Firm-customer mobile digital connectedness : conceptualization, measurement and implications

Firm-customer digital connectedness for effective sensing and responding is a strategic imperative for contemporary competitive firms. This research-in-progress paper conceptualizes and operationalizes the firm-customer mobile digital connectedness of a smart-mobile customer. The empirical investigation focuses on mobile app users and the impact of mobile apps on customer expectations. Based on pilot data collected from 127 customers, we tested hypotheses pertaining to firm-customer mobile digital connectedness and customer expectations. Our test analysis using linear and non-linear postulations reveals those customers raise their expectations as they increase their digital interactions with a firm.

Design guidelines for a mobile app for wellbeing of emerging adults

Mental health of young people may be improved through the use of mental health mobile applications,because young people engage with this technology freely. Mental health of young people is improved through the application of positive psychology, studies of which show that regular practice of one’s signature strength increases happiness and wellbeing, while decreasing depression. The issue is how to develop a mobile application intervention so that regular practice of one’s signature strength in novel ways occurs. This research project seeks to develop design guidelines discovered through the application of design thinking, actively working with emerging adults. In addition, this research is framed by the Design Science Research methodology to ensure that the resultant application is relevant and tested rigorously. This paper discusses the theory behind the application and discusses the research methods and research design, and will share the preliminary findings of the discovered design principles.

Global reconfiguration of a team of networked mobile robots among obstacles

This paper presents a full system demonstration of dynamic sensorbased reconfiguration of a networked robot team. Robots sense obstacles in their environment locally and dynamically adapt their global geometric configuration to conform to an abstract goal shape. We present a novel two-layer planning and control algorithm for team reconfiguration that is decentralised and assumes local (neighbour-to-neighbour) communication only. The approach is designed to be resource-efficient and we show experiments using a team of nine mobile robots with modest computation, communication, and sensing. The robots use acoustic beacons for localisation and can sense obstacles in their local neighbourhood using IR sensors. Our results demonstrate globally-specified reconfiguration from local information in a real robot network, and highlight limitations of standard mesh networks in implementing decentralised algorithms.

Enhanced fast handover triggering mechanism for fast proxy mobile IPv6

Handover performance is critical to support real-time traffic applications in wireless network communications. The longer the handover delay is, the longer an Mobile Node (MN) is prevented from sending and receiving any data packet. In real-time network communication applications, such as VoIP and video-conference, a long handover delay is often unacceptable. In order to achieve better handover performance, Fast Proxy Mobile IPv6 (FPMIPv6) has been standardised as an improvement to the original Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The FPMIPv6 adopts a link layer triggering mechanism to perform two modes of operation: predictive and reactive modes. Using the link layer triggering, the handover performance of the FPMIPv6 can be improved in the predictive mode. However, an unsuccessful predictive handover operation will lead to activation of a reactive handover. In the reactive mode, MNs still experience long handover delays and a large amount of packet loss, which significantly degrade the handover performance of the FPMIPv6. Addressing this problem, this thesis presents an Enhanced Triggering Mechanism (ETM) in the FPMIPv6 to form an enhanced FPMIPv6 (eFPMIPv6). The ETM reduces the most time consuming processes in the reactive handover: the failed Handover Initiate (HO-Initiate) delay and bidirectional tunnel establishment delay. Consequently, the overall handover performance of the FPMIPv6 is enhanced in the eFPMIPv6. To show the advantages of the proposed eFPMIPv6, a theoretical analysis is carried out to mathematically model the performance of PMIPv6, FPMIPv6 and eFPMIPv6. Extensive case studies are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the presented eFPMIPv6 mechanism. They are carried out under various scenarios with changes in network link delay, traffic load, number of hops and MN moving velocity. The case studies show that the proposed mechanism ETM reduces the reactive handover delay, and the presented eFPMIPv6 outperforms the PMIPv6 and FPMIPv6 in terms of the overall handover performance.

Beyond Wearables : Experiences and Trends in Design of Portable Medical Devices

The use of Portable Medical Devices (PMDs) has become increasingly widespread over the last few years. A combination of factors; including advances in technology, the pressure to reduce public health costs and the desire to make health solutions accessible to a wider patient base are contributing to the growth in the PMD market. Design has a clear role to play in the current and future context of the PMD landscape. In this paper, we identify emerging trends in the design of PMDs; including changes in the form, purpose and mode of use, and explore how these trends are likely to fundamentally impact the nature of healthcare and the patient experience from an experience design perspective. We conclude by identifying a research opportunity for design within the healthcare and PMD context.

