems. Finally, this dissertation opens up a discussion about the conclusions obtained throughout this study, resulting in useful information from the different stages of the implementation of videoconferencing systems in Cloud Computing systems. RESUMEN Los sistemas de videoconferencia multiusuario permiten la comunicación entre más de dos usuarios que pueden interactuar a través de cámaras de video, micrófonos y otros elementos. En los últimos años el uso de estos sistemas se ha visto incrementado gracias, por un lado, a la mejora de las redes de acceso en las conexiones a Internet en empresas, universidades y viviendas, que han visto un aumento del ancho de banda disponible en dichas conexiones y una disminución en el retardo experimentado por los datos enviados y recibidos. Por otro lado también ayudó la aparación de las Aplicaciones Ricas de Internet (RIA) con las que gran parte de la lógica y del control de las aplicaciones web comenzó a ejecutarse en los mismos navegadores. Esto permitió a los desarrolladores la creación de aplicaciones web cuya complejidad podía compararse con la de las tradicionales aplicaciones de escritorio, ejecutadas directamente por los sistemas operativos. Más recientemente el uso de sistemas de Cloud Computing ha mejorado la escalabilidad y el abaratamiento de los costes para sistemas de backend, ofreciendo la posibilidad de implementar servicios Web en Internet sin la necesidad de grandes desembolsos iniciales en las áreas de infraestructuras y recursos tanto hardware como software. Sin embargo no existen aún muchas iniciativas con el objetivo de realizar sistemas de videoconferencia que aprovechen las ventajas del Cloud. Esta tesis doctoral propone un conjunto de técnicas, interfaces y algoritmos para la implentación de sistemas de videoconferencia en infraestructuras tanto públicas como privadas de Cloud Computing. Las técnicas propuestas en la tesis se basan en la realización de un servicio básico de videoconferencia que se ejecuta directamente en el navegador sin la necesidad de instalar ningún tipo de aplicación de escritorio. Para ello el desarrollo de esta tesis parte de una aplicación RIA con tecnologías que hoy en día permiten acceder a la cámara y al micrófono directamente desde el navegador, y enviar los datos que capturan a través de la conexión de Internet. Además se han implementado interfaces que permiten a usuarios finales la participación en salas de videoconferencia que se ejecutan en servidores de proveedores de Cloud. Para ello se partió de los resultados obtenidos en las técnicas anteriores de ejecución de aplicaciones en el navegador y se implementaron los recursos de backend en la nube. Además se modificó un servicio ya existente implementado en el departamento para adaptarlo a los requisitos típicos de las infraestructuras de Cloud Computing. Alcanzado este punto se procedió a analizar si las infraestructuras propias de los proveedores públicos de Cloud Computing podrían soportar el tráfico generado por los sistemas que se habían adaptado. Este análisis se centró tanto a nivel de red como a nivel de capacidad de procesamiento y estabilidad de los sistemas. Para los pasos de análisis y validación de los sistemas Cloud se tomaron consideraciones más generales para abarcar casos como el procesamiento de datos multimedia en la nube, campo en el que comienza a haber bastante investigación en los últimos años. Como último paso se ideó una metodología de implementación de este tipo de aplicaciones para que fuera posible abaratar los costes de los sistemas de videoconferencia haciendo uso de clouds híbridos. Finalmente en la tesis se abre una discusión sobre las conclusiones obtenidas a lo largo de este amplio estudio, obteniendo resultados útiles en las distintas etapas de implementación de los sistemas de videoconferencia en la nube.

