Browsing by Subject "Ubiquitous computing"
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Item Efficient management of large metadata catalogs in a ubiquitous computing environment(2012-05) Beatty, Dan; Lopez-Benitez, Noe; Urban, Susan D.; Sill, Alan F.; Smith, Philip W.Trends in experimental sciences, such as astrophysics, have led to many critically needed, non-normalized, and massive meta-data catalogs that organize collections of recorded photographic and spectrographic observations of similar size. Observations of the night sky can best be presented using a data model that conveys the observations, analysis, objects contained with the observations, and results of analysis pertaining to those objects. Such a model is devised and it is referred to as the internet Flexible Image Transport System (iFITS). In addition a set of mapping functions to transform instances of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey into instances of iFITS, a light-weight marshaling method to transfer data to and from server side instances to mobile instances. Furthermore, this dissertation explores four architectures such as content management, software/ infrastructure/ platform as a service, context rule engine based request-response loop factory, and representational state transfer (REST) based query engines to facilitate the mining of the meta-data catalogs containing these observations.Item Enabling programmable ubiquitous computing environments: the DAIS middleware(2008-05) Kabadayi, Sanem; Julien, ChristineEmerging ubiquitous computing scenarios involve client applications that dynamically collect information directly from the local environment by leveraging sensor network nodes opportunistically and unpredictably. Such scenarios deviate from existing deployments of sensor networks which are often highly application-specific and generally funnel information to a central collection service for a single purpose. A significant barrier to the widespread development of such flexible sensor network applications lies in the increased complexity of the programming task when compared to existing distributed or even mobile situations. Ubiquitous computing nodes are severely resource-constrained, in terms of both computational capabilities and battery power, and therefore the application development task must inherently consider low-level design concerns, such as reducing power consumption, minimizing communication in the network to extend the network’s lifetime, and handling the variability of devices’ capabilities and constraints. This complexity, coupled with the increasing demand for applications, highlights the need for programming platforms (i.e., middleware) that simplify application development. This dissertation reports on the DAIS (Declarative Applications in Immersive Sensor networks) middleware platform that enables the development of adaptive ubiquitous computing applications. Our approach focuses on minimizing communication and coordination to best ensure the network’s lifetime. DAIS attempts to localize data collection and sensor interaction to only the regions of the network required for the applications’ immediate data needs. At the programming interface level, this requires exposing some aspects of the physical world to the developer, and we accomplish this through novel programming abstractions that enable on demand access to dynamic data sources. We develop a pair of intuitive grouping abstractions, the scene (which enables local interactions) and the virtual sensor (which enables automatic abstraction of heterogeneous data), to define a coordination model that supports interactions in ubiquitous computing. We combine these abstractions with an expressive programming interface to create the complete DAIS middleware.Item Laptops as practice : a case study examining communities of practice in a ubiquitous computing environment(2008-05) Rowland, Joseph Damon, 1968-; Resta, Paul E.The purpose of this study was to examine a ubiquitous/pervasive computing initiative from a Community of Practice perspective. It sought to understand how faculty fit technology use into the already paramount goals they had for their students learning, and how that technology’s role became a part of that essential domain. Furthermore, it sought to determine the extent to which a community of practice emerged around the use of technology as a central practice. Using case study methodology with mixed-methods data collection strategies, this study explored practice among faculty participating in a ubiquitous laptop initiative within a pre-kindergarten through fourth-grade teacher preparation program. This program was part of a college of education in a major research university in the southern United States. Doing so involved an examination of the roles of participants, primarily faculty, in the community or communities to identify the primary domains of concern, and to determine to what extent the use of laptops in the classroom has itself become a practice around which a community has emerged. Findings from this study suggested that instructors were, to varying extents, involved in an emerging community of practice that included the use of technology, specifically laptops, to enhance the development of elementary school teachers. This community of practice was heavily dependent upon infrastructure provided by the administration of the college and the ubiquitous laptop initiative. At the same time, these instructors were less involved with a domain that included teaching teachers to use technology, or Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Mishra & Koehler, 2006).Item Simplifying the programming of intelligent environments(2011-05) Holloway, Seth