Showing papers by "Nokia published in 2010"

Evaluation of traffic data obtained via GPS-enabled mobile phones: The Mobile Century field experiment

Abstract: The growing need of the driving public for accurate traffic information has spurred the deployment of large scale dedicated monitoring infrastructure systems, which mainly consist in the use of inductive loop detectors and video cameras On-board electronic devices have been proposed as an alternative traffic sensing infrastructure, as they usually provide a cost-effective way to collect traffic data, leveraging existing communication infrastructure such as the cellular phone network A traffic monitoring system based on GPS-enabled smartphones exploits the extensive coverage provided by the cellular network, the high accuracy in position and velocity measurements provided by GPS devices, and the existing infrastructure of the communication network This article presents a field experiment nicknamed Mobile Century, which was conceived as a proof of concept of such a system Mobile Century included 100 vehicles carrying a GPS-enabled Nokia N95 phone driving loops on a 10-mile stretch of I-880 near Union City, California, for 8 hours Data were collected using virtual trip lines, which are geographical markers stored in the handset that probabilistically trigger position and speed updates when the handset crosses them The proposed prototype system provided sufficient data for traffic monitoring purposes while managing the privacy of participants The data obtained in the experiment were processed in real-time and successfully broadcast on the internet, demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed system for real-time traffic monitoring Results suggest that a 2-3% penetration of cell phones in the driver population is enough to provide accurate measurements of the velocity of the traffic flow

Energy efficiency of mobile clients in cloud computing

Abstract: Energy efficiency is a fundamental consideration for mobile devices. Cloud computing has the potential to save mobile client energy but the savings from offloading the computation need to exceed the energy cost of the additional communication. In this paper we provide an analysis of the critical factors affecting the energy consumption of mobile clients in cloud computing. Further, we present our measurements about the central characteristics of contemporary mobile handheld devices that define the basic balance between local and remote computing. We also describe a concrete example, which demonstrates energy savings. We show that the trade-offs are highly sensitive to the exact characteristics of the workload, data communication patterns and technologies used, and discuss the implications for the design and engineering of energy efficient mobile cloud computing solutions.

The Jigsaw continuous sensing engine for mobile phone applications

Abstract: Supporting continuous sensing applications on mobile phones is challenging because of the resource demands of long-term sensing, inference and communication algorithms. We present the design, implementation and evaluation of the Jigsaw continuous sensing engine, which balances the performance needs of the application and the resource demands of continuous sensing on the phone. Jigsaw comprises a set of sensing pipelines for the accelerometer, microphone and GPS sensors, which are built in a plug and play manner to support: i) resilient accelerometer data processing, which allows inferences to be robust to different phone hardware, orientation and body positions; ii) smart admission control and on-demand processing for the microphone and accelerometer data, which adaptively throttles the depth and sophistication of sensing pipelines when the input data is low quality or uninformative; and iii) adaptive pipeline processing, which judiciously triggers power hungry pipeline stages (e.g., sampling the GPS) taking into account the mobility and behavioral patterns of the user to drive down energy costs. We implement and evaluate Jigsaw on the Nokia N95 and the Apple iPhone, two popular smartphone platforms, to demonstrate its capability to recognize user activities and perform long term GPS tracking in an energy-efficient manner.

User experience evaluation methods: current state and development needs

Abstract: The recent shift of emphasis to user experience (UX) has rendered it a central focus of product design and evaluation. A multitude of methods for UX design and evaluation exist, but a clear overview of the current state of the available UX evaluation methods is missing. This is partly due to a lack of agreement on the essential characteristics of UX. In this paper, we present the results of our multi-year effort of collecting UX evaluation methods from academia and industry with different approaches such as literature review, workshops, Special Interest Groups sessions and an online survey. We have collected 96 methods and analyzed them, among other criteria, based on the product development phase and the studied period of experience. Our analysis reveals development needs for UX evaluation methods, such as early-stage methods, methods for social and collaborative UX evaluation, establishing practicability and scientific quality, and a deeper understanding of UX.

MIMO techniques in WiMAX and LTE: a feature overview

Abstract: IEEE 802.16m and 3GPP LTE-Advanced are the two evolving standards targeting 4G wireless systems. In both standards, multiple-input multiple-output antenna technologies play an essential role in meeting the 4G requirements. The application of MIMO technologies is one of the most crucial distinctions between 3G and 4G. It not only enhances the conventional point-to-point link, but also enables new types of links such as downlink multiuser MIMO. A large family of MIMO techniques has been developed for various links and with various amounts of available channel state information in both IEEE 802.16e/m and 3GPP LTE/LTE-Advanced. In this article we provide a survey of the MIMO techniques in the two standards. The MIMO features of the two are compared, and the engineering considerations are depicted.