Coupled model of initiation and propagation of corrosion in reinforced concrete

Corrosion of reinforcing steel in concrete due to chloride ingress is one of the main causes of the deterioration of reinforced concrete structures. Structures most affected by such a corrosion are marine zone buildings and structures exposed to de-icing salts like highways and bridges. Such process is accompanied by an increase in volume of the corrosión products on the rebarsconcrete interface. Depending on the level of oxidation, iron can expand as much as six times its original volume. This increase in volume exerts tensile stresses in the surrounding concrete which result in cracking and spalling of the concrete cover if the concrete tensile strength is exceeded. The mechanism by which steel embedded in concrete corrodes in presence of chloride is the local breakdown of the passive layer formed in the highly alkaline condition of the concrete. It is assumed that corrosion initiates when a critical chloride content reaches the rebar surface. The mathematical formulation idealized the corrosion sequence as a two-stage process: an initiation stage, during which chloride ions penetrate to the reinforcing steel surface and depassivate it, and a propagation stage, in which active corrosion takes place until cracking of the concrete cover has occurred. The aim of this research is to develop computer tools to evaluate the duration of the service life of reinforced concrete structures, considering both the initiation and propagation periods. Such tools must offer a friendly interface to facilitate its use by the researchers even though their background is not in numerical simulation. For the evaluation of the initiation period different tools have been developed: Program TavProbabilidade: provides means to carry out a probability analysis of a chloride ingress model. Such a tool is necessary due to the lack of data and general uncertainties associated with the phenomenon of the chloride diffusion. It differs from the deterministic approach because it computes not just a chloride profile at a certain age, but a range of chloride profiles for each probability or occurrence. Program TavProbabilidade_Fiabilidade: carries out reliability analyses of the initiation period. It takes into account the critical value of the chloride concentration on the steel that causes breakdown of the passive layer and the beginning of the propagation stage. It differs from the deterministic analysis in that it does not predict if the corrosion is going to begin or not, but to quantifies the probability of corrosion initiation. Program TavDif_1D: was created to do a one dimension deterministic analysis of the chloride diffusion process by the finite element method (FEM) which numerically solves Fick’second Law. Despite of the different FEM solver already developed in one dimension, the decision to create a new code (TavDif_1D) was taken because of the need to have a solver with friendly interface for pre- and post-process according to the need of IETCC. An innovative tool was also developed with a systematic method devised to compare the ability of the different 1D models to predict the actual evolution of chloride ingress based on experimental measurements, and also to quantify the degree of agreement of the models with each others. For the evaluation of the entire service life of the structure: a computer program has been developed using finite elements method to do the coupling of both service life periods: initiation and propagation. The program for 2D (TavDif_2D) allows the complementary use of two external programs in a unique friendly interface: • GMSH - an finite element mesh generator and post-processing viewer • OOFEM – a finite element solver. This program (TavDif_2D) is responsible to decide in each time step when and where to start applying the boundary conditions of fracture mechanics module in function of the amount of chloride concentration and corrosion parameters (Icorr, etc). This program is also responsible to verify the presence and the degree of fracture in each element to send the Information of diffusion coefficient variation with the crack width. • GMSH - an finite element mesh generator and post-processing viewer • OOFEM – a finite element solver. The advantages of the FEM with the interface provided by the tool are: • the flexibility to input the data such as material property and boundary conditions as time dependent function. • the flexibility to predict the chloride concentration profile for different geometries. • the possibility to couple chloride diffusion (initiation stage) with chemical and mechanical behavior (propagation stage). The OOFEM code had to be modified to accept temperature, humidity and the time dependent values for the material properties, which is necessary to adequately describe the environmental variations. A 3-D simulation has been performed to simulate the behavior of the beam on both, action of the external load and the internal load caused by the corrosion products, using elements of imbedded fracture in order to plot the curve of the deflection of the central region of the beam versus the external load to compare with the experimental data.

A new class of symbolic abstract neural nets

Starting from the way the inter-cellular communication takes place by means of protein channels and also from the standard knowledge about neuron functioning, we propose a computing model called a tissue P system, which processes symbols in a multiset rewriting sense, in a net of cells similar to a neural net. Each cell has a finite state memory, processes multisets of symbol-impulses, and can send impulses (?excitations?) to the neighboring cells. Such cell nets are shown to be rather powerful: they can simulate a Turing machine even when using a small number of cells, each of them having a small number of states. Moreover, in the case when each cell works in the maximal manner and it can excite all the cells to which it can send impulses, then one can easily solve the Hamiltonian Path Problem in linear time. A new characterization of the Parikh images of ET0L languages are also obtained in this framework.

Solving SAT in linear time with a neural-like membrane system

We present in this paper a neural-like membrane system solving the SAT problem in linear time. These neural Psystems are nets of cells working with multisets. Each cell has a finite state memory, processes multisets of symbol-impulses, and can send impulses (?excitations?) to the neighboring cells. The maximal mode of rules application and the replicative mode of communication between cells are at the core of the eficiency of these systems.