An adaptive appearance-based map for long-term topological localization of mobile robots

"This work considers a mobile service robot which uses an appearance-based representation of its workplace as a map, where the current view and the map are used to estimate the current position in the environment. Due to the nature of real-world environments such as houses and offices, where the appearance keeps changing, the internal representation may become out of date after some time. To solve this problem the robot needs to be able to adapt its internal representation continually to the changes in the environment. This paper presents a method for creating an adaptive map for long-term appearance-based localization of a mobile robot using long-term and short-term memory concepts, with omni-directional vision as the external sensor."--publisher website

Toward an object-based semantic memory for long-term operation of mobile service robots

Throughout a lifetime of operation, a mobile service robot needs to acquire, store and update its knowledge of a working environment. This includes the ability to identify and track objects in different places, as well as using this information for interaction with humans. This paper introduces a long-term updating mechanism, inspired by the modal model of human memory, to enable a mobile robot to maintain its knowledge of a changing environment. The memory model is integrated with a hybrid map that represents the global topology and local geometry of the environment, as well as the respective 3D location of objects. We aim to enable the robot to use this knowledge to help humans by suggesting the most likely locations of specific objects in its map. An experiment using omni-directional vision demonstrates the ability to track the movements of several objects in a dynamic environment over an extended period of time.

Recent progress in fluorescent blue light-emitting materials

Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), as an emerging technology for display and solid state lighting application, have many advantages including self-emission, lightweight, flexibility, low driving voltage, low power consumption, and low production cost. With the advancement of light emitting materials development and device architecture optimization, mobile phones and televisions based on OLED technology are already in the market. However, to obtain efficient, stable and pure blue emission than producing lower-energy colors is still one of the important subjects of these challenges. Full color and pure white light can be achieved only having stable blue emitting materials. To address this issue, significant effort has been devoted to develop novel blue light emitting materials in the past decade aiming at further improving device efficiency, color quality of emission light, and device lifetime. This review focuses on recent efforts of synthesis and device performance of small molecules, oligomers and polymers for blue emission of organic electroluminescent devices.

A study of the effects metal residues in poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) have on field-effect transistor device characteristics

The amount of metal residues from organometallic reagents used in preparation of poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) by palladium catalysed Suzuki and nickel-induced Yamamoto polycondensations have been determined, and their effect upon the behaviour of the polymer in field-effect transistors (FETs) has been measured. The metal levels from material polymerised by Suzuki method were found to be much higher than from that made by the Yamamoto procedure. Simple treatment of the polymers with suitable metal trapping reagents lowered the metal levels significantly, with EDTA giving best results for nickel and triphenylphosphine for palladium. Comparison of the behaviour of FETs using polyfluorenes with varying levels of metal contamination, showed that the metal residues have little effect upon the mobility values, but often affect the degree of hysteresis, possibly acting as charge traps. Satisfactory device performances were obtained from polymer with palladium levels of 2000 μg/g suggesting that complete removal of metal residues may not be necessary for satisfactory device performance.

Nanoscale phase domain structure and associated device performance of organic solar cells based on a diketopyrrolopyrrole polymer

We investigate the blend morphology and performance of bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaic devices comprising the donor polymer, pDPP-TNT (poly{3,6-dithiophene-2-yl-2,5-di(2-octyldodecyl)-pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1, 4-dione-alt-naphthalene}) and the fullerene acceptor, [70]PCBM ([6,6]-phenyl C71-butyric acid methyl ester). The blend morphology is heavily dependent upon the solvent system used in the fabrication of thin films. Thin films spin-coated from chloroform possess a cobblestone-like morphology, consisting of thick, round-shaped [70]PCBM-rich mounds separated by thin polymer-rich valleys. The size of the [70]PCBM domains is found to depend on the overall film thickness. Thin films spin-coated from a chloroform:dichlorobenzene mixed solvent system are smooth and consist of a network of pDPP-TNT nanofibers embedded in a [70]PCBM-rich matrix. Rinsing the films in hexane selectively removes [70]PCBM and allows for analysis of domain size and purity. It also provides a means for investigating exciton dissociation efficiency through relative photoluminescence yield measurements. Devices fabricated from chloroform solutions show much poorer performance than the devices fabricated from the mixed solvent system; this disparity in performance is seen to be more pronounced with increasing film thickness. The primary cause for the improved performance of devices fabricated from mixed solvents is attributed to the greater donor-acceptor interfacial area and resulting greater capacity for charge carrier generation.

Nonvolatile multilevel data storage memory device from controlled ambipolar charge trapping mechanism

The capability of storing multi-bit information is one of the most important challenges in memory technologies. An ambipolar polymer which intrinsically has the ability to transport electrons and holes as a semiconducting layer provides an opportunity for the charge trapping layer to trap both electrons and holes efficiently. Here, we achieved large memory window and distinct multilevel data storage by utilizing the phenomena of ambipolar charge trapping mechanism. As fabricated flexible memory devices display five well-defined data levels with good endurance and retention properties showing potential application in printed electronics.