Mode Selection for Device-To-Device Communication Underlaying an LTE-Advanced Network

Abstract: Device-to-Device communication underlaying a cellular network enables local services with limited interference to the cellular network. In this paper we study the optimal selection of possible resource sharing modes with the cellular network in a single cell. Based on the learning from the single cell studies we propose a mode selection procedure for a multi-cell environment. Our evaluation results of the proposed procedure show that it enables a much more reliable device-to-device communication with limited interference to the cellular network compared to simpler mode selection procedures. A well performing and practical mode selection is critical to enable the adoption of underlay device-to-device communication in cellular networks.

Electron transport in edge-disordered graphene nanoribbons

Abstract: We report an electron transport study of lithographically fabricated graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) of various widths and lengths. At the charge neutrality point, a length-independent transport gap forms whose size is inversely proportional to the GNR width. In this gap, electrons are localized, and charge transport exhibits a transition between thermally activated behavior at higher temperatures and variable range hopping at lower temperatures. By varying the geometric capacitance, we find that charging effects constitute a significant portion of the activation energy.

Sell your experiences: a market mechanism based incentive for participatory sensing

Abstract: This paper studies economic models of user participation incentive in participatory sensing applications. User participation is the most important element in participatory sensing applications for providing adequate level of service quality. However, incentive mechanism and its economic model for user participation have never been addressed so far in this research domain. In order to stimulate user participation, we design and evaluate a novel Reverse Auction based Dynamic Price (RADP) incentive mechanism, where users can sell their sensing data to a service provider with users' claimed bid prices. The proposed incentive mechanism focuses on minimizing and stabilizing incentive cost while maintaining adequate number of participants by preventing users from dropping out of participatory sensing applications. Compared with a Random Selection with Fixed Price (RSFP) incentive mechanism, the proposed mechanism not only reduces the incentive cost for retaining same number of participants by more than 60% but also improves the fairness of incentive distribution and social welfare. More importantly, RADP can remove burden of accurate pricing for user sensing data, the most difficult step in RSFP.

Activity-Aware Mental Stress Detection Using Physiological Sensors

Abstract: Continuous stress monitoring may help users better under- stand their stress patterns and provide physicians with more reliable data for interventions. Previously, studies on mental stress detection were lim- ited to a laboratory environment where participants generally rested in a sedentary position. However, it is impractical to exclude the effects of physical activity while developing a pervasive stress monitoring appli- cation for everyday use. The physiological responses caused by mental stress can be masked by variations due to physical activity.

Growing an organic indoor location system

Abstract: Most current methods for 802.11-based indoor localization depend on surveys conducted by experts or skilled technicians. Some recent systems have incorporated surveying by users. Structuring localization systems "organically," however, introduces its own set of challenges: conveying uncertainty, determining when user input is actually required, and discounting erroneous and stale data. Through deployment of an organic location system in our nine-story building, which contains nearly 1,400 distinct spaces, we evaluate new algorithms for addressing these challenges. We describe the use of Voronoi regions for conveying uncertainty and reasoning about gaps in coverage, and a clustering method for identifying potentially erroneous user data. Our algorithms facilitate rapid coverage while maintaining positioning accuracy comparable to that achievable with survey-driven indoor deployments.

Near field communication

Abstract: Apparatus including: an antenna configured for efficient far field communication at a first frequency; an inductive element including a plurality of series-connected coiled portions, including a first coiled portion and a second coiled portion, wherein the inductive element is configured to provide near field communication at a second frequency; and at least one reactive element parallel connected between the first coiled portion and the second coiled portion, wherein the at least one reactive element has a lower impedance at the first frequency than at the second frequency.

Making love in the network closet: the benefits and work of family videochat

Abstract: In this paper, we explore the benefits of videochat for families and the corresponding work that home users engage in to make a video call run smoothly. We explore the varieties of social work required, including coordination work, presentation work, behavioral work, and scaffolding work, as well as the technical work necessary. We outline the benefits families enjoy for doing this work and discuss the ways in which families use videochat to reinforce their identity as a family and reinforce their family values, in effect making - as in creating - love. We conclude with recommendations for improving videochat and for designing with family values in mind more generally.