Discernment of bee pollen loads using computer vision and one-class classification techniques

In this paper, we propose a system for authenticating local bee pollen against fraudulent samples using image processing and classification techniques. Our system is based on the colour properties of bee pollen loads and the use of one-class classifiers to reject unknown pollen samples. The latter classification techniques allow us to tackle the major difficulty of the problem, the existence of many possible fraudulent pollen types. Also presented is a multi-classifier model with an ambiguity discovery process to fuse the output of the one-class classifiers. The method is validated by authenticating Spanish bee pollen types, the overall accuracy of the final system of being 94%. Therefore, the system is able to rapidly reject the non-local pollen samples with inexpensive hardware and without the need to send the product to the laboratory.

SVis: A computational steering visualization environment for surface structure determination

The arrangement of atoms at the surface of a solid accounts for many of its properties: Hardness, chemical activity, corrosion, etc. are dictated by the precise surface structure. Hence, finding it, has a broad range of technical and industrial applications. The ability to solve this problem opens the possibility of designing by computer materials with properties tailored to specific applications. Since the search space grows exponentially with the number of atoms, its solution cannot be achieved for arbitrarily large structures. Presently, a trial and error procedure is used: an expert proposes an structure as a candidate solution and tries a local optimization procedure on it. The solution relaxes to the local minimum in the attractor basin corresponding to the initial point, that might be the one corresponding to the global minimum or not. This procedure is very time consuming and, for reasonably sized surfaces, can take many iterations and much effort from the expert. Here we report on a visualization environment designed to steer this process in an attempt to solve bigger structures and reduce the time needed. The idea is to use an immersive environment to interact with the computation. It has immediate feedback to assess the quality of the proposed structure in order to let the expert explore the space of candidate solutions. The visualization environment is also able to communicate with the de facto local solver used for this problem. The user is then able to send trial structures to the local minimizer and track its progress as they approach the minimum. This allows for simultaneous testing of candidate structures. The system has also proved very useful as an educational tool for the field.

Integrated electronic system for ultrasonic structural health monitoring

A fully integrated on-board electronic system that can perform in-situ structural health monitoring (SHM) of aircraft?s structures using specifically designed equipment for SHM based on guided wave ultrasonic method or Lamb waves? method is introduced. This equipment is called Phased Array Monitoring for Enhanced Life Assessment (PAMELA III) and is an essential part of overall PAMELA SHM? system. PAMELA III can generate any kind of excitation signals, acquire the response signals that propagate throughout the structure being tested, and perform the signal processing for damage detection directly on the structure without need to send the huge amount of raw signals but only the final SHM maps. It monitors the structure by means of an array of integrated Phased Array (PhA) transducers preferably bonded onto the host structure. The PAMELA III hardware for SHM mapping has been designed, built and subjected to laboratory tests, using aluminum and CFRP structures. The 12 channel system has been designed to be low weight (265 grams only), to have a small form factor, to be directly mounted above the integrated PhA transducers without need for cables and to be EMI protected so that the equipment can be taken on board an aircraft to perform required SHM analyses by use of embedded SHM algorithms. Moreover, the autonomous, automatic and on real-time working procedure makes it suitable for the avionic field, sending the corresponding alerts, maps and reports to external equipment.

Quadcopter see and avoid using a fuzzy controller

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) industry is a fast growing sector. Nowadays, the market offers numerous possibilities for off-the-shelf UAVs such as quadrotors or fixed-wings. Until UAVs demonstrate advance capabilities such as autonomous collision avoidance they will be segregated and restricted to flight in controlled environments. This work presents a visual fuzzy servoing system for obstacle avoidance using UAVs. To accomplish this task we used the visual information from the front camera. Images are processed off-board and the result send to the Fuzzy Logic controller which then send commands to modify the orientation of the aircraft. Results from flight test are presented with a commercial off-the-shelf platform.

