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Showing papers presented at "International Conference on Innovations in Information Technology in 2011"


Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: This paper surveys various indoor positioning systems to explore the related challenges that exist in this area and evaluate some proposed solutions.
Abstract: Positioning objects has been an important topic since it is needed to locate people, guide them to a certain place, and assist companies and organizations with their assets management. Several systems and algorithms were proposed to solve the positioning problem and to enhance existing systems. In this paper, we survey various indoor positioning systems to explore the related challenges that exist in this area and evaluate some proposed solutions. We provide a categorization and classification of the current indoor positioning systems and identify some possible areas of enhancements

221 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: A current state of art literature in digital audio steganographic techniques is presented and their potentials and limitations to ensure secure communication are explored.
Abstract: Steganography has been proposed as a new alternative technique to enforce data security. Lately, novel and versatile audio steganographic methods have been proposed. A perfect audio Steganographic technique aim at embedding data in an imperceptible, robust and secure way and then extracting it by authorized people. Hence, up to date the main challenge in digital audio steganography is to obtain robust high capacity steganographic systems. Leaning towards designing a system that ensures high capacity or robustness and security of embedded data has led to great diversity in the existing steganographic techniques. In this paper, we present a current state of art literature in digital audio steganographic techniques. We explore their potentials and limitations to ensure secure communication. A comparison and an evaluation for the reviewed techniques is also presented in this paper.

94 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: An overview of the major localization techniques for WSNs is presented and the factors that need to be considered when selecting a localization technique are concentrated on.
Abstract: Localization of sensor nodes is an important aspect in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). This paper presents an overview of the major localization techniques for WSNs. These techniques are classified into centralized and distributed depending on where the computational effort is carried out. The paper concentrates on the factors that need to be considered when selecting a localization technique. The advantages and limitation of various techniques are also discussed. Finally, future research directions and challenges are highlighted.

80 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: In this study, decision tree method was used to predict patients with developing diabetes using the Pima Indians Diabetes Data Set, which collects the information of patients with and without developing diabetes.
Abstract: The discovery of knowledge from medical databases is important in order to make effective medical diagnosis. The aim of data mining is to extract knowledge from information stored in database and generate clear and understandable description of patterns. In this study, decision tree method was used to predict patients with developing diabetes. The dataset used is the Pima Indians Diabetes Data Set, which collects the information of patients with and without developing diabetes. The study goes through two phases. The first phase is data preprocessing including attribute identification and selection, handling missing values, and numerical discretization. The second phase is a diabetes prediction model construction using the decision tree method. Weka software was used throughout all the phases of this study.

78 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: A protocol for detecting wormhole attacks without use of any special harware such as directional antenna and precise synchronised clock is presented and the protocol is also independent of physical medium of wireless network.
Abstract: The lack of centralised infrastructure in ad hoc network makes it vulnerable to various attacks. MANET routing disrupts if participating node do not perform its intended function and start performing malicious activity. A specific attack called Wormmhole attack enables an attacker to record packets at one location in the network, tunnels them to another location, and retransmits them into the network. In this paper, we present a protocol for detecting wormhole attacks without use of any special harware such as directional antenna and precise synchronised clock and the protocol is also independent of physical medium of wireless network. After the route discovery, source node initiates wormhole detection process in the established path which counts hop difference between the neighbours of the one hop away nodes in the route. The destination node detects the wormhole if the hop difference between neighbours of the nodes exceeds the acceptable level. Our simulation results shows that the WHOP is quite excellent in detecting wormhole of large tunnel lengths

70 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: The paper investigates the effectiveness of the privacy mode feature in three widely used Web browsers, and outlines how to investigate when these browsers have been used to perform a criminal or illegal act.
Abstract: The paper investigates the effectiveness of the privacy mode feature in three widely used Web browsers, and outlines how to investigate when these browsers have been used to perform a criminal or illegal act. It performs an identical test on a privacy mode session for each of the three Web browsers and investigates whether traces are left behind. The analysis is done in three phases. First, common places where history and cache records are usually stored are examined. Then, other locations on the local machine are examined using special forensic tools. Also, the physical memory (RAM) is captured and examined for traces.

