Development of Java based RFID application programmable interface for heterogeneous RFID system

Developing RFID based applications is a painstakingly difficult endeavor. The difficulties include non-standard software and hardware peripherals from vendors, interoperability problems between different operating systems as well as lack of expertise in terms of low-level programming for RFID (i.e. steep learning curve). In order to address these difficulties, a reusable RFIDTM API (RFID Tracking & Monitoring Application Programmable Interface) for heterogeneous RFID system has been designed and implemented. The API has been successfully employed in a number of application prototypes including tracking of inventories as well as human/object tracking and tagging. Here, the module has been tested on a number of different types and configuration of active and passive readers including that LF and UHF Readers.     

Intelligent Fril/SQL interrogator

The intelligent Fril/SQL interrogator is an object‐oriented and knowledge‐based support query system, which is implemented by the set of logic objects linking one another. These logic objects integrate SQL query, support logic programming language—Fril and Fril query together by processing them in sequence in slots of each logic object. This approach therefore takes advantage of both object‐oriented system and a logic programming‐based system. Fuzzy logic data mining and a machine learning tool kit built in the intelligent interrogator can automatically provide a knowledge base or rules to assist a human to analyze huge data sets or create intelligent controllers. Alternatively, users can write or edit the knowledge base or rules according to their requirements, so that the intelligent interrogator is also a support logic programming environment where users can write and run various Fril programs through these logic objects. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 22: 279–302, 2007.     

What a smartphone is to me: understanding user values in using smartphones

The objective of this study is twofold. First, it aims to investigate the various values users achieve with smartphones, which is a form of user‐empowering information technology (IT). The other objective is to introduce a means‐end chain approach into IT‐user studies. An important attraction of smartphones is their personalized environment, which is mainly provided by varied applications. The user personalization ability implies that users achieve diverse benefits with smartphones; that is, users decide what a smartphone is to them rather than adopt a given product. Thus, investigating what values users pursue with a smartphone (i.e. a value‐oriented approach) will give insights into understanding the users. To investigate user values in using smartphones, we conducted a laddering interview with 54 smartphone users and analyzed the data by using a means‐end chain approach to understand consumers' hierarchical value structure. This study contributes to value‐oriented research on user‐empowering IT by revelling how users benefit from smartphones. Furthermore, the study advances value‐oriented research by showing what users actually do with smartphones, from concrete activities to abstract values. In addition, a means‐end chain approach introduced in the study can be another angle for the investigation of user adoption of technology, in that it can describe IT use contexts and practices, which become an important object of analysis in the information systems research.     

A hybrid positioning system for technology‐independent location‐aware computing

Location‐aware computing is a form of context‐aware mobile computing that refers to the ability of providing users with services that depend on their position. Locating the user terminal, often called positioning, is essential in this form of computing. Towards this aim, several technologies exist, ranging from personal area networking, to indoor, outdoor, and up to geographic area systems. Developers of location‐aware software applications have to face with a number of design choices, that typically depend on the chosen technology. This work addresses the problem of easing the development of pull location‐aware applications, by allowing uniform access to multiple heterogeneous positioning systems. Towards this aim, the paper proposes an approach to structure location‐aware mobile computing systems in a way independent of positioning technologies. The approach consists in structuring the system into a layered architecture, that provides application developers with a standard Java Application Programming Interface (JSR‐179 API), and encapsulates location data management and technology‐specific positioning subsystems into lower layers with clear interfaces. In order to demonstrate the proposed approach we present the development of HyLocSys. It is an open hybrid software architecture designed to support indoor/outdoor applications, which allows the uniform (combined or separate) use of several positioning technologies. HyLocSys uses a hybrid data model, which allows the integration of different location information representations (using symbolic and geometric coordinates). Moreover, it allows support to handset‐ and infrastructure‐based positioning approaches while respecting the privacy of the user. The paper presents a prototypal implementation of HyLocSys for heterogeneous scenarios. It has been implemented and tested on several platforms and mobile devices. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Studying the effect of perceived hedonic mobile device quality on user experience evaluations of mobile applications

When people interact with digital artefacts they perceive their pragmatic and hedonic qualities. In the case of interacting with mobile devices and applications, users seek utility as they try to satisfy certain needs, but at the same time they have certain feelings and emotions when, for example, they feel attached to their personal phone and/or trust its brand. Due to this strong relation between users and mobile devices a significant problem occurs when researchers want to evaluate the user experience of a mobile application in laboratory settings: the selection of an appropriate mobile device. Towards this end, this paper aims to unveil the effect of perceived hedonic quality of a mobile device on the user experience evaluation results of an application. Our results show that the perceived hedonic quality of a mobile device significantly affected the perceived pragmatic quality of the application, but not the hedonic one.     