Procesos de dualización en la sociedad de la información: algunas polémicas públicas de índole tecnológica

La tecnología ha cambiado el mundo, pero las consecuencias de estos cambios en la sociedad no siempre se han pronosticado bien. Las Tecnologías de la Información transformaron el método de producción industrial. La nueva industria produce ideas y conceptos, no objetos. Este cambio ha dado como resultado una sociedad dualizada, ha desaparecido gran parte de la clase media y han aumentado las diferencias entre la clase alta y la baja. Las exigencias educativas de los nuevos puestos de trabajo innovadores son superiores a los de la industria tradicional, pero inferiores en los puestos de trabajo de producción. Además, el número de puestos de trabajo disponibles de este tipo es menor que en la industria tradicional, se necesita menos mano de obra, los procesos se pueden automatizar, las tareas mecánicas se aprenden en poco tiempo y son trabajos temporales, cuyo número dependerá de la demanda global. Para que el proceso de innovación funcione, las empresas se reúnen en las zonas financieras de grandes ciudades, como Nueva York o Londres, que fueron las primeras con acceso a las redes de telecomunicación. De esta manera se producen sinergias que contribuyen a mejorar el proceso innovador global. Estas ideas y conceptos que cambian el mundo necesitan de este entorno de producción, que no puede ser replicado, y son tan importantes que su acceso está restringido para la mayor parte del mundo por distintos mecanismos de control. El despliegue de las redes de telecomunicaciones inalámbricas ha sido enorme en los últimos años. El cliente busca llamar desde cualquier lugar y llevar un acceso a Internet en teléfono móvil. Para conseguirlo, las operadoras de telefonía móvil necesitan poner antenas de telefonía móvil en las ciudades, pero la instalación cerca de edificios no está siendo fácil. Pocos quieren tener una antena cerca por los problemas de salud de las personas que padecen los que ya viven o trabajan cerca de una. Los efectos del electromagnetismo en los seres humanos no están claros y provocan desconfianza hacia las antenas. La digitalización de los contenidos, que ha sido necesaria para transmitir contenido en Internet, permite que cualquier persona con un ordenador y una conexión a Internet pueda publicar un disco, una película o un libro. Pero esa persona también puede copiar los originales y enviarlos a cualquier lugar del mundo sin el permiso del autor. Con el fin de controlar la copia no autorizada, los derechos de autor se están usando para cambiar leyes e incluir sistemas de censura en Internet. Estos sistemas permiten a los autores eliminar el contenido ilegal, pero también pueden ser usados para censurar cualquier tipo de información. El control de la información es poder y usarlo de una manera o de otra afecta a todo el planeta. El problema no es la tecnología, que es solo una herramienta, es la forma que tienen los gobiernos y las grandes empresas de usarlo. Technology has changed the world, but the consequences of these changes in society have not always been well predicted. The Information Technology transformed the industrial production method. The new industry produces ideas and concepts, not objects. This change has resulted in a society dualized, most of the middle class has disappeared and the differences between high and low class have increased. The educational requirements of new innovative jobs are higher than the ones of the traditional industry, but lower in production jobs. Moreover, the number of available jobs of this type is lower than in the traditional industry, it takes less manpower, processes can be automated, mechanical tasks are learned in a short time and jobs are temporary, whose number depends on global demand. For the innovation process works, companies meet in the business districts of large cities, like New York or London, which were the first with access to telecommunications networks. This will produce synergies that improve the overall innovation process. These ideas and concepts that change the world need this production environment, which cannot be replicated, and are so important that their access is restricted to most of the world by different control mechanisms. The deploy of wireless telecommunications networks has been enormous in recent years. The client seeks to call from anywhere and to bring Internet access in his mobile phone. To achieve this, mobile operators need to put cell towers in cities, but the installation near buildings is not being easy. Just a few want to have an antenna closely because of the health problems suffered by people who already live or work near one. The effects of electromagnetism in humans are unclear and cause distrust of antennas. The digitization of content, which has been necessary to transmit Internet content, allows anyone with a computer and an Internet connection to be able to publish an album, a movie or a book. But that person can also copy the originals and send them anywhere in the world without the author's permission. In order to control the unauthorized copying, copyright is being used to change laws and include Internet censorship systems. These systems allow authors to eliminate illegal content, but may also be used to censor any information. The control of knowledge is power and using it in one way or another affects the whole planet. The problem is not technology, which is just a tool, but the way that governments and large corporations use it.