57 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: The WMSN applications are outlined, their challenges and resource constraints are discussed, and the proposed solutions by the research community to overcome challenges and constraints through architecture design and multimedia encoding paradigms are investigated.
Abstract: Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSN) have recently gained the attention of the research community due to their wide range of applications and the advancement of CMOS cameras. In this survey paper we outline the WMSN applications, discuss their challenges and resource constraints. In addition, this paper investigates the proposed solutions by the research community to overcome challenges and constraints through architecture design and multimedia encoding paradigms. Moreover, some of the deployed examples of WMSN done by different research groups are also discussed. In addition, we provide a detail discussion of the proposed optimization solutions and outline research areas of possible improvements.

47 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: Serving citizens through an integrated e-Health system requires an understanding of the behaviour of the population as well as the factors that influence their acceptance and usage of technology, such as technology design and sociocultural factors.
Abstract: Serving citizens through an integrated e-Health system requires an understanding of the behaviour of the population as well as the factors that influence their acceptance and usage of technology, such as technology design and sociocultural factors. This has been called e- Health acceptance.

33 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: Tests and comparisons show that the proposed technique for information hiding in vocalized Arabic text is superior in matter of capacity to any related published work.
Abstract: New promising technique for information hiding in vocalized Arabic text is proposed in this paper. This technique makes use of diacritics (vowel signs), which are optional to put, by showing or omitting them to hide bits. The technique is found to be very useful due to the considerable provided capacity, and because every possible diacritic in the cover text is used to hide bits. In this method, even excluded or omitted diacritics will be hiding bits. Tests and comparisons show that the proposed technique is superior in matter of capacity to any related published work.

27 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: This paper developed a privacy protected model to solve the cold start problem (in both cases user and item cold start), and suggested two types of recommendation (node recommendation and batch recommendation), and compared the suggested method with three other alternative methods.
Abstract: Recommendation systems become essential in web applications that provide mass services, and aim to suggest automatic items (services) of interest to users. The most popular used technique in such systems is the collaborative filtering (CF) technique, which suffer from some problems such as the cold-start problem, the privacy problem, the user identification problem, the scalability problem, etc. In this paper, we address the cold-start problem by giving recommendations to any new users who have no stored preferences, or recommending items that no user of the community has seen yet. While there have been lots of studies to solve the cold start problem, but it solved only item-cold start, or user-cold start, also provided solutions still suffer from the privacy problem. Therefore, we developed a privacy protected model to solve the cold start problem (in both cases user and item cold start). We suggested two types of recommendation (node recommendation and batch recommendation), and we compared the suggested method with three other alternative methods (Triadic Aspect Method, Naive Filterbots Method, and MediaScout Stereotype Method), and we used dataset collected from online web news to generate recommendations based on our method and based on the other alternative three methods. We calculated level of novelty, coverage, and precision. We found that our method achieved higher level of novelty in the batch recommendation whilst it achieved higher levels of coverage and precision in the node recommendations technique comparing to these three methods.

