Human-centred methods for design of mobile social technologies : a case study of agile ridesharing

Social contexts are possible information sources that can foster connections between mobile application users, but they are also minefields of privacy concerns and have great potential for misinterpretation. This research establishes a framework for guiding the design of context-aware mobile social applications from a socio-technical perspective. Agile ridesharing was chosen as the test domain for the research because its success relies upon effectively connecting people through mobile technologies.

A taxonomy of computation offloading in mobile cloud computing

The ability of cloud computing to provide almost unlimited storage, backup and recovery, and quick deployment contributes to its widespread attention and implementation. Cloud computing has also become an attractive choice for mobile users as well. Due to limited features of mobile devices such as power scarcity and inability to cater computationintensive tasks, selected computation needs to be outsourced to the resourceful cloud servers. However, there are many challenges which need to be addressed in computation offloading for mobile cloud computing such as communication cost, connectivity maintenance and incurred latency. This paper presents taxonomy of the computation offloading approaches which aim to address the challenges. The taxonomy provides guidelines to identify research scopes in computation offloading for mobile cloud computing. We also outline directions and anticipated trends for future research.

From prototype to exploitation : mobile services for patients with chronic lower back pain

Many research and development projects that are carried out by firms and research institutes are technology-oriented. There is a large gap between research results, for instance in the form of prototypes, and the actual service offerings to customers. This becomes problematic when an organization wants to bring the results from such a project to the market, which will be particularly troublesome when the research results do not readily fit traditional offerings, roles and capabilities in the industry, nor the financial arrangements. In this chapter, we discuss the design of a business model for a mobile health service, starting with a research prototype that was developed for patients with chronic lower back pain, using the STOF model and method. In a number of design sessions, an initial business model was developed that identifies critical design issues that play a role in moving from prototype toward market deployment. The business model serves as a starting-point to identify and commit relevant stakeholders, and to draw up a business plan and case. This chapter is structured as follows. We begin by discussing the need for mobile health business models. Next, the research and development project on mobile health and the prototype for chronic lower back pain patients are introduced, after which the approach used to develop the business model is described, followed by a discussion of the developed mobile health business model for each of the STOF domains. We conclude with a discussion regarding the lessons that were learned with respect to the development of a business model on the basis of a prototype.

A sparse hybrid map for vision-guided mobile robots

This paper introduces a minimalistic approach to produce a visual hybrid map of a mobile robot’s working environment. The proposed system uses omnidirectional images along with odometry information to build an initial dense posegraph map. Then a two level hybrid map is extracted from the dense graph. The hybrid map consists of global and local levels. The global level contains a sparse topological map extracted from the initial graph using a dual clustering approach. The local level contains a spherical view stored at each node of the global level. The spherical views provide both an appearance signature for the nodes, which the robot uses to localize itself in the environment, and heading information when the robot uses the map for visual navigation. In order to show the usefulness of the map, an experiment was conducted where the map was used for multiple visual navigation tasks inside an office workplace.

Formal analysis of card-based payment systems in mobile devices

To provide card holder authentication while they are conducting an electronic transaction using mobile devices, VISA and MasterCard independently proposed two electronic payment protocols: Visa 3D Secure and MasterCard Secure Code. The protocols use pre-registered passwords to provide card holder authentication and Secure Socket Layer/ Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) for data confidentiality over wired networks and Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS) between a wireless device and a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) gateway. The paper presents our analysis of security properties in the proposed protocols using formal method tools: Casper and FDR2. We also highlight issues concerning payment security in the proposed protocols.

Achieving superior SME performance : overarching role of marketing, innovation, and learning capabilities

While most studies examine the effect of marketing, innovation, and learning capabilities (often separately) on performance, this study develops a unified model to investigate the combined effect of these capabilities on performance. This study further examines the complementary effect of these capabilities on performance. This study draws on the resource-based view theory to examine 171 manufacturing SMEs. The findings suggest that marketing, innovation, and learning capabilities are positively related to SME performance. In addition, these capabilities interact with one another to create great synergy in achieving SME performance.

The role of intellectual resources, product innovation capability, reputational resources and marketing capability combinations in SME growth

This article examines the extent to which combinations of intellectual resources and product innovation capability, and reputational resources and marketing capability, influence the ability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) to meet or exceed performance goals. Empirical results drawn from 171 SMEs suggest that when the combination of intellectual resources and product innovation capability in addition to the combination of reputational resources and marketing capability are high, SME growth is enhanced. However, a high level of intellectual resources combined with a low level of product innovation capability as well as a combination of a high level of reputational resources with a low level of marketing capability (and vice versa) are not significantly related to growth. These results imply that a high level of resources cannot compensate for a low level of capabilities (and vice versa).

Understanding service firms brand value creation : a multilevel perspective including the overarching role of service brand marketing capability

Purpose This study seeks to extend the existing literature on value creation by specifically focusing on service brand value creation (SBVC) and the role of brand marketing. Design/methodology/approach The authors first develop a model of SBVC and simultaneously investigate SBVC from the firm perspective (service brand value offering – SBVO) and from the customer perspective (service brand perceive value-in use – SBPVI). Subsequently, they investigate the effects of SBVO on SBPVI and integrate the moderation role of service brand marketing capability (SBMC) on the relationship between SBVO-SBPVI outcomes. SBVO is viewed as the firms' interpretation of and responsiveness to customer requirements via the delivery of superior performance the value offering through the service brand and SBPVI customers' perceived value from the firms' service brand. The contributions of SBVC to customer-based performance outcomes are then investigated. Hypotheses were tested using a sample of the senior managers of service firms in Cambodia and their customers. A survey was used to gather data via a drop-and-collect approach. Findings Results indicated that SBVO is positively related to SBPVI and SBPVI is positively related to customer-based performance. Noticeably, the results revealed that SBMC enhances the positive relationship between the firm SBVO and the customers SBPVI. Originality/value The paper extends the previous literature on value creation to capture SBVC. More significantly, the premise of the theoretical framework provides a breakthrough in the current SBVC literature which has so far neglected to take into account the dyadic approach (firm-customer) in understanding value creation and more specifically SBVC. The model is expanded by looking at the contingency role of SBMC in communicating value to customers.

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.

An investigation approach to test protection intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) in IEC 61850 based substation automation systems (SAS) at station level

This thesis has developed a new approach to trace virtual protection signals in Electrical substation networks. The main goal of the research was to analyse the contents of the virtual signals transferred, using third party software. In doing so, a comprehensive test was done on a distance protection relay, using non-conventional test equipment.

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.

The role of customer gratitude in making relationship marketing investments successful

This paper recognises that customer loyalty is important for many competitive organisations, and that retail firms make investments to build and maintain loyal relationships with their existing and potential customers (e.g. loyalty programs). However, there has been little focus on the mechanisms by which these relationship investments operate to achieve customer loyalty. This paper examines one mechanism, namely customer gratitude, which works to make a firm’s relationship marketing investment a success or a failure. Using data from 1600 undergraduate students, this study empirically confirms the mediating role of customer gratitude between the customers’ perceptions a firm’s relationship marketing investments and customers’ perceptions of the value of the relationship with the firm. Further, a significant moderating effect of perceived benevolence on the relationship between customers’ perceptions a firm’s relationship marketing investments and customer gratitude was identified. For theorists, this customer gratitude model offers a better psychological explanation of how relationship marketing investments operate to improve the value that customers place on their relationships with retailers. Our research suggests that managers should invest resources to stimulate customer gratitude in order to build strong customer–seller relationships.

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