Acoustic event detection in real life recordings

Abstract: This paper presents a system for acoustic event detection in recordings from real life environments. The events are modeled using a network of hidden Markov models; their size and topology is chosen based on a study of isolated events recognition. We also studied the effect of ambient background noise on event classification performance. On real life recordings, we tested recognition of isolated sound events and event detection. For event detection, the system performs recognition and temporal positioning of a sequence of events. An accuracy of 24% was obtained in classifying isolated sound events into 61 classes. This corresponds to the accuracy of classifying between 61 events when mixed with ambient background noise at 0dB signal-to-noise ratio. In event detection, the system is capable of recognizing almost one third of the events, and the temporal positioning of the events is not correct for 84% of the time.

Darwin phones: the evolution of sensing and inference on mobile phones

Abstract: We present Darwin, an enabling technology for mobile phone sensing that combines collaborative sensing and classification techniques to reason about human behavior and context on mobile phones. Darwin advances mobile phone sensing through the deployment of efficient but sophisticated machine learning techniques specifically designed to run directly on sensor-enabled mobile phones (i.e., smartphones). Darwin tackles three key sensing and inference challenges that are barriers to mass-scale adoption of mobile phone sensing applications: (i) the human-burden of training classifiers, (ii) the ability to perform reliably in different environments (e.g., indoor, outdoor) and (iii) the ability to scale to a large number of phones without jeopardizing the "phone experience" (e.g., usability and battery lifetime). Darwin is a collaborative reasoning framework built on three concepts: classifier/model evolution, model pooling, and collaborative inference. To the best of our knowledge Darwin is the first system that applies distributed machine learning techniques and collaborative inference concepts to mobile phones. We implement the Darwin system on the Nokia N97 and Apple iPhone. While Darwin represents a general framework applicable to a wide variety of emerging mobile sensing applications, we implement a speaker recognition application and an augmented reality application to evaluate the benefits of Darwin. We show experimental results from eight individuals carrying Nokia N97s and demonstrate that Darwin improves the reliability and scalability of the proof-of-concept speaker recognition application without additional burden to users.

ERSA: error resilient system architecture for probabilistic applications

Abstract: There is a growing concern about the increasing vulnerability of future computing systems to errors in the underlying hardware. Traditional redundancy techniques are expensive for designing energy-efficient systems that are resilient to high error rates. We present Error Resilient System Architecture (ERSA), a low-cost robust system architecture for emerging killer probabilistic applications such as Recognition, Mining and Synthesis (RMS) applications. While resilience of such applications to errors in low-order bits of data is well-known, execution of such applications on error-prone hardware significantly degrades output quality (due to high-order bit errors and crashes). ERSA achieves high error resilience to high-order bit errors and control errors (in addition to low-order bit errors) using a judicious combination of 3 key ideas: (1) asymmetric reliability in many-core architectures, (2) error-resilient algorithms at the core of probabilistic applications, and (3) intelligent software optimizations. Error injection experiments on a multi-core ERSA hardware prototype demonstrate that, even at very high error rates of 20,000 errors/second/core or 2×10−4 error/cycle/core (with errors injected in architecturally-visible registers), ERSA maintains 90% or better accuracy of output results, together with minimal impact on execution time, for probabilistic applications such as K-Means clustering, LDPC decoding and Bayesian networks. Moreover, we demonstrate the effectiveness of ERSA in tolerating high rates of static memory errors that are characteristic of emerging challenges such as Vccmin problems and erratic bit errors. Using the concept of configurable reliability, ERSA platforms may also be adapted for general-purpose applications that are less resilient to errors (but at higher costs).

Device-To-Device (D2D) Communication in Cellular Network - Performance Analysis of Optimum and Practical Communication Mode Selection

Abstract: In a cellular network system one way to increase its capacity is to allow direct communication between closely located user devices when they are communicating with each other instead of conveying data from one device to the other via the radio and core network. The problem is then when the network shall assign direct communication mode and when not. In previous works the decision has been done individually per communicating device pair not taking into account other devices and the current state of the network. We derive means for getting optimal communication mode for all devices in the system in terms of system equations. The system equations capture information of the network such as link gains, noise levels, signal-to-interference-and-noise-ratios, etc., as well as communication mode selection for the devices. Using the derived equations performance bounds for the cellular system where D2D communication is an additional communication mode are illustrated via simulations. Further, practical communication mode selection algorithms are used to evaluate their system performance against the achievable bounds. Analysis show the usability of the system equations and the potential of having D2D operation integrated into a cellular system when there is enough local communication occurring.