25 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: This paper is a survey of different revocation schemes developed for VANETs, a special class of Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks where nodes self-organize and self-manage information in a distributed fashion.
Abstract: VANET is short for Vehicular Ad hoc NETwork. Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs) are a special class of Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETs) where nodes self-organize and self-manage information in a distributed fashion. They consist of vehicles and/or roadside units that assist in the management of the network. A public key infrastructure (PKI) was widely adopted by recent research efforts as a solution to security problems. One part of a PKI solution is certificate revocation. Certificate revocation is one way to terminate the membership of a vehicle from the network. Revocation can also be conducted by the other vehicles participating in the network. This paper is a survey of different revocation schemes developed for VANETs. The purpose of the paper is to survey the literature, and provide an overview of the extent of the research done in the area of revocation in VANETs.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: A multilayer distributed multi-agent framework under the smart grid umbrella is proposed as a control structure to tackle technical challenges for distribution systems with high penetration of distributed generation.
Abstract: In this paper, a multilayer distributed multi-agent framework under the smart grid umbrella is proposed as a control structure to tackle technical challenges for distribution systems with high penetration of distributed generation. The proposed multi-agent control structure has been divided into three main layers. In the first layer, the functions of the local agents is defined according to the concept of intelligent agents and the characteristic of the individual DG and utility devices such as load tap changer, shunt capacitors and protection devices. Based on the concepts of microgrids, cells and virtual power plants, regional coordination agents are defined and chosen as a second layer. To achieve global objective(s), the distribution management system DMS is selected as the highest layer supervisor agent.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: A new video event detection system based on graphs is introduced which models the video frame as a graph in addition to a motion description and events are detected.
Abstract: Video processing and analysis have been an interesting field in research and industry. Information detection or retrieval were a challenged task especially with the spread of multimedia applications and the increased number of the video acquisition devices such as the surveillance cameras, phones cameras. These have produced a large amount of video data which are also diversified and complex. This is what makes event detection in video a difficult task. Many video event detection methods were developed which are composed of two fundamental parts: video indexing and video classification. In this paper, we will introduce a new video event detection system based on graphs. Our system models the video frame as a graph in addition to a motion description. Thereafter, these models were classified and events are detected. Experimental results proved the effectiveness and the robustness of our system.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: A primal framework is introduced that enables dynamic specification of SLAs, in addition to SLA-based verification and composition of services on the Cloud, to solve the challenges of cloud services composition.
Abstract: Cloud computing is becoming a key element in service provision on the Internet. Businesses are seizing the availability of infrastructure as service to obtain cost effective infrastructure solutions. However, in businesses the power of services emerges from the ability to combine different services in order to obtain some value added services. Cloud services composition presents some challenges like, service discovery and real time service evaluation; which are addressed in this paper by introducing a primal framework that enables dynamic specification of SLAs, in addition to SLA-based verification and composition of services on the Cloud. The verification is used as input to the composition and consists of verifying the functional and non-functional properties of the cloud service under test. An ongoing prototype implementation will evaluate the verification scheme and prove its importance in composing and selecting services on the cloud.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: A smart home computing platform architecture that extends smart home network to be compatible for smart grid integration and enables homeowners to operate, monitor and control their home appliances locally via a control panel and remotely via their mobile phones.
Abstract: This paper presents a smart home computing platform architecture that extends smart home network to be compatible for smart grid integration. The proposed hardware architecture along with a tailored software algorithm empowers utility companies and homeowners to communicate bi-directionally with home appliances via a public mobile network to monitor and manage power consumption of home appliances. The platform also enables homeowners to operate, monitor and control their home appliances locally via a control panel and remotely via their mobile phones.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: The work presented deals with the evaluation of these security methods in order to study and understand their “goodness” and suitability to protect the integrity of the digital evidence.
Abstract: The omnipresence of e-services running on various instances of pervasive e-infrastructures that are fundamental to the contemporary information society generates an abundance of digital evidence. The evidence in a digital form stems from a myriad of sources ranging from stand alone computers and their volatile and non-volatile storages, to mobile small scale digital devices, network traffic, ever-present applications comprising social networks, ISP records, logs, Web pages, databases and both global and local information systems. The acquisition and the analysis of this evidence is crucial to understanding and functioning of the digital world, regardless of the positive or negative implications of the actions and the activities that generated the evidence. In the case of the later, when the evidence comes from illegal, illicit and malicious activities, the protection of digital evidence is of major concern for the law enforcement and legal institutions, namely for investigators and prosecutors. To protect the integrity of the digital evidence, a number of security methods are used. These methods differ in terms of performance, accuracy, security levels, computational complexity, potential errors and the statistical admissibility of the produced results, as well as the vulnerabilities to accidental or malicious modifications. The work presented deals with the evaluation of these security methods in order to study and understand their “goodness” and suitability to protect the integrity of the digital evidence. The immediate outcome of the evaluation is a set of recommendations to be considered for selecting the right algorithm to protect integrity of the digital evidence in general.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: A cognitive radio network based localization scheme is considered in this paper that uses received signal strength (RSS) method to estimate the position and effective isotropic radiated powers of the transmitter source emitting this signal.
