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Showing papers in "International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications in 2011"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is argued that at least in some of its manifestations, the ideas behind VCs are eminently implementable under present day technology and will redefine the way in which pervasive computing and its myriad applications are defined.
Abstract: Purpose – The past decade has witnessed a growing interest in vehicular networking and its myriad applications. The initial view of practitioners and researchers was that radio‐equipped vehicles can keep the drivers informed about potential safety risks and can enhance their awareness of road conditions and traffic‐related events. This conceptual paper seeks to put forth a novel vision, namely that advances in vehicular networks, embedded devices, and cloud computing can be used to set up what are known as vehicular clouds (VCs).Design/methodology/approach – The paper suggests that VCs are technologically feasible and that they are likely to have a significant societal impact.Findings – The paper argues that at least in some of its manifestations, the ideas behind VCs are eminently implementable under present day technology. It is also expected that, once adopted and championed by municipalities and third‐party infrastructure providers, VCs will redefine the way in which pervasive computing and its myriad...

202 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The SSL system is presented, a framework developed for a dynamic switching of street lamps based on pedestrians' locations and desired safety (or “fear”) zones, a first approach to accomplish the demand for flexible public lighting systems.
Abstract: Purpose – Conventional street lighting systems in areas with a low frequency of passersby are online most of the night without purpose. The consequence is that a large amount of power is wasted meaninglessly. With the broad availability of flexible‐lighting technology like light‐emitting diode lamps and everywhere available wireless internet connection, fast reacting, reliably operating, and power‐conserving street lighting systems become reality. The purpose of this work is to describe the Smart Street Lighting (SSL) system, a first approach to accomplish the demand for flexible public lighting systems.Design/methodology/approach – This work presents the SSL system, a framework developed for a dynamic switching of street lamps based on pedestrians' locations and desired safety (or “fear”) zones. In the developed system prototype, each pedestrian is localized via his/her smartphone, periodically sending location and configuration information to the SSL server. For street lamp control, each and every lampp...

100 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A number of natural metaphors that can be adopted to realize next generation pervasive computing services and associated infrastructures are introduced and critically analyzed and a uniform reference architecture is surveyed.
Abstract: Purpose – Emerging pervasive computing scenarios require open service frameworks promoting situated and self‐adaptive behaviors, and supporting diversity in services and long‐term evolvability. This suggests adopting a nature‐inspired approach, where pervasive services are modeled and deployed as autonomous individuals in an ecosystem of other services, data sources, and pervasive devices. However, there are many possibly nature‐inspired metaphors that can be adopted, and choosing one may require a careful analysis of the pros and cons of the different metaphors. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the key requirements and desiderata for next generation pervasive computing services and associated infrastructures.Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, the authors introduce and critically analyze a number of natural metaphors that can be adopted to realize these concepts and survey relevant proposals in the area.Findings – The key result of this survey is that a uniform reference architecture can ...

61 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work aims to attempt to further devise a better positioning accuracy based on location fingerprinting taking advantage of two important mobile fingerprints, namely signal strength and signal quality and subsequently building a model based on extreme learning machine (ELM), a new learning algorithm for single‐hidden‐layer neural networks.
Abstract: Purpose – Prediction accuracies are usually affected by the techniques and devices used as well as the algorithms applied. This work aims to attempt to further devise a better positioning accuracy based on location fingerprinting taking advantage of two important mobile fingerprints, namely signal strength (SS) and signal quality (SQ) and subsequently building a model based on extreme learning machine (ELM), a new learning algorithm for single‐hidden‐layer neural networks.Design/methodology/approach – Prediction approach to location determination based on historical data has attracted a lot of attention in recent studies, the reason being that it offers the convenience of using previously accumulated location data to subsequently determine locations using predictive algorithms. There have been various approaches to location positioning to further improve mobile user location determination accuracy. This work examines the location determination techniques by attempting to determine the location of mobile u...

18 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A decentralized peer‐to‐peer approach to cope with large‐scale, real‐time tracking of mobile devices, for which positioning information flows directly among mobile devices incurring in limited data exchange.
Abstract: Purpose – A large set of valuable applications, ranging from social networking to ambient intelligence, may see their effectiveness and appeal improved when supported by the large‐scale, real‐time tracking of mobile devices, either carried by humans or embedded into vehicles. A centralized approach, where few servers would collect position data and provide them to interested consumers, would hardly cope with the resource demand of the foreseen huge increase of users interested in location‐based services and with the flexibility needs of emerging user‐generated services. The purpose of this paper is to propose a decentralized peer‐to‐peer approach to cope with these requirements, for which positioning information flows directly among mobile devices incurring in limited data exchange.Design/methodology/approach – The authors propose a decentralized peer‐to‐peer approach for which positioning information flows directly among mobile devices incurring limited data exchange. A peer‐to‐peer overlay scheme is int...