Sonar bat for visually impaired people

Visually impaired people have many difficulties when traveling because it is impossible for them to detect obstacles that stand in their way. Bats instead of using the sight to detect these obstacles use a method based on ultrasounds, as their sense of hearing is much more developed than that of sight. The aim of the project is to design and build a device based on the method used by the bats to detect obstacles and transmit this information to people with vision problems to improve their skills. The method involves sending ultrasonic waves and analyzing the echoes produced when these waves collide with an obstacle. The sent signals are pulses and the information needed is the time elapsed from we send a pulse to receive the echo produced. The speed of sound is fixed within the same environment, so measuring the time it takes the wave to make the return trip, we can easily know the distance where the object is located. To build the device we have to design the necessary circuits, fabricate printed circuit boards and mount the components. We also have to design a program that would work within the digital part, which will be responsible for performing distance calculations and generate the signals with the information for the user. The circuits are the emitter and the receiver. The transmitter circuit is responsible for generating the signals that we will use. We use an ultrasonic transmitter which operates at 40 kHz so the sent pulses have to be modulated with this frequency. For this we generate a 40 kHz wave with an astable multivibrator formed by NAND gates and a train of pulses with a timer. The signal is the product of these two signals. The circuit of the receiver is a signal conditioner which transforms the signals received by the ultrasonic receiver in square pulses. The received signals have a 40 kHz carrier, low voltage and very different shapes. In the signal conditioner we will amplify the voltage to appropriate levels, eliminate the component of 40 kHz and make the shape of the pulses square to use them digitally. To simplify the design and manufacturing process in the digital part of the device we will use the Arduino platform. The pulses sent and received echoes enter through input pins with suitable voltage levels. In the Arduino, our program will poll these two signals storing the time when a pulse occurs. These time values are analyzed and used to generate an audible signal with the user information. This information is stored in the frequency of the signal, so that the generated signal frequency varies depending on the distance at which the objects are. RESUMEN Las personas con discapacidad visual tienen muchas dificultades a la hora de desplazarse ya que les es imposible poder detectar los obstáculos que se interpongan en su camino. Los murciélagos en vez de usar la vista para detectar estos obstáculos utilizan un método basado en ultrasonidos, ya que su sentido del oído está mucho más desarrollado que el de la vista. El objetivo del proyecto es diseñar y construir un dispositivo basado en el método usado por los murciélagos para detectar obstáculos y que pueda ser usado por las personas con problemas en la vista para mejorar sus capacidades. El método utilizado consiste en enviar ondas de ultrasonidos y analizar el eco producido cuando estas ondas chocan con algún obstáculo. Las señales enviadas tendrán forma de pulsos y la información necesaria es el tiempo transcurrido entre que enviamos un pulso y recibimos el eco producido. La velocidad del sonido es fija dentro de un mismo entorno, por lo que midiendo el tiempo que tarda la onda en hacer el viaje de ida y vuelta podemos fácilmente conocer la distancia a la que se encuentra el objeto. Para construir el dispositivo tendremos que diseñar los circuitos necesarios, fabricar las placas de circuito impreso y montar los componentes. También deberemos diseñar el programa que funcionara dentro de la parte digital, que será el encargado de realizar los cálculos de la distancia y de generar las señales con la información para el usuario. Los circuitos diseñados corresponden uno al emisor y otro al receptor. El circuito emisor es el encargado de generar las señales que vamos a emitir. Vamos a usar un emisor de ultrasonidos que funciona a 40 kHz por lo que los pulsos que enviemos van a tener que estar modulados con esta frecuencia. Para ello generamos una onda de 40 kHz mediante un multivibrador aestable formado por puertas NAND y un tren de pulsos con un timer. La señal enviada es el producto de estas dos señales. El circuito de la parte del receptor es un acondicionador de señal que transforma las señales recibidas por el receptor de ultrasonidos en pulsos cuadrados. Las señales recibidas tienen una portadora de 40 kHz para poder usarlas con el receptor de ultrasonidos, bajo voltaje y formas muy diversas. En el acondicionador de señal amplificaremos el voltaje a niveles adecuados además de eliminar la componente de 40 kHz y conseguir pulsos cuadrados que podamos usar de forma digital. Para simplificar el proceso de diseño y fabricación en la parte digital del dispositivo usaremos la plataforma Arduino. Las señales correspondientes el envío de los pulsos y a la recepción de los ecos entraran por pines de entrada después de haber adaptado los niveles de voltaje. En el Arduino, nuestro programa sondeara estas dos señales almacenando el tiempo en el que se produce un pulso. Estos valores de tiempo se analizan y se usan para generar una señal audible con la información para el usuario. Esta información ira almacenada en la frecuencia de la señal, por lo que la señal generada variará su frecuencia en función de la distancia a la que se encuentren los objetos.