Abstract: The location awareness of the primary user is one of the essential features of cognitive radios. The Location information of the primary user in cognitive radio can be used to assist the communication among secondary users outside the transmission coverage area of primary users or to track the primary users. A cognitive radio network based localization scheme is considered in this paper uses received signal strength (RSS) method to estimate the position and effective isotropic radiated powers of the transmitter source emitting this signal. In our investigation the simulation result for RSS-based localization show the impacts of number of sampling, nodes, sigma variable in the shadowing channel model on mean square error for position estimation and average power estimation error were illustrated.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: This work proposes an efficient architecture to carry out thresholding in image processing, developed around QCA technology and provides significant improvement over the existing approach.
Abstract: Quantum-dot Cellular Automata(QCA), a promising alternative to CMOS technology, can provide a powerful and efficient computing platform for image processing which has heavy computational requirements. Image thresholding is one such image processing technique that plays a significant role in applications of image segmentation for its intuitive properties and simplicity. This work proposes an efficient architecture to carry out thresholding in image processing. It is developed around QCA technology and provides significant improvement over the existing approach.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: The paper describes the offloading and migration mechanisms as well as the implementation of a prototype that allows performance evaluation of both extended frameworks and shows that basing distributed mobile-hosted services on REST is more suitable than using SOAP as underlying web service infrastructure.
Abstract: One of the goals that can be achieved by providing adaptive web services from mobile hosts is to allow continuous service provisioning. However, there are limitations in terms of complexity and size of the services that may be executed on mobile hosts. In this paper, two steps are taken towards providing adaptive web services from resource limited mobile devices. The first step is to investigate mechanisms that facilitate distributing the execution of mobile web services; the main mechanisms are offloading and migration. The second step is to integrate these mechanisms with available web service architectures to produce an extended mobile web service framework. In this case we integrated them with both SOAP as well as REST. The paper describes the offloading and migration mechanisms as well as the implementation of a prototype that allows performance evaluation of both extended frameworks. To investigate the load and performance of the distributed services, the prototype implements resource intensive applications. The results presented show that basing distributed mobile-hosted services on REST is more suitable than using SOAP as underlying web service infrastructure.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: This study conducted a pilot study to evaluate a set of WCAG 2.0 automated evaluation tools for Arabic websites and report on their results.
Abstract: Nowadays, automatic WCAG 2.0 evaluation tools are increasing in numbers, however, there is little evidence of whether these tools are able to evaluate Arabic websites and provide reflective recommendations to improve their accessibility. To gain insight into this issue, we conducted a pilot study to evaluate a set of WCAG 2.0 tools and report on their results. We believe that our study is the first study to consider evaluating WCAG 2.0 automated evaluation tools for Arabic websites.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: This paper describes the development and implementation of a person name named entity recognition system for the Arabic Language that uses heuristics based on a set of keywords rather than complex grammars, statistical and machine learning techniques.
Abstract: Named Entity recognition is very new in the Arabic Language although it has reached the maturity stage for some other languages such as English and French. In this paper, we describe the development and implementation of a person name named entity recognition system for the Arabic Language. We use heuristics based on a set of keywords rather than complex grammars, statistical and machine learning techniques. However, the results obtained are of the same standards or better in some cases as those systems that are using more sophisticated approaches.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: Broadcast is a critical component in embedded communications systems and Statistical broadcast methods offer an efficient means of propagating broadcast messages in this context due to their low overhead and high efficiency.
Abstract: Broadcast is a critical component in embedded communications systems. Some vehicular network (VANET) applications in particular use broadcast communications extensively. Statistical broadcast methods offer an efficient means of propagating broadcast messages in this context due to their low overhead and high efficiency.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: A novel framework for context management that relies on cloud-based context services is described, which means that context providers can scale up and down depending on current demand for context information.
Abstract: With the advances in sensing technology and the proliferation of mobile devices and applications, provisioning of context information has been a particularly common research topic. Many research works have proposed, designed, and implemented frameworks and middleware infrastructures for context management. High-level context information is typically acquired from context services that aggregate raw context information sensed by sensors and mobile devices. Given the massive amount of context data processed and stored by context services and the widespread penetration of cloud computing technology in the industry, context providers now can leverage their services by deploying them on the cloud. In this paper, we describe a novel framework for context management that relies on cloud-based context services. One of the benefits of the approach is that context providers can scale up and down depending on current demand for context information.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: The proposed adaptive CAC scheme achieves the QoS in each class through mechanisms for call bandwidth degradation, and call bandwidth upgrading based on Min-Max and Max-Min policies for fair resource deallocation and allocation.