Device-to-device connection setup using near-field communication

Abstract: Example method, apparatus, and computer program product embodiments are disclosed to enable near-field communication to be used in out-of-band initialization methods for connection setup for device-to-device communication. Example embodiments of the invention include a method comprising the steps of initiating, by a first device, an out-of-band near-field communication connection with a second device by transmitting wireless communication signals including necessary power for providing the near-field communication connection; sending a first short-range communication connection parameters for role determination, to the second device via the out-of-band near-field communication connection; receiving second short-range communication connection parameters for role determination, from the second device via the out-of-band near-field communication connection; selecting a role for the short-range communication connection by adopting short-range communication connection parameters for role determination that correspond to the role; discarding short-range communication connection parameters for role determination that are not adopted; and initiating the short-range communication connection according to the selected role using the adopted short-range communication connection parameters for role determination.

Smart-M3 information sharing platform

Abstract: We describe the concept, architecture and key design decisions of Smart-M3 interoperability platform. The platform is based on the ideas of space-based information sharing and semantic web ideas about information representation and ontologies. The interoperability platform has been used as the basis for multiple case studies.

Voice Conversion Using Partial Least Squares Regression

Abstract: Voice conversion can be formulated as finding a mapping function which transforms the features of the source speaker to those of the target speaker. Gaussian mixture model (GMM)-based conversion is commonly used, but it is subject to overfitting. In this paper, we propose to use partial least squares (PLS)-based transforms in voice conversion. To prevent overfitting, the degrees of freedom in the mapping can be controlled by choosing a suitable number of components. We propose a technique to combine PLS with GMMs, enabling the use of multiple local linear mappings. To further improve the perceptual quality of the mapping where rapid transitions between GMM components produce audible artefacts, we propose to low-pass filter the component posterior probabilities. The conducted experiments show that the proposed technique results in better subjective and objective quality than the baseline joint density GMM approach. In speech quality conversion preference tests, the proposed method achieved 67% preference score against the smoothed joint density GMM method and 84% preference score against the unsmoothed joint density GMM method. In objective tests the proposed method produced a lower Mel-cepstral distortion than the reference methods.

Method and apparatus for generating a virtual interactive workspace

Abstract: An approach is provided for creating a virtual workspace among devices based, at least in part, on location information. The virtual workspace corresponds to an application or a service common to the devices. Monitoring of the movement of one or more of the devices causes manipulation of the virtual workspace, the application, the service, or a combination thereof based, at least in part, on the movement. Example applications and services include media editing, media playback, image processing, social networking, and social control functionality.

Mobile telephone for internet applications

Abstract: A control unit for a mobile telephone includes a Web server adapted to connect to a Web browser in the mobile telephone, wherein the Web server receives information and provides the information to the Web browser when connected to the Web browser.

The investigation of power control schemes for a device-to-device communication integrated into OFDMA cellular system

Abstract: Power control is one of the key functions which are able to co-ordinate the system interference. In this paper, several power control schemes are investigated for a hybrid LTE system, which combines the direct device-to-device (D2D) mode communication and the normal cellular mode communication. In the system study, the power control for the D2D mode communication is emphasized. In general, the utilization of local area transmission for D2D communications provides a better SINR than normal cellular communications. In this case, the proper power control for D2D communications can be a flexible way to improve (and balance) the overall system performance. Naturally, the low power transmission of D2D communications leads to many potential advantages, such as low interference level (to normal cellular users) and low power consumption. From the power control point of view, the low power transmission provides more freedom to tune the Tx power. However, power control is not an efficient solution to avoid the strong mutual (co-channel) interference between different types of UEs. In this case, the join consideration of mode selection, resource scheduling, link adaption and power control is needed.

PLEX Cards: a source of inspiration when designing for playfulness

Abstract: Playfulness can be observed in all areas of human activity. It is an attitude of making activities more enjoyable. Designing for playfulness involves creating objects that elicit a playful approach and provide enjoyable experiences. In this paper we introduce the design and evaluation of the PLEX Cards and its two related idea generation techniques. The cards were created to communicate the 22 categories of a Playful Experiences framework to designers and other stakeholders who wish to design for playfulness. We have evaluated the practical use of the cards by applying them in three design cases. The results show that the PLEX Cards are a valuable source of inspiration when designing for playfulness and the techniques help create a large amount of ideas in a short time.