13 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper aims to focus on a converged architecture that spans wired and wireless networks to enable a seamless delivery of integrated services across the enterprise.
Abstract: Purpose – Global commerce demands flexibility in when and how work gets done, as modern businesses increasingly require real‐time responses to partners and customers. With low costs, companies look to mobility as a way to speed responsiveness and increase the personalization of customer service offerings. Mobility is a key element of networking allowing enterprises to unlock their business process from fixed points. A unified approach to enterprise mobility delivers integrated wired/wireless networking, mobile extensions to unified communications, geographic, and end‐point independent network access and location services as major architectural components. As a consequence, this paper aims to focus on a converged architecture that spans wired and wireless networks to enable a seamless delivery of integrated services across the enterprise.Design/methodology/approach – This paper builds a framework to facilitate a continuous delivery of voice services. It also examines an architecture that traverses wireless...

12 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
Ekaterina Gilman1, Xiang Su1, Oleg Davidyuk1, Jiehan Zhou1, Jukka Riekki1 
TL;DR: The authors present the architecture, design, complete implementation, and prototype‐based verification of perception framework, a RESTful middleware which simplifies and accelerates the development of pervasive systems.
Abstract: Purpose – Context‐awareness is an essential property of any pervasive system perceiving its environment Such a system captures and processes context, ie the features describing the relevant aspects of environment state and user behaviour However, development of these systems still requires solving a number of research and engineering challenges The purpose of this paper is to propose perception framework, a RESTful middleware which simplifies and accelerates the development of pervasive systems Perception framework allows constructing services' application logic using rules and context Moreover, it collects sensor data and produces the context information that is required for the rules The authors present the architecture, design, complete implementation, and prototype‐based verification of perception frameworkDesign/methodology/approach – Development of context‐aware services is achieved with a novel architecture supporting building of the logic of web services using rules which directly manipul

10 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The paper explains creation processes for NLP resources and gives an overview of language corpora, and describes existing NLP standards.
Abstract: Purpose – Computer‐assisted language learning (CALL) comes in many different flavors. The purpose of this paper is to focus on developing an integrated e‐learning environment that allows improving language skills in specific contexts. Integrated e‐learning environment means that it is a web‐based solution that performs language learning tasks using common working environments such as, for instance, web browsers or e‐mail clients. It should be accessible on different platforms, even on mobile devices. Natural language processing (NLP) forms the technological basis for developing such a learning framework. The use of NLP technologies, or in broader view artificial intelligence technologies, in CALL has also been dubbed intelligent CALL. The paper gives an overview of the state of the art in this area.Design/methodology/approach – On the one hand, the paper explains creation processes for NLP resources and gives an overview of language corpora. On the other hand, it describes existing NLP standards. Based on...

10 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A taxonomy of physical annotation systems, including augmented reality systems, is provided, based on the capabilities they provide and concludes with future challenges concerning such systems.
Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the related issues of physical annotation systems and also to study their historical development. Moreover, the paper provides a taxonomy of physical annotation systems, including augmented reality systems and concludes with future challenges concerning such systems.Design/methodology/approach – The authors first provide a review and a comparison of existing physical annotation systems. The authors' classification of the physical annotation systems is based on the capabilities they provide.Findings – Physical annotation systems evolve as technology progresses. However, there are issues such as cognitive overload, trust, transient associations, and integrating of social networking with physical annotations.Research limitations/implications – As technology develops, physical annotations will become increasingly important in daily life. Hence, there are important research issues to address with regards to physical annotation systems.Practical implications...

8 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors' automatic generator of mobile widgets translates the XML‐based documents containing the widgets description based on the Widget Markup Language into functional widgets for various available technologies.
Abstract: Purpose – Mobile widgets represent applications exploiting web technologies and providing specific functionalities in an efficient and user‐friendly way. Owing to the low or medium complexity of the mobile widgets, their development may be simplified and optimized through automatic mechanisms. This paper aims to address this issue.Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents an approach to the automatic generation of widgets, which is based on the separation of concerns between the specification of their structural and functional characteristics, and their appearance. The structural and functional features are expressed at a high abstraction level through the authors' Widget Markup Language, while their appearance through pre‐defined or personalized templates. The authors' automatic generator of mobile widgets translates the XML‐based documents containing the widgets description based on the Widget Markup Language into functional widgets for various available technologies.Findings – The main non‐func...