Sistema de guía para personas invidentes a través de bluetooth

El planteamiento inicial era proveer al individuo invidente de un sistema autónomo capaz de guiarle según sus preferencias. El resultado obtenido al finalizar este proyecto ha sido un dispositivo autónomo configurable por el usuario mediante una aplicación sw , desarrollada en la plataforma móvil Android capaz de comunicarse con el dispositivo autónomo(móvil personal). La idea de utilizar como plataforma de desarrollo sw Android, se basó fundamentalmente en que es código open source, es gratuito y está presente en el 70 por ciento de los móviles de Europa. La idea inicial era que ambos hubieran sido integrados en un mismo dispositivo, pero una vez comenzado el proyecto y habiendo evaluado los hábitos actuales, decidimos adaptar la idea general del proyecto, a nuestros días. Para ello hicimos uso del dispositivo móvil más usado hoy en día, como es nuestros teléfonos móviles, o más bien los llamado Smartphone, con los cuales podemos desde su aplicación originaria que es llamar, hasta realizar multitud de operaciones al mismo tiempo como puede ser comunicación por internet, posicionamiento via GPS, intercambio de ficheros por bluetooth… tantas como podamos programar. Sobre este último atributo, intercambio de información a través de bluetooth, es la interfaz que vamos a aprovechar para la realización de nuestro proyecto. Hoy en día el 90% de los Smartphone tiene entre sus características de conectividad la posibilidad de intercambiar información vía bluetooth. Una vez se tiene resuelto el interfaz entre el medio y el usuario se debe solucionar la forma de transformar la información para que los dispositivos móviles recojan la información y sepan discernir entre la información importante y la que no lo es. Para ello hemos desarrollado una tarjeta configurable, con un módulo bluetooth comercial para enviar la información. El resultado final de esta tarjeta proporciona una manera fácil de configurar diferentes mensajes que serán utilizados según la situación. ABSTRACT The initial approach consisted of a system that shows the way for blind people to get somewhere or something or provide to them important information, an autonomous system able to guide to their preference. After several analyses the project accomplish is a standalone device configurable by the user via an application sw, developed in Android mobile platform capable of communicating with the standalone device (personal cell phone). The decision of using the sw development platform of Android was due to the open source code concept and the great extent of presence on 70 percent of European mobiles. The first idea was that the sw and the device were integrated into a single device, but once the project had been started and having assessed the current habits, it has changed to be adapted to the present technology to get a better usability on the present-day. To achieve the project goals the most used mobile device today was used, our mobile phones, or rather called Smartphone, which you could use to phone your mother or perform many operations simultaneously such as communication online, positioning via GPS, bluetooth file trading program, etc. On this last attribute, information sharing via bluetooth, is the interface that it has been taken to complete the project. Today 90% of the Smartphone include in its connectivity features the ability to exchange information via bluetooth. Once that it was solved the interface between the environment and the final user, the next step incorporates the transformation of the information that the mobile devices collect from the environment to discern between the information the user configure to be notified or not. The hardware device that makes it possible is a configurable card with a bluetooth module that is able to send the information. The final result of this card provides an easy way to configure different messages, that we could use depending of the situation.

