A study on dynamic state information (DSI) around users for safe urban life

To select each node by devices and by contexts in urban computing, users have to put their plan information and their requests into a computing environment (ex. PDA, Smart Devices, Laptops, etc.) in advance and they will try to keep the optimized states between users and the computing environment. However, because of bad contexts, users may get the wrong decision, so, one of the users’ demands may be requesting the good server which has higher security. To take this issue, we define the structure of Dynamic State Information (DSI) which takes a process about security including the relevant factors in sending/receiving contexts, which select the best during user movement with server quality and security states from DSI. Finally, whenever some information changes, users and devices get the notices including security factors, then an automatic reaction can be possible; therefore all users can safely use all devices in urban computing.

Coordination between mid-term maintenance outage decisions and short-term security-constrained scheduling in smart distribution systems

Distribution systems are the first volunteers experiencing the benefits of smart grids. The smart grid concept impacts the internal legislation and standards in grid-connected and isolated distribution systems. Demand side management, the main feature of smart grids, acquires clear meaning in low voltage distribution systems. In these networks, various coordination procedures are required between domestic, commercial and industrial consumers, producers and the system operator. Obviously, the technical basis for bidirectional communication is the prerequisite of developing such a coordination procedure. The main coordination is required when the operator tries to dispatch the producers according to their own preferences without neglecting its inherent responsibility. Maintenance decisions are first determined by generating companies, and then the operator has to check and probably modify them for final approval. In this paper the generation scheduling from the viewpoint of a distribution system operator (DSO) is formulated. The traditional task of the DSO is securing network reliability and quality. The effectiveness of the proposed method is assessed by applying it to a 6-bus and 9-bus distribution system.

Contexts-management strategy in considering the security in urban computing based on urban design

Urban Computing (UrC) provides users with the situation-proper information by considering context of users, devices, and social and physical environment in urban life. With social network services, UrC makes it possible for people with common interests to organize a virtual-society through exchange of context information among them. In these cases, people and personal devices are vulnerable to fake and misleading context information which is transferred from unauthorized and unauthenticated servers by attackers. So called smart devices which run automatically on some context events are more vulnerable if they are not prepared for attacks. In this paper, we illustrate some UrC service scenarios, and show important context information, possible threats, protection method, and secure context management for people.

Adaptation model for PCMAT – Mathematics collaborative learning platform

The aim of this paper is to present an adaptation model for an Adaptive Educational Hypermedia System, PCMAT. The adaptation of the application is based on progressive self-assessment (exercises, tasks, and so on) and applies the constructivist learning theory and the learning styles theory. Our objective is the creation of a better, more adequate adaptation model that takes into account the complexities of different users.

VirtualECare: group support in collaborative networks organizations for digital homecare

Collaborative Work plays an important role in today’s organizations, especially in areas where decisions must be made. However, any decision that involves a collective or group of decision makers is, by itself complex, but is becoming recurrent in recent years. In this work we present the VirtualECare project, an intelligent multi-agent system able to monitor, interact and serve its customers, which are, normally, in need of care services. In last year’s there has been a substantially increase on the number of people needed of intensive care, especially among the elderly, a phenomenon that is related to population ageing. However, this is becoming not exclusive of the elderly, as diseases like obesity, diabetes and blood pressure have been increasing among young adults. This is a new reality that needs to be dealt by the health sector, particularly by the public one. Given this scenarios, the importance of finding new and cost effective ways for health care delivery are of particular importance, especially when we believe they should not to be removed from their natural “habitat”. Following this line of thinking, the VirtualECare project will be presented, like similar ones that preceded it. Recently we have also assisted to a growing interest in combining the advances in information society - computing, telecommunications and presentation – in order to create Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS). Indeed, the new economy, along with increased competition in today’s complex business environments, takes the companies to seek complementarities in order to increase competitiveness and reduce risks. Under these scenarios, planning takes a major role in a company life. However, effective planning depends on the generation and analysis of ideas (innovative or not) and, as a result, the idea generation and management processes are crucial. Our objective is to apply the above presented GDSS to a new area. We believe that the use of GDSS in the healthcare arena will allow professionals to achieve better results in the analysis of one’s Electronically Clinical Profile (ECP). This achievement is vital, regarding the explosion of knowledge and skills, together with the need to use limited resources and get better results.