7 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The challenges and research in the mobile web services domain are summarized, along with a detailed discussion of the developed mobile web service mediation framework (MWSMF), which is realized based on the enterprise service bus (ESB) framework.
Abstract: Purpose – Web services are going mobile. A mobile enterprise can be established in a cellular network by participating mobile hosts, which act as web service providers, and their clients. Mobile hosts enable seamless integration of user‐specific services to the enterprise, by following web service standards, also on the radio link and via resource constrained smart phones. However, establishing such a mobile enterprise poses several technical challenges, such as the quality of service (QoS), discovery aspects and proper integration solutions, for the network as well as for the mobile phone users. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the challenges and research associated with this domain and with establishing the mobile enterprise.Design/methodology/approach – The paper summarizes the challenges and research in the mobile web services domain, along with a detailed discussion of the developed mobile web service mediation framework (MWSMF). MWSMF is realized based on the enterprise service bus (ESB) te...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The main purpose of this paper is to provide a tutorial and survey on recent advances in video networking from an integrated perspective of both video signal processing and networking.
Abstract: Purpose – The interdisciplinary nature of video networking, coupled with various recent developments in standards, proposals and applications, poses great challenges to the research and industrial communities working in this area. The main purpose of this paper is to provide a tutorial and survey on recent advances in video networking from an integrated perspective of both video signal processing and networking.Design/methodology/approach – Detailed technical descriptions and insightful analysis are presented for recent and emerging video coding standards, in particular the H.264 family. The applications of selected video coding standards in emerging wireless networks are then introduced with an emphasis on scalable video streaming in multihomed mobile networks. Both research challenges and potential solutions are discussed along the description, and numerical results through simulations or experiments are provided to reveal the performances of selected coding standards and networking algorithms.Findings ...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The paper provides empirical insights about the methods and motivations of end‐users creating small mobile services and presents a microservice description language for user‐driven mobile service creation and platform‐independent service execution and rendering.
Abstract: Purpose – Mobile computing enables end‐users to create small services on their mobiles and share valuable and context‐aware information with others. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a platform for end‐user generated mobile services – so‐called microservices.Design/methodology/approach – As a key component the authors present a microservice description language for user‐driven mobile service creation and platform‐independent service execution and rendering. The paper also gives insight into the authors' visual authoring tool. The chosen design approach is evaluated in two phases: an intermediate evaluation with a small hands‐on trial and an online survey; and a final laboratory test with 24 test users in total.Findings – The paper provides empirical insights about the methods and motivations of end‐users creating small mobile services. The main purposes of service creation would be mostly to exchange information, stay in contact, and just for fun (on the basis of non‐commercial use). The evaluatio...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A new, reactive and energy‐efficient scheme for reporting events, where nodes that detect a certain event will organize themselves into a cluster, elect a clusterhead that will collect data from the cluster members, aggregate it and forward it to the mobile sink.
Abstract: Purpose – Energy consumption has always been the most serious issue to consider while deploying wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Sensor nodes are limited in power, computational capacities and memory so reporting the occurrence of specific events, such as fire or flooding, as quickly as possible using minimal energy resources is definitely a challenging issue. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new, reactive and energy‐efficient scheme for reporting events. In this scheme, nodes that detect a certain event will organize themselves into a cluster, elect a clusterhead that will collect data from the cluster members, aggregate it and forward it to the mobile sink.Design/methodology/approach – In order to evaluate the scheme, a new sensor node model was designed, where the network layer is implemented from scratch. This layer contains the state process model of the algorithm which was made available through a high‐fidelity process modeling methodology.Findings – Simulation results show that a high‐even...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors have formulated the coverage restoration problem as an optimization problem, to find the nearest and most apt neighbor sensors to reach solutions of maximizing coverage with failed sensors.
Abstract: Purpose – Continuous exposure and over‐utilization of sensors in harsh environments can lead some sensors to fail, and thereby not covering the service area effectively and efficiently. The purpose of this paper is to propose a two‐level coverage restoration scheme for the failing sensors by the existing sensors deployed in the immediate neighborhood of the failing sensors. The restoration scheme extends the search process to the set of failed sensors' corner neighbors at a second stage, with non‐available immediate active neighboring sensors at its first stage. Thus, the coverage restoration scheme attempts to sustain a maximum area of coverage with failed sensors.Design/methodology/approach – The authors have considered a wireless sensor network (WSN), comprised of sensors deployed in a grid‐based arrangement in an inaccessible arena. The authors have formulated the coverage restoration problem as an optimization problem, to find the nearest and most apt neighbor sensors to reach solutions of maximizing...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors enhanced their social networking system, G2G, with functionalities such as login with Facebook.com credentials without the need to sign up to their system first, and a much improved localization system that works across different mobile operators.