System supporting public transport based on geolocation

El propósito de este proyecto de fin de Grado es el estudio y desarrollo de una aplicación basada en Android que proporcionará soporte y atención a los servicios de transporte público existentes en Cracovia, Polonia. La principal funcionalidad del sistema será consultar la posición de un determinado autobús o tranvía y mostrar su ubicación con exactitud. Para lograr esto, necesitaremos tres fases de desarrollo. En primer lugar, deberemos implementar un sistema que obtenga las coordenadas geográficas de los vehículos de transporte público en cada instante. A continuación, tendremos que registrar todos estos datos y almacenarlos en una base de datos en un servidor web. Por último, desarrollaremos un sistema cliente que realice consultas a tiempo real sobre estos datos almacenados, obteniendo la posición para una línea determinada y mostrando su ubicación con un marcador en el mapa. Para hacer el seguimiento de los vehículos, sería necesario tener acceso a una API pública que nos proporcionase la posición registrada por los GPS que integran cada uno de ellos. Como esta API no existe actualmente para los servicios de autobús, y para los tranvías es de uso meramente privado, desarrollaremos una segunda aplicación en Android que hará las funciones del lado servidor. En ella podremos elegir mediante una simple interfaz el número de línea y un código específico que identificará a cada vehículo en particular (e.g. podemos tener 6 tranvías recorriendo la red al mismo tiempo para la línea 24). Esta aplicación obtendrá las coordenadas geográficas del teléfono móvil, lo cual incluye latitud, longitud y orientación a través del proveedor GPS. De este modo, podremos realizar una simulación de como el sistema funcionará a tiempo real utilizando la aplicación servidora desde dentro de un tranvía o autobús y, al mismo tiempo, utilizando la aplicación cliente haciendo peticiones para mostrar la información de dicho tranvía. El cliente, además, podrá consultar la ruta de cualquier línea sin necesidad de tener acceso a Internet. Almacenaremos las rutas y paradas de cada línea en la memoria del teléfono móvil utilizando ficheros XML debido al poco espacio que ocupan y a lo útil que resulta poder consultar un trayecto en cualquier momento, independientemente del acceso a la red. El usuario también podrá consultar las tablas de horarios oficiales para cada línea. Aunque en este caso si será necesaria una conexión a Internet debido a que se realizará a través de la web oficial de MPK. Para almacenar todas las coordenadas de cada vehículo en cada instante necesitaremos crear una base de datos en un servidor. Esto se resolverá mediante el uso de MYSQL y PHP. Se enviarán peticiones de tipo GET y POST a los servicios PHP que se encargarán de traducir y realizar la consulta correspondiente a la base de datos MYSQL. Por último, gracias a todos los datos recogidos relativos a la posición de los vehículos de transporte público, podremos realizar algunas tareas de análisis. Comparando la hora exacta a la que los vehículos pasaron por cada parada y la hora a la que deberían haber pasado según los horarios oficiales, podremos descubrir fallos en estos. Seremos capaces de determinar si es un error puntual debido a factores externos (atascos, averías,…) o si por el contrario, es algo que ocurre muy a menudo y se debería corregir el horario oficial. ABSTRACT The aim of this final Project (for University) is to develop an Android application thatwill provide support and feedback to the public transport services in Krakow. The main functionality of the system will be to track the position of a desired bus or tram line, and display its position on the map. To achieve this, we will need 3 stages: the first one will be to implement a system that sends the geographical position of the public transport vehicles, the second one will be to collect this data in a web server, and the last one will be to get the last location registered for the desired line and display it on the map. For tracking the vehicles, we would need to have access to a public API that should be connected with each bus/tram GPS. As this doesn’t exist in Krakow or at least is not available for public use, we will develop a second android application that will do the server side job. We will be able to choose in a simple interface the line number and a code letter to identify each vehicle (e.g. we can have 6 trams that belong to the line number 24 working at the same time). It will take the current mobile geolocation; this includes getting latitude, longitude and bearing from the GPS provider. Thus, we will be able to make a simulation of how the system works in real time by using the server app inside a tram and at the same time, using the client app and making requests to display the information of that tram. The client will also be able to check the path of the desired line without internet access. We will store the path and stops for each line locally in the phone memory using xml files due to the few requirements of available space it needs and the usefulness of checking a path when needed. This app will also offer the functionality of checking the timetable for the line, but in this case, it will link to the official Mpk website, so Internet access will be required. For storing all the coordinates for each vehicle at every moment we will need to create a database on a server. We have decided that the easiest way is to use Mysql and PHP for the deployment of the service. We will send GET and POST requests to the php files and those files will make the according queries to our database. Finally, based on all the collected data, we will be able to get some information about errors in the system of public transport timetables. We will check at what time a line was in each specific stop and compare it with the official timetable to find mistakes of time. We will determine if it is something that happens occasionally and related to external factors (e.g. traffic jams, breakdowns…) or if on the other hand, it is something that happens very often and the public transport timetables should be looked over and corrected.

Sistema de telemetría para un vehículo de fórmula S.A.E.

