INESC-ID

About: INESC-ID is a nonprofit organization based out in Lisbon, Portugal. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Field-programmable gate array & Control theory. The organization has 932 authors who have published 2618 publications receiving 37658 citations.

Do the best cloud configurations grow on trees?: an experimental evaluation of black box algorithms for optimizing cloud workloads

Abstract: Cloud configuration optimization is the procedure to determine the number and the type of instances to use when deploying an application in cloud environments, given a cost or performance objective. In the absence of a performance model for the distributed application, black-box optimization can be used to perform automatic cloud configuration. Numerous black-box optimization algorithms have been developed; however, their comparative evaluation has so far been limited to the hyper-parameter optimization setting, which differs significantly from the cloud configuration problem. In this paper, we evaluate 8 commonly used black-box optimization algorithms to determine their applicability for the cloud configuration problem. Our evaluation, using 23 different workloads, shows that in several cases Bayesian optimization with Gradient boosted regression trees performs better than methods chosen by prior work.

Mnemonical body shortcuts: improving mobile interaction

Abstract: Motivation -- To study and validate a body space based approach to improve mobile device interaction and on the move interaction performance.Research approach -- We developed and user evaluated (20 + 10 users) an adaptive inertial sensing based system featuring default and personalized body space gesture recognition with suitable feedback.Findings/Design -- Results present gestures as suitable shortcut for on the move action triggering, improving mobile interaction performance.Research limitations/Implications -- The evaluations were performed in a controlled scenario. Further studies should be performed in more demanding situations (public transportations, stairs).Originality/Value -- The research makes a contribution on the validation of body-space gestures to improve on the move interaction performance.Take away message -- Mnemonical Body Shortcuts improves shortcut triggering both in still and on the move scenarios.

Audio contributions to semantic video search

Abstract: This paper summarizes the contributions to semantic video search that can be derived from the audio signal. Because of space restrictions, the emphasis will be on non-linguistic cues. The paper thus covers what is generally known as audio segmentation, as well as audio event detection. Using machine learning approaches, we have built detectors for over 50 semantic audio concepts.

Personality in Social Group Dynamics

Abstract: The concept of personality has been used in multiagentsystems to create diversity in the behaviours of autonomousagents. This diversity is useful to explore different strategies in societies of agents, for example, to form coalitions, and is essential to model natural and “human-like” social agents. In the case of agents that interact with users, personality becomes a core issue and is one of the main drives to achieve the users’ suspension of disbelief. This paper presents a computational model of personality based on the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality that generates diversity in the behaviour of social agents that interact in teamwork scenarios.

An Interactive Tangram Game for Children with Autism

Abstract: This work explores the use of a social robot as an assistive agent during therapy sessions, in order to assist children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), through a Tangram game. This experiment has two conditions: the Tutor Mode - the robot gives help whenever the child needs; and the Peer Mode - the robot plays with the child in turn-taking. The results showed that, in the TM, the robot was capable of stimulating children’s attention towards the game and to assist them most of the times. In the PM, the robot also stimulated children’s attention to the game and was able to establish turns for most participants.