Abstract: This work describes an adaptive Call Admission Control (CAC) scheme for multi-class service wireless cellular networks. The proposed scheme uses complete sharing approach of the available bandwidth among all traffic classes. The proposed adaptive CAC is achieved through call bandwidth borrowing and call preemption techniques based on the priorities of the traffic classes. The CAC scheme achieves the QoS in each class through mechanisms for call bandwidth degradation, and call bandwidth upgrading based on Min-Max and Max-Min policies for fair resource deallocation and allocation. The simulation results of the proposed adaptive CAC scheme show the strength and effectiveness of our proposed scheme compared to other schemes.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: Experimental results showed that, for small query regions, MSI structure outperforms the SBI structure and can quickly access query-relevant objects through their corresponding small index in the MSI and ignore irrelevant ones.
Abstract: Generally, one spatial index structure (called Single Big Index SBI) is built for the whole data space; therefore most of the index nodes are prone to be checked during query execution. In this paper, we proposed a technique to partition the space into groups and construct a set of small indices (called Multi Small-Index MSI), one for each group. Such that we can quickly access query-relevant objects through their corresponding small index in the MSI and ignore irrelevant ones. Experimental results showed that, for small query regions, MSI structure outperforms the SBI structure.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: This paper will in this paper use so called relaxed ACID properties across different locations to implement consistency of data in distributed and/or mobile databases.
Abstract: In central databases the consistency of data is normally implemented by using the ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation and Durability) properties of a DBMS (Data Base Management System). This is not possible if distributed and/or mobile databases are involved and the availability of data also has to be optimized. Therefore, we will in this paper use so called relaxed ACID properties across different locations.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: A two-stage distributed method for the restoration problem using multi-agent system to maximize the restored loads, minimize the power losses, and relieve the overloaded lines for more efficient and economical operation.
Abstract: This paper proposes a two-stage distributed method for the restoration problem using multi-agent system. The first stage gets a quick solution and implements it to restore as much loads as possible based on their priorities. The second stage will be applied to faults which expected to take longer time in order to maximize the restored loads (if there are loads still not energized from the first stage), minimize the power losses, and relieve the overloaded lines for more efficient and economical operation. Distribution system is represented as a multi-agent system with hierarchical architecture. Four types of agents are included, which are Bus Agents (BAGs) for monitoring and implementing the switching actions, DG Agents (DGAs) to represent DGs as supporting sources of power, Zone Agents (ZAGs) for negotiation and decision in the first-stage of restoration, and Global Agent (GAG) for decision in the second-stage of restoration. The proposed method is implemented in JADE and simulation results of 16-Bus system are included.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: A contextual taxonomy made of different critical factors which could influence CC success in the enterprise is provided, highlighting different constituents, implications and challenges in the area of Cloud Computing.
Abstract: This research explores recent developments in the area of Cloud Computing (CC) highlighting different constituents, implications and challenges. Indeed, CC offers many advantages and benefits to different settings and contexts but at the same time its success is dependent on addressing certain mounting challenges before such benefits could be realized. This research provides a contextual taxonomy made of different critical factors which could influence CC success in the enterprise. Due to the infancy of the CC field, this research portrays a pessimist view for the large scale success of the CC field but holds great promises for its potential in the future. Indeed, the majority of the CC implementations was found to be simple and touches on the perimeters of CC. Of course, the success of CC is contingent upon capitalizing on certain factors and combating the different challenges highlighted in this research.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: The algorithm was proven to work even in cases in which the characters were extremely degraded by noise, and the recognition rate was 100% for characters supported by the algorithm.
Abstract: In this paper character recognition in Saudi Automobile License Plates is described. Due to special properties of Saudi license plates, simpler procedures as compared to the ones used for Lebanese plates have been developed. A limited character set for recognition enables the development of smaller recognition trees. The developed procedure was applied to different characters taken from real license plates and the recognition rate was 100% for characters supported by the algorithm. Uniformly distributed pseudo-random noise was added to simulate error in the image. The algorithm was proven to work even in cases in which the characters were extremely degraded by noise.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2011
TL;DR: The theoretical questions related to the educational use of Virtual Reality technology are introduced and the steps in the reconstruction of the town of Otranto in the Middle Ages are described: data collection and integration, organization of work, peripherals and software applications.
Abstract: Using new technological capabilities to reconstruct a virtual interactive town dramatically increases the possibilities of information exchange and diffusion. The MediaEvo Project aims to develop a multi-channel and multi-sensory platform for edutainment in cultural heritage for the realization of a digital didactic game oriented towards knowledge of medieval history and society by means of the integration of human sciences and data processing technologies. It deals with historical findings, geomorphological inquiries, data management systems and the definition of a virtual immersive platform for playing and educating. This paper introduces the theoretical questions related to the educational use of Virtual Reality technology and describes the steps in the reconstruction of the town of Otranto in the Middle Ages: data collection and integration, organization of work, peripherals and software applications. During its definition, the platform that has been planned for educational purposes has proved to be useful for testing researchers' hypotheses about the ancient town and its everyday life. At the end of project, other research fields have been tested on the game: new peripherals for motion and interaction, virtual treasure hunts, Augmented Reality and evaluation studies for territorial marketing and tourism.