Vertical handover based adaptions for multimedia applications in pervasive systems

This paper proposes an architecture for pervasive computing which utilizes context information to provide adaptations based on vertical handovers (handovers between heterogeneous networks) while supporting application Quality of Service (QoS). The future of mobile computing will see an increase in ubiquitous network connectivity which allows users to roam freely between heterogeneous networks. One of the requirements for pervasive computing is to adapt computing applications or their environment if current applications can no longer be provided with the requested QoS. One of possible adaptations is a vertical handover to a different network. Vertical handover operations include changing network interfaces on a single device or changes between different devices. Such handovers should be performed with minimal user distraction and minimal violation of communication QoS for user applications. The solution utilises context information regarding user devices, user location, application requirements, and network environment. The paper shows how vertical handover adaptations are incorporated into the whole infrastructure of a pervasive system

Superstring: A scalable service discovery protocol for the wide-area pervasive environment

Arguably, the world has become one large pervasive computing environment. Our planet is growing a digital skin of a wide array of sensors, hand-held computers, mobile phones, laptops, web services and publicly accessible web-cams. Often, these devices and services are deployed in groups, forming small communities of interacting devices. Service discovery protocols allow processes executing on each device to discover services offered by other devices within the community. These communities can be linked together to form a wide-area pervasive environment, allowing processes in one p u p tu interact with services in another. However, the costs of communication and the protocols by which this communication is mediated in the wide-area differ from those of intra-group, or local-area, communication. Communication is an expensive operation for small, battery powered devices, but it is less expensive for servem and workstations, which have a constant power supply and 81'e connected to high bandwidth networks. This paper introduces Superstring, a peer to-peer service discovery protocol optimised fur use in the wide-area. Its goals are to minimise computation and memory overhead in the face of large numbers of resources. It achieves this memory and computation scalability by distributing the storage cost of service descriptions and the computation cost of queries over multiple resolvers.

Vertical handovers as adaption methods in pervasive systems

Pervasive systems need to be context aware and need to adapt to context changes, including network disconnections and changes in network Quality of Service (QoS). Vertical handover (handover between heterogeneous networks) is one of possible adaptation methods. It allows users to roam freely between heterogeneous networks while maintaining continuity of their applications. This paper proposes a vertical handover approach suitable for multimedia applications in pervasive systems. It describes the adaptability decision making process which uses vertical handovers to support users mobility and provision of QoS suitable for users’ applications. The process evaluates context information regarding user devices, User location, network environment, and user perceived QoS of applications.

Alternating offer games and private rulings of the Australian Tax Office

The concept of submitting oneself to a voluntary negotiation is by no means new to big business. Formal bargaining has been quite successful over the years in providing the venue for agents to explore a more logical and mathematical approach to bargaining. However in more recent times external influences have been applied to agents who provide better deals for favored executives. This external influence has displayed itself in taxtion negotiations to the extent that tax office agents have been dismissed for irresponsible conduct. We explore this specific type of negotiation using an alternating offer bargaining game to model the particular influences, which create unfair rulings in negotiations. By the constraints of this systematic mathematical approach to negotiation, we will explore the advantages of a more formal game theoretic approach. In this presentation we will also elaborate on finding Nash Equilibrium in alternating offer games.

Active node supporting context-aware vertical handover in pervasive computing environment with redundant positioning

A major requirement for pervasive systems is to integrate context-awareness to support heterogeneous networks and device technologies and at the same time support application adaptations to suit user activities. However, current infrastructures for pervasive systems are based on centralized architectures which are focused on context support for service adaptations in response to changes in the computing environment or user mobility. In this paper, we propose a hierarchical architecture based on active nodes, which maximizes the computational capabilities of various nodes within the pervasive computing environment, while efficiently gathering and evaluating context information from the user's working environment. The migratable active node architecture employs various decision making processes for evaluating a rich set of context information in order to dynamically allocate active nodes in the working environment, perform application adaptations and predict user mobility. The active node also utilizes the Redundant Positioning System to accurately manage user's mobility. This paper demonstrates the active node capabilities through context-aware vertical handover applications.

Da fantasia à realidade, da realidade à fantasia: aspectos culturais, históricos e mercadológicos das campanhas publicitárias de games

A pesquisa tem como objetivo geral compreender como as empresas fabricantes de consoles de videogames da última geração (Sony, Microsoft e Nintendo) utilizam a publicidade para atingir os consumidores. O corpus de análise e interpretação delimita-se em oito peças publicitárias audiovisuais e o período de análise é de 2010 a 2011. As estratégicas metodológicas utilizadas são: quanto aos dados de pesquisa, o estudo é essencialmente qualitativo; em relação aos objetivos, a pesquisa é exploratória; quanto às fontes para obtenção de dados, a pesquisa é bibliográfica e empírica, sendo a fase empírica dividida em observação não-participante, descrição dos anúncios de games e análise de conteúdo audiovisual. Após as análises, demonstrou-se que, apesar de os games estarem na vida cotidiana e serem sonho de consumo de muitas pessoas, sua divulgação ainda é restrita a um número limitado de jogadores. Observa-se que, nas campanhas analisadas como um conjunto, há uma preocupação maior com o público adulto, o que não ocorria há cinco anos, na geração anterior de consoles. Apesar disso, os consoles ainda não são enxergados com todas as suas potencialidades tecnológicas e culturais.