Michael; Julien, Christine; Bias, Randolph; Perry, Dewayne E.; Kim, Miryung; Khurshid, SarfrazIn the future, computers will be virtually everywhere: carried by everyone and integrated into the environment. The increased computation and communication capabilities will enable intelligent environments that react to occupants through automated decision-making. Devices (sensors and actuators) are the key to making intelligent environments a reality. We believe that devices must be made more approachable for average users. Existing approaches to application development for intelligent environments require detailed knowledge about devices and their low-leveling programming interfaces, which greatly limits the number of potential users. Instead of limiting users, we must enable everyone to program the devices around them. Intelligent environments will not be commonplace until average people can set up and manage the hardware and software necessary for their personalized applications. In simplifying the programming of intelligent environments, we first made sensors and actuators accessible to average programmers then extended our work to end-users. We term the former contribution Sensor Enablement for Average Programmers (SEAP); the latter work is Sensor Enablement for End-Users (SEEU). In our experience, devices’ disparate, niche programming languages and communication protocols presented great difficulty in developing intelligent environments. To ease the development effort for average programmers, we abstracted and standardized complex sensor and actuator interactions, allowing users to instead think in terms of well-understood web applications. Users have said that SEAP is easy-to-use and exciting. But what about average people, end-users? We found that end-users are incredibly interested in intelligent environments. By engaging end-users we can create intelligent environments even faster and allow domain experts to tailor their environment. This dissertation’s second contribution, Sensor Enablement for End-Users (SEEU) provides a visual programming interface that allows users to create personalized automated behaviors given available devices and data. We performed several user studies to uncover people’s desires for intelligent environments and determine the best interface for managing an intelligent environment. SEEU combines an intuitive interface with the power and flexibility of SEAP. SEEU is a usable end-user programming framework that allows average people to create useful applications for their intelligent environments. With SEEU and SEAP, we simplified the development of intelligent environments, reducing barriers to adoption of emerging sensing and actuation technologies. We demonstrated the feasability with a series of user studies.Item UbiPAL : secure messaging and access control for ubiquitous computing(2015-05) Bielstein, Cameron Taylor; Alvisi, Lorenzo; Dickerson, Robert F.The ubiquitous computing environment and modern trends in personal computing, such as body sensor networks and smart houses, create unique challenges in privacy and access control. Lack of centralized computing and the dynamic nature of human environments and access rules render most access control systems insufficient for this new category of systems. UbiPAL is an object-oriented communication framework for ubiquitous systems which provides secure communication and decentralized access control. UbiPAL uses a modified SecPAL implementation to provide reliable, ad hoc access control. The UbiPAL system uses cryptographically signed, publicly held namespace certificates and access control lists in the style of TLS certificates. This approach allows message authentication and authorization in an ad hoc, completely decentralized method while maintaining human readability of policy language. UbiPAL was implemented as a C++ library, made freely available at (1), and evaluated to have minimized overhead. Even on the slowest device evaluated, a Raspberry Pi, UbiPAL authentication and authorization adds less than 20 milliseconds to the delivery a message with a message overhead of 153 bytes. The UbiPAL programming model separates access policy from application programming and results in small amounts of code required from the application programmer, creating an accessible paradigm for programming ubiquitous computing systems.Item WiFi-Med : implementation of a ubiquitous health monitoring system on an Android platform(2011-08) Qamar, Nabil; Perry, Dewayne E.; Aziz, AdnanRecent technological advances in biosensors, wireless networking, and mobile computing have enabled the design of systems which are capable of autonomously monitoring various vital signs and providing personalized feedback (e.g. alerts, alarms, and triggers) for the user in real-time. As technology advances, there is no doubt that quality of life will improve for patients and the medical world alike. This thesis describes WiFi-Med, a client side, mobile application built on the Android platform. Our project is designed to enable a mobile device user to aggregate and monitor physiological data through wireless biosensors. Currently, our focus is to develop and improve an Android application by using simulated physiological data. Once perfected, WiFi-Med application can be easily integrated with a body sensor network. First, we present the motivation behind WiFi-Med through real life user scenarios, followed by an introduction to the Android platform architecture. Next, we describe application design and architecture, implementation model and test strategy. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of future development ideas and present our thoughts on prospects of collaborating WiFi-Med and biosensors in ubiquitous computing environments.