Component-based APIs for versioning and distributed applications

Operating system application programming interfaces (APIs) are typically monolithic procedural interfaces that address a single machine's requirements. This design limits evolutionary development and complicates application development for distributed systems. Current APIs tend to be large, rigid, and focus on a single host machine. Component-based APIs could solve these problems through strong versioning capabilities and support for distributed applications. Ideally, obsolete API calls should be deleted, and calls with modified semantics (but unmodified parameters and return values) would remain the same. However, since the OS must continue to support legacy applications, obsolete calls cannot be deleted, and new call semantics are best introduced through new calls. In addition, typical OS APIs do not adequately address the needs of distributed applications: they have support for intermachine communication but lack high-level support for accessing remote OS resources. The primary omission is a uniform method for naming remote resources, such as windows, files, and synchronization objects     

Assistive robot application based on an RFID control architecture and a wireless EOG interface

This paper describes an assistive robot application that combines a portable wireless interface based on electrooculography (EOG) and Radiofrequency Identification (RFID) technology. This assistive application is aimed at handicapped users who suffer from a severe motor disability. To that end, a realistic application has been designed. It consists of an environment in which users can bring a glass and a water bottle closer with only the help of their eye movement using a real robot arm. RFID will be used as a support to the EOG interface in a shared control architecture by storing information of the objects in tags placed on the scene. Five volunteers tested the assistive robot application. The results obtained show that all of them were able to finish the tests in a suitable time and the results improved with practice and training. This proves that the assistive robot application can be a feasible way to help handicapped users.     

Potluck: Data mash-up tool for casual users

As more and more reusable structured data appears on the Web, casual users will want to take into their own hands the task of mashing up data rather than wait for mash-up sites to be built that address exactly their individually unique needs. In this paper, we present Potluck, a Web user interface that let’s casual users—those without programming skills and data modeling expertise—mash up data themselves.Potluck is novel in its use of drag and drop for merging fields, its integration and extension of the faceted browsing paradigm for focusing on subsets of data to align, and its application of simultaneous editing for cleaning up data syntactically. Potluck also lets the user construct rich visualizations of data in-place as the user aligns and cleans up the data. This iterative process of integrating the data while constructing useful visualizations is desirable when the user is unfamiliar with the data at the beginning—a common case—and wishes to get immediate value out of the data without having to spend the overhead of completely and perfectly integrating the data first.A user study on Potluck indicated that it was usable and learnable, and elicited excitement from programmers who, even with their programming skills, previously had great difficulties performing data integration.     

Building model analysis applications with the Joint Universal Parameter IdenTification and Evaluation of Reliability (JUPITER) API

The open-source, public domain JUPITER (Joint Universal Parameter IdenTification and Evaluation of Reliability) API (Application Programming Interface) provides conventions and Fortran-90 modules to develop applications (computer programs) for analyzing process models. The input and output conventions allow application users to access various applications and the analysis methods they embody with a minimum of time and effort. Process models simulate, for example, physical, chemical, and (or) biological systems of interest using phenomenological, theoretical, or heuristic approaches. The types of model analyses supported by the JUPITER API include, but are not limited to, sensitivity analysis, data needs assessment, calibration, uncertainty analysis, model discrimination, and optimization. The advantages provided by the JUPITER API for users and programmers allow for rapid programming and testing of new ideas. Application-specific coding can be in languages other than the Fortran-90 of the API. This article briefly describes the capabilities and utility of the JUPITER API, lists existing applications, and uses UCODE_2005 as an example.     

Interactive 3D content insertion in images for multimedia applications

This article addresses the problem of creating interactive mixed reality applications where virtual objects interact in images of real world scenarios. This is relevant to create games and architectural or space planning applications that interact with visual elements in the images such as walls, floors and empty spaces. These scenarios are intended to be captured by the users with regular cameras or using previously taken photographs. Introducing virtual objects in photographs presents several challenges, such as pose estimation and the creation of a visually correct interaction between virtual objects and the boundaries of the scene. The two main research questions addressed in this article include, the study of the feasibility of creating interactive augmented reality (AR) applications where virtual objects interact in a real world scenario using the image detected high-level features and, also, verifying if untrained users are capable and motivated enough to perform AR initialization steps. The proposed system detects the scene automatically from an image with additional features obtained using basic annotations from the user. This operation is significantly simple to accommodate the needs of non-expert users. The system analyzes one or more photos captured by the user and detects high-level features such as vanishing points, floor and scene orientation. Using these features it will be possible to create mixed and augmented reality applications where the user interactively introduces virtual objects that blend with the picture in real time and respond to the physical environment. To validate the solution several system tests are described and compared using available external image datasets.     