Enhancing group recommendation by incorporating social relationship interactions

Abstract: Group recommendation, which makes recommendations to a group of users instead of individuals, has become increasingly important in both the workspace and people's social activities, such as brainstorming sessions for coworkers and social TV for family members or friends. Group recommendation is a challenging problem due to the dynamics of group memberships and diversity of group members. Previous work focused mainly on the content interests of group members and ignored the social characteristics within a group, resulting in suboptimal group recommendation performance.In this work, we propose a group recommendation method that utilizes both social and content interests of group members. We study the key characteristics of groups and propose (1) a group consensus function that captures the social, expertise, and interest dissimilarity among multiple group members; and (2) a generic framework that automatically analyzes group characteristics and constructs the corresponding group consensus function. Detailed user studies of diverse groups demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed techniques, and the importance of incorporating both social and content interests in group recommender systems.

Effective Interference Cancellation Scheme for Device-to-Device Communication Underlaying Cellular Networks

Abstract: It is expected that Device-to-Device (D2D) communication is allowed to underlay future cellular networks such as IMT-Advanced for spectrum efficiency. However, by reusing the uplink spectrums with the cellular system, the interference to D2D users has to be addressed to maximize the overall system performance. In this paper, a novel method to deal with the resource allocation and interference avoidance issues by utilizing the network peculiarity of a hybrid network to share the uplink resource is proposed and the implementation details are described in a real cellular system. Simulation results prove that satisfying performance can be achieved by using the proposed mechanism.

Family story play: reading with young children (and elmo) over a distance

Abstract: We introduce Family Story Play, a system that supports grandparents to read books together with their grandchildren over the Internet. Family Story Play is designed to improve communication across generations and over a distance, and to support parents and grandparents in fostering the literacy development of young children. The interface encourages active child participation in the book reading experience by combining a paper book, a sensor-enhanced frame, video conferencing technology, and video content of a Sesame Street Muppet (Elmo). Results with users indicate that Family Story Play improves child engagement in long-distance communication and increases the quality of interaction between young children and distant grandparents. Additionally, Family Story Play encourages dialogic reading styles that are linked with literacy development. Ultimately, reading with Family Story Play becomes a creative shared activity that suggests a new kind of collaborative story telling.

Method and apparatus for fluid graphical user interface

Abstract: A method including causing, at least in part, display of selectable objects on a graphical user interface, where each of the selectable objects corresponds to data or an application accessible via the graphical user interface. The methodfurther includes causing, at least in part, display of the selectable objects in motion travelling across the graphical user interface based on a category of the selectable objector context dependent data, and allowing user selection and manipulationofthe selectable objects displayed on the graphical user interface.

ZiFi: wireless LAN discovery via ZigBee interference signatures

Abstract: WiFi networks have enjoyed an unprecedent penetration rate in recent years. However, due to the limited coverage, existing WiFi infrastructure only provides intermittent connectivity for mobile users. Once leaving the current network coverage, WiFi clients must actively discover new WiFi access points (APs), which wastes the precious energy of mobile devices. Although several solutions have been proposed to address this issue, they either require significant modifications to existing network infrastructures or rely on context information that is not available in unknown environments. In this work, we develop a system called ZiFi that utilizes ZigBee radios to identify the existence of WiFi networks through unique interference signatures generated by WiFi beacons. We develop a new digital signal processing algorithm called Common Multiple Folding (CMF) that accurately amplifies periodic beacons in WiFi interference signals. ZiFi also adopts a constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detector that can minimize the false negative (FN) rate of WiFi beacon detection while satisfying the user-specified upper bound on false positive (FP) rate. We have implemented ZiFi on two platforms, a Linux netbook integrating a TelosB mote through the USB interface, and a Nokia N73 smartphone integrating a ZigBee card through the miniSD interface. Our experiments show that, under typical settings, ZiFi can detect WiFi APs with high accuracy (ms), and little computation overhead

The Frankencamera: an experimental platform for computational photography

Abstract: Although there has been much interest in computational photography within the research and photography communities, progress has been hampered by the lack of a portable, programmable camera with sufficient image quality and computing power. To address this problem, we have designed and implemented an open architecture and API for such cameras: the Frankencamera. It consists of a base hardware specification, a software stack based on Linux, and an API for C++. Our architecture permits control and synchronization of the sensor and image processing pipeline at the microsecond time scale, as well as the ability to incorporate and synchronize external hardware like lenses and flashes. This paper specifies our architecture and API, and it describes two reference implementations we have built. Using these implementations we demonstrate six computational photography applications: HDR viewfinding and capture, low-light viewfinding and capture, automated acquisition of extended dynamic range panoramas, foveal imaging, IMU-based hand shake detection, and rephotography. Our goal is to standardize the architecture and distribute Frankencameras to researchers and students, as a step towards creating a community of photographer-programmers who develop algorithms, applications, and hardware for computational cameras.