Nostalgia Studio. A game engine for creating collaborative multiplayer online graphic adventure games

No decorrer do projeto SELEAG foi desenvolvido um jogo de aventura gráfica educativo com o propósito de ensinar história, cultura e relações sociais aos alunos. Este jogo foi avaliado em contexto de sala de aula em diversos países, obtendo resultados positivos. No entanto, por motivos técnicos, alguns dos objetivos propostos pelo projeto não puderam ser devidamente explorados, como permitir que o jogo fosse extensível por outros educadores ou suportar a colaboração online entre os jogadores. Nomeadamente, as ferramentas utilizadas para desenvolver o jogo eram demasiado complicadas para serem utilizadas fora da equipa de desenvolvimento, o que limitou a extensibilidade do projeto, e tornou impossível que educadores sem conhecimentos de programação fossem também capazes de traduzir os seus conteúdos educativos para este formato. Além disso, apesar do jogo possuir algumas funcionalidades de colaboração online, toda a interação era efetuada externamente ao jogo, através de um fórum de mensagens, o que demonstrou ser pouco motivante para os jogadores, pois muitos deles nem se aperceberam que havia uma componente de colaboração no jogo. O objetivo desta tese incide sobre estes dois problemas, e consistiu em desenvolver um editor e motor de jogo com uma interface simples de utilizar, que não necessita de conhecimentos prévios de programação, e que permite criar jogos de aventura gráfica com uma componente de colaboração online verdadeiramente embebida na jogabilidade. A aplicação desenvolvida foi testada por um conjunto de utilizadores de diversas áreas, tendo-se obtido resultados que demonstram a acessibilidade e simplicidade da mesma, independentemente do nível de experiência prévio de programação do utilizador. A componente de colaboração online foi também muito bem recebida pelos utilizadores, os quais demonstraram bastante interesse em ver jogos de aventura gráfica com componente de colaboração online serem desenvolvidos no futuro.

A study on security grade assignment model for mobile users in urban computing

The relation between the information/knowledge expression and the physical expression can be involved as one of items for an ambient intelligent computing [2],[3]. Moreover, because there are so many contexts around user/spaces during a user movement, all appplcation which are using AmI for users are based on the relation between user devices and environments. In these situations, it is possible that the AmI may output the wrong result from unreliable contexts by attackers. Recently, establishing a server have been utilizes, so finding secure contexts and make contexts of higher security level for save communication have been given importance. Attackers try to put their devices on the expected path of all users in order to obtain users informationillegally or they may try to broadcast their SPAMS to users. This paper is an extensionof [11] which studies the Security Grade Assignment Model (SGAM) to set Cyber-Society Organization (CSO).

Supporting conceptualisation processes in collaborative networks: a case study on an R&D project

The development of new products or processes involves the creation, re-creation and integration of conceptual models from the related scientific and technical domains. Particularly, in the context of collaborative networks of organisations (CNO) (e.g. a multi-partner, international project) such developments can be seriously hindered by conceptual misunderstandings and misalignments, resulting from participants with different backgrounds or organisational cultures, for example. The research described in this article addresses this problem by proposing a method and the tools to support the collaborative development of shared conceptualisations in the context of a collaborative network of organisations. The theoretical model is based on a socio-semantic perspective, while the method is inspired by the conceptual integration theory from the cognitive semantics field. The modelling environment is built upon a semantic wiki platform. The majority of the article is devoted to developing an informal ontology in the context of a European R&D project, studied using action research. The case study results validated the logical structure of the method and showed the utility of the method.

Demo: automatic personal identification system for security in critical services: a case study

The demonstration proposal moves from the capabilities of a wireless biometric badge [4], which integrates a localization and tracking service along with an automatic personal identification mechanism, to show how a full system architecture is devised to enable the control of physical accesses to restricted areas. The system leverages on the availability of a novel IEEE 802.15.4/Zigbee Cluster Tree network model, on enhanced security levels and on the respect of all the users' privacy issues.

Collaborative learning in a qeb-accessible workbench

Web-based course management and delivery is regarded by many institutions as a key factor in an increasingly competitive education and training world, but the systems currently available are largely unsatisfactory in terms of supporting collaborative work and access to practical science facilities. These limitations are less important in areas where “pen-and-paper” courseware is the mainstream, but become unacceptably restrictive when student assignments require real-time teamwork and access to laboratory equipment. This paper presents a web-accessible workbench for electronics design and test, which was developed in the scope of an European IST project entitled PEARL, with the aim of supporting two main features: full web access and collaborative learning facilities.