En este proyecto, se ha desarrollado una aplicación electrónica para un coche de competición, en concreto para la fórmula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers), una competición universitaria en la que cada equipo, formado por estudiantes, debe diseñar, construir y probar un prototipo basándose en una serie de reglas. El objetivo final de la competición es proporcionar a los estudiantes el conocimiento práctico necesario para su futura labor profesional, del cual se pensaba que los estudiantes adolecían al acabar sus estudios universitarios cuando se creó esta competición. La aplicación desarrollada en este proyecto consiste en un sistema de telemetría, utilizado para transmitir los datos proporcionados por los sensores del vehículo a través de un sistema de radiofrecuencia, de manera que se pueda estudiar el comportamiento del coche durante los ensayos a la vez que el coche está rodando y así no depender de un sistema de adquisición de datos del que había que descargarse la información una vez finalizada la sesión de ensayo, como había que hacer hasta el momento. Para la implementación del proyecto, se ha utilizado un kit de desarrollo (Xbee Pro 868) que incluye dos módulos de radio, dos placas de desarrollo, dos cables USB y una antena, el cual ha permitido desarrollar la parte de radio del proyecto. Para transmitir los datos proporcionados por la centralita del vehículo, la cual recoge la información de todos los sensores presentes en el vehículo, se han desarrollado dos placas de circuito impreso. La primera de ellas tiene como elemento principal un microprocesador PIC de la marca Microchip (PIC24HJ64GP502), que recoge los datos proporcionados por la centralita del vehículo a través de su bus CAN de comunicaciones. La segunda placa de circuito impreso tiene como elemento fundamental el transmisor de radio. Dicho transmisor está conectado al microprocesador de la otra placa a través de línea serie. Como receptor de radio se ha utilizado una de las placas de prueba que integraba el kit de desarrollo Xbee Pro 868, la cual recoge los datos que han sido enviados vía radio y los manda a su vez a través de USB a un ordenador donde son monitorizados. Hasta aquí la parte hardware del sistema. En cuanto a la parte software, ha habido que desarrollar una aplicación en lenguaje C, que ejecuta el microprocesador PIC, que se encarga de recoger los datos enviados por la centralita a través del bus CAN (Controller Area Network) y transmitirlos a través de línea serie al chip de radio. Por último, para la monitorización de los datos se han desarrollado dos aplicaciones en LabVIEW, una que recoge los datos a través de USB, los muestra en pantalla y los guarda en un fichero y otra que lee los datos del fichero y los representa gráficamente para permitir un estudio más detallado del comportamiento del vehículo. ABSTRACT In this project, an electronic application has been developed for a race car – Formula SAE car-. Formula SAE is a university championship in which each team, made up of students, should design, construct and test a prototype within certain rules. The final goal of the competition is to enhance the practical knowledge of the students, which was thougth to be poor at the time the competition was created. The application developed in this project consists of a telemetry system, employed to transmit the data provided by the car’s sensors through a radio frequency system, so that it could be possible to study the behaviour of the vehicle during tests and do not depend on a datalogger system as it occurred until now. To carry out the radio module of the project, a Xbee Pro 868 development kit has been used, which includes two radio modules, two development boards, two USB cables and an antenna. To transmit the data provided by the ECU (Engine Control Unit) of the vehicle, which receives information from all the sensors the vehicle has, two printed circuit boards have been built. One of them has a PIC microprocessor of Microchip (PIC24HJ64GP502) which receives the data coming from CAN bus of the ECU. Tha main element of the other printed circuit board is the radio transmitter. This chip receives the data from the microprocessor through its serial line. The development board of the Xbee Pro 868 has been used as receiver. When data arrives to the receiver, it transmits them to a computer through USB where the data are displayed. All this composes the hardware of the system. Regarding the software, a C coded application has been developed. This application is executed by the microprocessor and its function is to receive the data from the bus CAN (Controller Area Network) and send them to the radio transmitter through the microprocessor’s serial line. To show the data on the computer, two LabVIEW applications has been developed. The first one receives the data through the USB port, displays them on the screen and save them to a file and the second one reads the data from the file while represents them graphically to allow studying the behaviour of the car on track.

Federating queries in SPARQL 1.1: syntax, semantics and evaluation

Given the sustained growth that we are experiencing in the number of SPARQL endpoints available, the need to be able to send federated SPARQL queries across these has also grown. To address this use case, the W3C SPARQL working group is defining a federation extension for SPARQL 1.1 which allows for combining graph patterns that can be evaluated over several endpoints within a single query. In this paper, we describe the syntax of that extension and formalize its semantics. Additionally, we describe how a query evaluation system can be implemented for that federation extension, describing some static optimization techniques and reusing a query engine used for data-intensive science, so as to deal with large amounts of intermediate and final results. Finally we carry out a series of experiments that show that our optimizations speed up the federated query evaluation process.