Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing

— It is no surprise that the notion of situation is key to situation awareness. The development of the discipline can thus benefit from careful analysis of the notion. In this paper, we approach this by proposing an ontology of situations and scenes. The main contribution of this ontology is that it accounts for how situations progress in time changing qualitatively, constituting what we call scenes. The ontology is built by reusing basic elements from the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO). It addresses objects, occurrences, and their formal relations to situations and scenes. We use the theory of embodiment proposed by the philosopher Kit Fine to explicate how scenes and situations form wholes constituted of parts.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the e-commerce credibility factors affecting the perception of
users in Saudi Arabia and, moreover, to investigate whether the variation of credibility factors in Saudi
Arabian e-commerce websites influence users' performance. Website credibility, which refers to the
believability of the website and its content, plays an important role in consumers’ successful online
shopping experience and satisfaction. This investigation is conducted by employing two credibility
evaluation methods: heuristic evaluation and performance measurement. This study adopts Fogg's 10
Stanford credibility guidelines as a starting point for the heuristic evaluation. In the performance
measurement method, two measurements are used: the amount of time needed to finish the task and the
total number of clicks taken to finish the task. A frequency analysis of the comments and a one-way ANOVA
test are used to establish the results. Three e-commerce websites in Saudi Arabia are selected. The findings
show that Fogg’s 10 Stanford credibility guidelines can be implemented in the Saudi Arabian e-commerce
context with minor modifications and expansions by adding reputation, endorsement, security, and service
diversity guidelines. Another important finding is that professional website design plays a vital role in
users' first impression of websites, while usability is the most important credibility factor investigated used
to evaluate the credulity of an e-commerce website. Lastly, the results of this study indicate a relationship
between the e-commerce credibility level and users’ performance. This paper contributes to the literature
by providing a set of credibility guidelines associated with specific criteria, which can be assessed to
improve the future of e-commerce in Saudi Arabia.

Vilém Flusser introduces a Kulturrevolution produced by computers and by the universe of technical images, leading to a re-conceptualization of society and identity, thus producing a complex theory of the media. According to Flusser, communication always depends on the media and upon each medium’s own logic and ways of transmitting information. By changing the structure of the media, information also changes, and at the same time, the reality we experience. Flusser describes this communicational revolution starting from the proliferation of images into multi-visual information. The collapse of texts and the hegemony of images, according to Flusser, led to a revolution of technical images, which no longer refer to an existing world, but to the concepts that we make. Technical images are born to rebuild guidance and a re-conquest of sense perception. The screen becomes the place, the skin in which the philosophy of feeling is currently developing. Through this new mirror-device (the screen), we have an aesthetic touch-screen that redefines our gestures. While McLuhan communicates, Flusser “envisions,” and Roy Ascott produces visions. Technologies and miniaturization invade the body inside and outside, thus bringing the digital world into the physical one, within and around us: ubiquitously. The new situation, beyond contemporary communication, is producing a new type of media: moist media. This advancing, post-digital mutations, imply a variable reality while our space-time dimension becomes an exciting constellation of Flusser's flows and movements.

Overview of ongoing research in the CISA group (WISE research lab) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. The group is investigating cross-media information spaces and architectures, interactive paper and augmented reality solutions as well as multimodal and multi-touch interaction frameworks. Thereby, we are doing research on new document formats for representing information across different types of media as well as fluid user interfaces for interacting with the resulting cross-media information spaces. A significant part of our research is based on applying and extending the resource-selector-link (RSL) hypermedia metamodel.

More information: https://beatsigner.com/cross-media-information-spaces-and-architectures.html

With the emergence of smart TVs, set-top boxes and public information screens over the last few years, there is an increasing demand to no longer use these appliances only for passive output. These devices can also be used to do text-based web search as well as other tasks which require some form of text input. However, the design of text entry interfaces for efficient input on such appliances represents a major challenge. With current virtual keyboard solutions we only achieve an average text input rate of 5.79 words per minute (WPM) while the average typing speed on a traditional keyboard is 38 WPM. Furthermore, so-called controller-free appliances such as Samsung's Smart TV or Microsoft's Xbox Kinect result in even lower average text input rates. We present SpeeG2, a multimodal text entry solution combining speech recognition with gesture-based error correction. Four innovative prototypes for the efficient controller-free text entry have been developed and evaluated. A quantitative evaluation of our SpeeG2 text entry solution revealed that the best of our four prototypes achieves an average input rate of 21.04 WPM (without errors), outperforming current state-of-the-art solutions for controller-free text input.

A video about the system can be found at: https://www.academia.edu/11590838/SpeeG2

Designing low power sensor networks has been the general goal of design engineers, scientist and end users. It is desired to have a wireless sensor network (WSN) that will run on little power (if possible, none at all) thereby saving cost, and the inconveniences of having to replace batteries in some difficult to access areas of usage. Previous researches on WSN energy models have focused less on the aggregate transceiver energy consumption models as compared to studies on other components of the node, hence a large portion of energy in a WSN still get depleted through data transmission. By studying the energy consumption map of the transceiver of a WSN node in different states and within state transitions, we propose in this paper the energy consumption model of the transceiver unit of a typical sensor node and the transceiver design parameters that significantly influences this energy consumption. The contribution of this paper is an innovative energy consumption model based on simple finite automata which reveals the relationship between the aggregate energy consumption and important power parameters that characterize the energy consumption map of the transceiver in a WSN; an ideal tool to design low power WSN.