ErasmusApp: A Location-Based Collaborative System for Erasmus Students

This paper reports on the design and development of an Android-based context-aware system to support Erasmus students during their mobility in Porto. It enables: (i) guest users to create, rate and store personal points of interest (POI) in a private, local on board database; and (ii) authenticated users to upload and share POI as well as get and rate recommended POI from the shared central database. The system is a distributed client / server application. The server interacts with a central database that maintains the user profiles and the shared POI organized by category and rating. The Android GUI application works both as a standalone application and as a client module. In standalone mode, guest users have access to generic info, a map-based interface and a local database to store and retrieve personal POI. Upon successful authentication, users can, additionally, share POI as well as get and rate recommendations sorted by category, rating and distance-to-user.

Multilingual ontology specification: a collaborative approach

19-22 June 2012 Madrid, Spain

Processos Colaborativos e de Comunicação

Esta tese descreve um projeto desenvolvido na sua maioria durante o segundo semestre do ano letivo 2013/2014 nas instalações da Bosch Security Systems ST em Ovar, uma empresa do Grupo Bosch. Este projeto resultou de uma cooperação existente entre a Avans University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) e o Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), bem como entre a fábrica Bosch ST Ovar e o Centro de Desenvolvimento Bosch situado em Eindhoven, Holanda. O objetivo é o estudo dos processos colaborativos de comunicação que se realizam entre a R&D (Research and Development/Centro de Desenvolvimento) e a MP (Manufacturing Plant/Fábrica). O sucesso das organizações empresariais só é possível se se alcançar a satisfação das expectativas do mercado. Assim, para o sucesso de uma empresa, temos de ter em conta a sua eficiência para conseguir obter o máximo rendimento da sua missão, que só é possível através de comunicações e de processos produtivos/serviços que acrescentem valor ao bem que disponibilizam. Tendo sempre em vista este princípio, o Grupo Bosch tem vindo a adotar metodologias com o intuito de eliminar os desperdícios existentes nos seus negócios aumentando o máximo possível os seus rendimentos. O desafio foi encontrar problemas ou dificuldades que levam com que a comunicação não seja realizada eficazmente, o que origina, na maioria dos casos, atrasos nos projetos realizados nesta parceria. Com a orientação do diretor técnico da fábrica e observando o trabalho realizado por 2 MBI’s (Manufacturing Business Interface), iniciou-se a compreensão do meio e os métodos de trabalho da empresa, a forma como é que é feita a parceria com os centros de desenvolvimento, como também as responsabilidades e funções de cada um. O estudo desenvolvido teve como base a metodologia Soft Systems Methodology com envolvimento de um questionário submetido aos colaboradores Bosch, realizando-se no final as sugestões de melhoria. Este relatório apresenta assim o estudo dos processos colaborativos e de comunicação entre a fábrica e o centro de desenvolvimento.

An Enhanced WLAN Security System With FPGA Implementation for Multimedia Applications

Maintaining a high level of data security with a low impact on system performance is more challenging in wireless multimedia applications. Protocols that are used for wireless local area network (WLAN) security are known to significantly degrade performance. In this paper, we propose an enhanced security system for a WLAN. Our new design aims to decrease the processing delay and increase both the speed and throughput of the system, thereby making it more efficient for multimedia applications. Our design is based on the idea of offloading computationally intensive encryption and authentication services to the end systems’ CPUs. The security operations are performed by the hosts’ central processor (which is usually a powerful processor) before delivering the data to a wireless card (which usually has a low-performance processor). By adopting this design, we show that both the delay and the jitter are significantly reduced. At the access point, we improve the performance of network processing hardware for real-time cryptographic processing by using a specialized processor implemented with field-programmable gate array technology. Furthermore, we use enhanced techniques to implement the Counter (CTR) Mode with Cipher Block Chaining Message Authentication Code Protocol (CCMP) and the CTR protocol. Our experiments show that it requires timing in the range of 20–40 μs to perform data encryption and authentication on different end-host CPUs (e.g., Intel Core i5, i7, and AMD 6-Core) as compared with 10–50 ms when performed using the wireless card. Furthermore, when compared with the standard WiFi protected access II (WPA2), results show that our proposed security system improved the speed to up to 3.7 times.