Secondary user relations in emerging mobile computing environments

Mobile technologies are enabling access to information in diverse environ.ments, and are exposing a wider group of individuals to said technology. Therefore, this paper proposes that a wider view of user relations than is usually considered in information systems research is required. Specifically, we examine the potential effects of emerging mobile technologies on end-­‐user relations with a focus on the ‘secondary user’, those who are not intended to interact directly with the technology but are intended consumers of the technology’s output. For illustration, we draw on a study of a U.K. regional Fire and Rescue Service and deconstruct mobile technology use at Fire Service incidents. Our findings provide insights, which suggest that, because of the nature of mobile technologies and their context of use, secondary user relations in such emerging mobile environments are important and need further exploration.

Food talks back : Exploring the role of mobile applications in reducing domestic food wastage

Mitigating domestic food waste reduces its environmental and economic impacts. In our study, we have identified the use of mobile technology to support behaviour change as a key tool to assist the process of reducing food waste. This paper reports on three mobile applications designed to reduce domestic food waste: Fridge Pal, LeftoverSwap and EatChaFood. The paper examines how each app can influence consumer knowledge of domestic food supply, location, and literacy. We discuss our findings with respect to three considerations: (i) assisting with the user’s food supply and location knowledge; (ii) improving the user’s food literacy; (iii) facilitating social food sharing of excess food. We present new insights for mobile interventions that encourage changes towards more sustainable behaviours to reduce food waste.

The impact of mobile phone distraction on the braking behaviour of young drivers : a hazard-based duration model

Braking is a crucial driving task with a direct relationship with crash risk, as both excess and inadequate braking can lead to collisions. The objective of this study was to compare the braking profile of young drivers distracted by mobile phone conversations to non-distracted braking. In particular, the braking behaviour of drivers in response to a pedestrian entering a zebra crossing was examined using the CARRS-Q Advanced Driving Simulator. Thirty-two licensed drivers drove the simulator in three phone conditions: baseline (no phone conversation), hands-free, and handheld. In addition to driving the simulator, each participant completed questionnaires related to driver demographics, driving history, usage of mobile phones while driving, and general mobile phone usage history. The drivers were 18–26 years old and split evenly by gender. A linear mixed model analysis of braking profiles along the roadway before the pedestrian crossing revealed comparatively increased decelerations among distracted drivers, particularly during the initial 20 kph of deceleration. Drivers’ initial 20 kph deceleration time was modelled using a parametric accelerated failure time (AFT) hazard-based duration model with a Weibull distribution with clustered heterogeneity to account for the repeated measures experiment design. Factors found to significantly influence the braking task included vehicle dynamics variables like initial speed and maximum deceleration, phone condition, and driver-specific variables such as licence type, crash involvement history, and self-reported experience of using a mobile phone whilst driving. Distracted drivers on average appear to reduce the speed of their vehicle faster and more abruptly than non-distracted drivers, exhibiting excess braking comparatively and revealing perhaps risk compensation. The braking appears to be more aggressive for distracted drivers with provisional licenses compared to drivers with open licenses. Abrupt or excessive braking by distracted drivers might pose significant safety concerns to following vehicles in a traffic stream.

Street reads - Creating mobile walking events

By 2012 mobile devices had become the main interface for people to access information about anything from their current GPS position to the latest book reviews. What was less accessible were tools and techniques for writers to leverage this new technology to construct and distribute located stories. This project began with a series of master classes for local Brisbane writers to demonstrate processes and techniques for imagining, constructing and distributing stories. Most significantly, this project equipped writers with how to identify and adopt various mobile services and applications to research, produce and deliver packaged multi-modal content for readers to access and experience stories in the very locations from which they were inspired. Four stories by four writers were selected to be developed and published as location-based events in four different neighbourhoods across Brisbane. These writers were mentored throughout the writing process and a model was developed for them to simply upload several multi-modal chapters for access on location by readers using QR codes. These activities culminated in a major 25 day event presented by Brisbane City Council and supported by Brisbane Writers Festival and Queensland Writers Centre. The 'Street Reads' event presented the four stories on location in Cannon Hill, Darra, Toowong and West End. The significance of the Street Reads project went beyond extending the capacity for writers to access mobile technologies as a new platform for distributing stories. This event also motivated readers to travel to neighbourhoods to experience them in ways that had not previously imagined possible. These located stories were fictionalisations of actual events and characters that have current and historic importance to these places. These histories are hidden from view and yet can provide locals and visitors with a new found appreciation for the past and set an example for how neighbourhoods can become active stages for the sharing of stories inspiring a deeper connection with each other and an agency for participating in the development of the identity of the local places they inhabit together. Due to the success of the project and by employing more advanced tools now available, Street reads has been further developed by Brisbane City Council and is now available as a the Story City App available for download at itunes.