Scientific computing with Java and C++: a case study using functional magnetic resonance neuroimages

Modern systems for the analysis of image‐based biomedical data, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), require fast computational techniques and rapid, robust development. Object‐oriented programming languages such as Java and C++ provide the foundations for the development of complex data analysis applications. This case study explores the advantages and disadvantages of using these two programming environments for scientific computation as typified in the analysis of fMRI datasets. C++ is well suited for computational and memory optimization while Java is more compliant to the object‐oriented paradigm, supports cross‐platform development and has a rich set of application programming interface (API) classes. The same data model and algorithms were implemented in C++ and Java, and a user interface was developed with the Java API. Comparisons were made with respect to computational performance and ease of development. Benchmarks show that C++ generally outperforms Java, while Java is easier to use, leading to more robust code and shorter development times. However, with the advent of newer just‐in‐time compilers, Java performance is at times comparable to C++. The latest Java virtual machine technology is closing the gap and eventually Java should be a good compromise between efficient algorithm performance and effective application development. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

End Users at the Bazaar: Designing Next-Generation Enterprise Resource Planning Systems

The "bazaar" metaphor has developed a lasting popularity in software engineering, especially as software architectures have evolved from monoliths to service orientation. Nevertheless, the metaphor is limited because it doesn't consider end users, those who develop software for themselves. Introducing such an end user, the "prosumer," to the bazaar not only suggests a changing division of work in software development but also calls for different functionality and architectural choices. The authors evaluated changing software architectures from an end-user development (EUD) perspective, taking the case of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as traditionally monolithically designed systems moving toward service orientation. On the basis of the study's findings, which indicated problems with the systems' technical flexibility, the authors developed a tool set for fostering EUD activities. Their new architecture for ERP systems enables end users to create their own solutions.     

基于位置-文本关系的空间对象top-k查询与排序方法

针对普通的空间关键字查询通常会导致多查询结果的问题。本文提出了一种基于空间对象位置-文本相关度的top- k 查询与排序方法,用于获取与给定空间关键字查询在文本上相关且位置上相近的典型空间对象。该方法分为离线处理和在线查询处理2个阶段。在离线阶段,根据空间对象之间的位置相近性和文本相似性,度量任意一对空间对象之间的位置-文本关系紧密度。在此基础上,提出了基于概率密度的代表性空间对象选取算法,根据空间对象之间的位置-文本关系为每个代表性空间对象构建相应的空间对象序列。在线查询处理阶段,对于一个给定的空间关键字查询,利用Cosine相似度评估方法计算查询条件与代表性空间对象之间的相关度,然后使用阈值算法（threshold algorithm,TA）在预先创建的空间对象序列上快速选出top- k 个满足查询需求的典型空间对象。实验结果表明:提出的空间对象top- k 查询与排序方法能够有效地满足用户查询需求,并且具有较高的准确性、典型性和执行效率。     

一种RFID系统中保护隐私安全的采集发布模型

射频识别RFID(Radio Frequency Identity)技术是一种非接触的自动识别技术,电子标签可以随身携带或者贴附在物体上,用户容易在不知不觉中被侵犯隐私。根据RFID系统中数据流的特点,提出了一种采集发布模型管理用户数据,允许用户定制数据偏好规则和数据请求规则,只有当两者匹配时,请求者才能授权获得数据。该模型具有开放性、可靠性和隐私安全等特点。     

A novel transparent user authentication approach for mobile applications

ABSTRACT

With the rapid growth of smartphones and tablets in our daily lives, securing the sensitive data stored upon them makes authentication of paramount importance. Current authentication approaches do not re-authenticate in order to re-validate the user’s identity after accessing a mobile phone. Accordingly, there is a security benefit if authentication can be applied continually and transparently (i.e., without obstructing the user’s activities) to authenticate legitimate users, which is maintained beyond the point of entry. To this end, this paper suggests a novel transparent user authentication method for mobile applications by applying biometric authentication on each service within a single application in a secure and usable manner based on the risk level. A study involving data collected from 76 users over a one-month period using 12 mobile applications was undertaken to examine the proposed approach. The experimental results show that this approach achieved desirable outcomes for applying a transparent authentication system at an intra-process level, with an average of 6% intrusive authentication requests. Interestingly, when the participants were divided into three levels of usage (high, medium and low), the average intrusive authentication request was 3% which indicates a clear enhancement and suggests that the system would add a further level of security without imposing significant inconvenience upon the user.