In this paper, we describe the process of using user needs, collected through case communities, to design concepts that link print products and digital services. One of the example cases was an online community, while the other was a traditional off-line community. Users often, perhaps subconsciously, know the strengths of print and web and use the media suitable for their needs accordingly. With a user-centered design approach, it's possible to create new and enticing hybrid media products for user communities with very different backgrounds.

The AIRCC's International Journal of Computer Science and Engineering Survey (IJCSES) is devoted to fields of Computer Science and Engineering surveys, tutorials and overviews. The IJCSES is a peer-reviewed, open access scientific journal published in electronic form as well as print form. The journal will publish research surveys, tutorials and expository overviews in computer science and engineering. Articles from supplementary fields are welcome, as long as they are relevant to computer science and engineering.

The BOHR International Journal of Smart Computing and Information Technology (BIJSCIT) is an open access peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles which contribute new results in all the areas of Smart Computing and Information Technology. Authors are solicited to contribute to the journal by submitting articles that illustrate research results, projects, surveying works and industrial experiences that describe significant advances in this area.

The BOHR International Journal of Smart Computing and Information Technology (BIJSCIT) is an open access peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles which contribute new results in all the areas of Smart Computing and Information Technology. Authors are solicited to contribute to the journal by submitting articles that illustrate research results, projects, surveying works and industrial experiences that describe significant advances in this area.

International Journal of Ad hoc, sensor & Ubiquitous Computing (IJASUC) is a bi monthly open access peerreviewed journal provides excellent international forum for sharing knowledge and results in theory, methodology and applications of Ad Hoc & Ubiquitous computing. Current information age is witnessing a dramatic use of digital and electronic devices in the workplace and beyond. Ubiquitous Computing presents a rather arduous requirement of robustness, reliability and availability to the end user. Ad hoc, Sensor & Ubiquitous computing has received a significant and sustained research interest in terms of designing and deploying large scale and high performance computational applications in real life.

This paper formalizes an approach to the Internet of Things as a socio-technical system of systems and a part of the infosphere. It introduces a principle-based, human-centered approach to designing Internet of Things artifacts as elements of contextual cross-channel ecosystems. It connects the Internet of Things to the conceptualization of cross-channel ecosystems from current information architecture theory and practice, positing that the Internet of Things is both a formal, objective superset of any given ecosystem and a contextual, subjective subset of specifically instantiated ecosystems. The paper argues for the necessity of a transdisciplinary theoretical framework to promote a human-centered generative understanding of the Internet of Things phenomena and their consequences, in accordance with the Metamodel Methodology (M3). It proposes a phenomenology-grounded information architecture model detailing a set of 16 principles and secondary heuristics grouped according to an ar...

This paper presents a discussion of work combining paper maps with electronic information on handheld devices for use in a mobile context. We consider the benefits of paper, electronic media, and mixing the two in relation to the domain of group navigation. A prototype design is described that attempts to utilize these benefits toward providing a lightweight, ad hoc group navigation support system. Of particular interest is the extent to which an augmented paper map can be used as a shared display, to enhance communication and awareness of the activities of group members while navigating together.

This paper mainly focuses on estimating the relatedness and similarities between any two Wikipedia [1] articles. This paper describes various ways of determining the similarities. We hypothesize that by using some kind of properties of the Wikipedia articles, which can be internal or external, we can estimate the relatedness between Wikipedia articles. Each article is believed to have some kinds of internal properties and some external properties. Internal properties are those which are embedded inside the articles. It can be, for instance, have something to do with the content and text of the articles. External properties are those which are deduced or inferred from the articles. It can be, for example, the topic of the articles or even the closest distance between the two articles when plotted in a graph or in a category hierarchy. External properties include the properties associated with individual articles like topics (as mentioned), categories of the articles. Other techniques which are relevant when comparing the Wikipedia articles are cosine similarity, Jaccard similarity measure etc.

Developments in pervasive computing introduced a new world of computing where networked processors embedded and distributed in everyday objects communicating with each other over wireless links. Computers in such environments work in the background while establishing connections among them
dynamically and hence will be less visible and intrusive. Such a vision raises questions about how to manage issues like privacy, trust and identity in those environments. In this paper, we review the technical challenges that face pervasive computing environments in relation to each of these issues. We then present a number of security related considerations and use them as a basis for comparison between pervasive and
traditional computing. We will argue that these considerations pose particular concerns and challenges to the design and implementation of pervasive environments which are different to those usually found in traditional computing environments. To address these concerns and challenges, further research is needed. We will present a number of directions and topics for possible future research with respect to each of the three issues.