Abstract: Purpose – This paper aims to report on lessons learnt from operating a location‐aware mobile social networking application, and critical functionalities that were deemed necessary in order to provide a pleasant user experience. As a result of user feedback, the authors enhanced their social networking system, G2G, with functionalities such as login with Facebook.com credentials without the need to sign up to their system first, and a much improved localization system that works across different mobile operators. Mobile advertisement was included for enhancing the user experience.Design/methodology/approach – A modular approach has been followed for the system design. The original G2G system interfaced cleanly with the Facebook application programming interfaces (APIs) and the mobile advertisement subsystem through wrapper components.Findings – The result was a much improved user experience as existing Facebook subscriptions facilitated new users to use the system. Mobile advertisement functionalities were...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors describe how Sqwelch, a semantically enabled mashup maker, addresses this gap between enterprise and consumer‐focused mashup tools in terms of personalized, trusted collaboration during the design of mashups and in their execution.
Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the gap that currently exists between enterprise and consumer‐focused mashup tools in terms of personalized, trusted collaboration. The authors describe how Sqwelch, a semantically enabled mashup maker, addresses this gap during the design of mashups and in their execution.Design/methodology/approach – Sqwelch enables the composition of mashups based on the concept of trust explicitly specified by users through a visual interface. Taxonomies are used to enable lightweight mediation of payloads delivered through a publish/subscribe mechanism.Findings – The authors demonstrate the use of Sqwelch as a proof of concept in the remote delivery of healthcare, and how Sqwelch has been used to address areas of trust and collaboration in the delivery of telehealth services.Originality/value – Integrating trust and collaboration across the boundaries of enterprises is required where sensitive data are transferred across those boundaries in the expectation of the del...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work models an important aspect of the problem of sensor information integration that arises in wireless communications, where N sensors try to communicate with a receiver using a single un‐shareable radio channel.
Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to model an important aspect of the problem of sensor information integration that arises in wireless communications, where N sensors try to communicate with a receiver using a single un‐shareable radio channel. If several sensors transmit at the same time, their transmissions collide at the receiver resulting in garbled messages and the need for re‐transmission. This is highly undesirable since the sensors are energy‐constrained and the radio interface is known to be the most significant source of energy expenditure. Consequently, it is of paramount importance to design arbitration protocols that are highly efficient in stamping out collisions and that are, at the same time, as lightweight as possible.Design/methodology/approach – The receiver advertises a time division multiple access (TDMA) frame consisting of n slots, numbered from 1 to n, where n is an application‐dependent parameter. Each sensor generates uniformly at random, and independently of other sensor, ...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An architecture and prototypical implementation of a context‐sensitive software system which combines the tangible user interface approach with a mobile augmented reality (AR) application is presented.
Abstract: Purpose – The aim of this paper is to present an architecture and prototypical implementation of a context‐sensitive software system which combines the tangible user interface approach with a mobile augmented reality (AR) application.Design/methodology/approach – The work which is described within this paper is based on a creational approach, which means that a prototypical implementation is used to gather further research results. The prototypical approach allows performing ongoing tests concerning the accuracy and different context‐sensitive threshold functions.Findings – Within this paper, the implementation and practical use of tangible user interfaces for outdoor selection of geographical objects is reported and discussed in detail.Research limitations/implications – Further research is necessary within the area of context‐sensitive dynamically changing threshold functions, which would allow improving the accuracy of the selected tangible user interface approach.Practical implications – The practical...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An application framework for a context‐aware SOLE which considers location, preferences, and other useful information for a seamless user experience is presented.
Abstract: Purpose – The rapid advances in the technologies of mobile computing and wireless communications have facilitated the use of applications and services on handheld devices. Sharing of living experience (SOLE) is one such service, through which users can share their experience of daily activities such as shopping, entertainment, and traveling. This paper seeks to study SOLE in more detail.Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents an application framework for a context‐aware SOLE which considers location, preferences, and other useful information for a seamless user experience. SOLE leverages on the service‐oriented middleware, Coalition. Entities of interest are represented as services registered with Coalition, which are organized using location information. This facilitates location‐based selection of entities for associating or retrieving experiences. In addition, Coalition incorporates the contexts of users in the discovery and delivery of experience information. Besides, to cater for resource co...