Smartphone notifications are often delivered without considering user interruptibility, potentially causing frustration for the recipient. Therefore research in this area has concerned finding contexts where interruptions are better received. The typical convention for monitoring interruption behaviour assumes binary actions, where a response is either completed or not at all. However, in reality a user may partially respond to an interruption, such as reacting to an audible alert or exploring which application caused it. Consequently we present a multi-step model of interruptibility that allows assessment of both partial and complete notification responses. Through a 6-month in-the-wild case study of 11,346 to-do list reminders from 93 users, we find support for reducing false-negative classification of interruptibility. Additionally, we find that different response behaviour is correlated with different contexts and that these behaviours are predictable with similar accuracy to complete responses.

Ubiquitous (or Pervasive) Computing is a new domain in Computer Science resulting from the emergence and evolution of both distributed systems and mobile computing. Technology is moving beyond the personal computer towards a growing trend of embedded microprocessors in everyday objects and is demanding an unobtrusive connectivity between them in order to serve users at anytime and anywhere. The main objective of a ubiquitous computing system is to provide adaptive services proactively, without explicit user intervention and according to the user's current context. Despite interesting previous research works, there is still a lack of software tools and related research in terms of comprehensive context modeling, architecture of context-aware ubiquitous systems, and dynamic adaptation approaches in ubiquitous service computing environments. This chapter proposes a conceptual architecture to provide dynamic adaptability in ubiquitous services based on context-awareness and user preferences. As part of this proposal, the authors detail an ontology-based context modeling approach, a multi-agent architecture to support the development of ubiquitous computing applications, and a case-based reasoning method for service adaptation.

This work is motivated by two important trends in consumer computing: (i) the growing pervasiveness of mobile computing devices, and (ii) the users' desire for increasingly complex but readily acquired and manipulated information content. Specifically, we develop and describe a system for 3D model creation of an object, using only a standard mobile device such as a smart phone. Our approach applies the structured light projection methodology and exploits multiple image input such as frames from a video sequence. In comparison with previous work, a significant further challenge addressed here is that of lower quality input data and limited hardware (processing power and memory, camera and projector quality). Novelties include: (i) a comparison of projection pattern detection approaches in the context of a mobile environment - a robust method combining colour detection and a phase congruency descriptor is proposed, (ii) a model for single view reconstruction which exploits epipolar, coplanarity and topological constraints, (iii) the use of mobile device sensor data in the iterative closest point algorithm used to register multiple partial 3D reconstructions, and (iv) two heuristics for determining the order in which buffered single view based reconstructions are merged. Our experiments demonstrate that visually appealing results are obtained in a speedy manner which does not require specialist knowledge or expertise from the user.

This paper formalizes an approach to the Internet of Things as a socio-technical system of systems and a part of the infosphere. It introduces a principle-based, human-centered approach to designing Internet of Things artifacts as elements of contextual cross-channel ecosystems. It connects the Internet of Things to the conceptualization of cross-channel ecosystems from current information architecture theory and practice, positing that the Internet of Things is both a formal, objective superset of any given ecosystem and a contextual, subjective subset of specifically instantiated ecosystems. The paper argues for the necessity of a transdisciplinary theoretical framework to promote a human-centered generative understanding of the Internet of Things phenomena and their consequences, in accordance with the Metamodel Methodology (M3). It proposes a phenomenologygrounded information architecture model detailing a set of 16 principles and secondary heuristics grouped according to an architectural perspective, which identifies guidelines that support the design of Internet of Things artifacts considering their objective characteristics; a human perspective, which identifies guidelines that support the design of Internet of Things artifacts considering subject/ object relationships and the production of meaning; and a systemic perspective, which identifies guidelines that support the design of Internet of Things artifacts as relational parts of information-based ecosystems. These principles and guidelines are meant to provide the foundations for a practice-based approach to designing the Internet of Things-enabled information ecosystems.

The BOHR International Journal of Smart Computing and Information Technology (BIJSCIT) is an open access peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles which contribute new results in all the areas of Smart Computing and Information Technology. Authors are solicited to contribute to the journal by submitting articles that illustrate research results, projects, surveying works and industrial experiences that describe significant advances in this area.

Location Based Service (LBS) application help people in finding places or point of interest. However, spatial information in LBS is presented as a map in a small mobile device screen which makes the user difficult to understand and to find the location they need. It is possible that user might have disorientation in finding the place although they are presented with correct map. ARAFEPs (Augmented Reality Assistant to Finding Preferred Dining Place) is an Augmented Reality application to support its user to find the nearest and preferred dining place such as restaurant, fast food and food court. It is developed using Layar AR as platform. It presents the user with spatial information in a way that user could aware and understand the places surround them. Additional and relevant information that are presented in AR aids users to decide which dining place fits the needs of the user.

While popular digital maps support an unprecedented number of use cases, new reference map customization tools have been created for purposes for which those maps fall short. With the goal of informing the design of this new class of cartographic tools, we present the first study of naturalistic (" bespoke ") map customization behavior. Through a mixed methods and mixed-media approach involving a survey, the analysis of a corpus of customized maps, and an interview with a power user, we find that bespoke map customization is a relatively common activity and identify frequent use cases as well as map customization strategies. We discuss these use cases and strategies in detail, and propose design implications for future customization tools, such as the use of templates for common use cases, adaptability for various customization styles and the support of multimedia interaction.