Accessible Web Page Design for the Visually Impaired: A Case Study

Section 508 of the Rehabilitations Act of 1973 states that federal agencies are required to maintain accessible web-based information for persons with disabilities, namely, visual impairments. Studies spanning over 1 decade conducted by The American Foundation for the Blind and Towson University’s Universal Usability Lab investigated federal home pages for Section 508 violations. Both studies concluded that numerous university, corporate, federal, and federal contractor websites are largely inaccessible to people with disabilities—specifically in terms of clarity, consistency, and fidelity to standards. Due to inconsistencies across federal agencies, constant website updates, and webmaster turnaround, there is a need for practical guidelines for web page design compliant with Section 508, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, with particular focus on the visually impaired.     

A Study on Smart Home Design Incorporating Ubiquitous Healthcare Services

The smart home using ubiquitous technology can effectively provide services to the elderly and the physically impaired. However, such services are accompanied by high initial cost of installation and the operating inefficiency due to the absence of design guidelines. To solve these, the integrated management of the process by supplying the public service like voucher schemes to the dwelling is needed. This paper mainly proposes a research about the healthcare service in a residential environment, which includes medical service and safety service and so on, by surveying the voucher program and the in-house infra status. Finally, the house planning elements for healthcare-based smart home are drawn and the planning directions through expert survey are suggested. Therefore, this study surveyed on voucher program and in-house infra status, and drew the house planning elements for health-based care smart home. In addition, this study suggested the planning direction through expert survey. This study can be used as a guideline for constructing a smart home, which supplies healthcare service.     

支持Agent社交活动的方法体系SASA5

传统软件Agent技术在开发基于Web的社交智能中应用潜力严重受阻,原因在于该技术只适用于封闭的小规模系统,难以适应将出现于Web的Agent社会所面临的由大量异质Agents参与的、开放的、动态变化的并充满不确定因素的因特网环境．该文提出支持Agent社交活动的方法体系SASA5,旨在以社区／联邦式的政策导向型社会体制为主线,从5维(信息建模、中介服务、理性协商、法制管理和用户调控)去建设开放式、多方位、系统化、安全的且易于人透明调控的社交活动基础结构,以支持Agent社交智能的有效开发．     

LBS-p:一个支持在线地图服务的LBS支撑平台

随着第三代通信技术(3G)和基于位置的服务(LBS)的发展,如何满足LBS用户随时随地的需要、以在线模式提供地图服务等GIS服务,成为一个重要的问题。针对LBS对于在线地图服务的需要,提出了一个基于轻量二进制矢量地图数据格式Byte-Map支持在线地图服务的LBS支撑平台LBS-p。LBS-p由运行在移动设备上的LBS-p mobile和服务器端的LBS-pserver组成。LBS-p mobile是一个基于Java ME平台的应用程序,负责在线地图数据的请求、管理及显示,以及LBS的访问与结果展示。LBS-pserver主要包括3部分:负责为在线地图服务准备地图数据的Byte-Map数据预处理机制;负责响应移动终端的在线数据请求,实时为其提供在线地图数据的Byte-Map数据服务模块;及面向LBS的GIS服务模块。LBS-p利用轻量地图数据格式Byte-Map,通过服务器端的在线地图服务模块和移动终端模块实现在线地图服务。     

A Design Process for a Customer Journey Map: A Case Study on Mobile Services

A customer journey map (CJM) is a widely used tool to represent user experience with a service. Although numerous companies have used this tool to improve existing services or to develop new services, the maps are neither consistent nor mutually compatible because no clear design process for a CJM has been presented. This study aimed to develop a design process and rule sets for a CJM based on a human factors approach. The 10‐step process and the rule sets were built on case studies of 25 categories of mobile services. Large‐scale case studies were conducted with mobile service providers and combined with the result of a user diary method that collected users’ daily activities and the difficulties that the user perceived when performing a task. We suggested various methods for using the CJM to generate new service opportunities. The proposed design process and the way for opportunity discovery can help service designers to develop unified CJMs and to identify innovative service ideas.     

一种支撑电信新业务的软件过程建模方法

基于对软件过程建模基本方法的研究,针对支撑电信新业务领域的软件过程建模特征,提出了一种在业务运营支撑系统(OSS/BSS)中支撑电信新业务的软件过程建模方法。经实际应用,该方法能较好地指导实际工作,具有一定的实用性。     

Personal Information Self-Management:A Survey of Technologies Supporting Administrative Services

This paper presents a survey of technologies for personal data self-management interfacing with administrative and territorial public service providers.It classifies a selection of scientific technologies into four categories of solutions:Personal Data Store (PDS),Identity Manager (IdM),Anonymous Certificate System and Access Control Delegation Ar-chitecture.Each category,along with its technological approach,is analyzed thanks to 18 identified functional criteria that encompass architectural and communication aspects,as well as user data lifecycle considerations.The originality of the survey is multifold.First,as far as we know,there is no such thorough survey covering such a panel of a dozen of existing solutions.Second,it is the first survey addressing Personally Identifiable Information (PII) management for both administrative and private service providers.Third,this paper achieves a functional comparison of solutions of very different technical natures.The outcome of this paper is the clear identification of functional gaps of each solution.As a result,this paper establishes the research directions to follow in order to fill these functional gaps.     

Extending an ICT4D Computer Re-use Model with E-waste Handling Activities: A Case Study

This paper illustrates how a computer re-use model can be extended to deal with e-waste challenges. First, we describe the re-use of computers as a factor that can help bridge the global digital divide. In an ICT4D context, refurbished computers can be used in developing countries. We describe and illustrate the operating model of such a computer re-use organization, highlighting the different components and interactions of the operating model. Next, we discuss how e-waste puts this computer re-use model under pressure. We argue that the sustainability of computer re-use in an ICT4D context is seriously impacted by this increasing e-waste problem. Finally, we describe how a computer re-use model can be extended and complemented with e-waste handling activities to retain positive effects in an ICT4D context. The paper is based on a single case study.     

基于C／S结构的空气监测日报预报便携式移动办公平台开发实例

文章论述了便携式移动空气监测日报预报办公平台（简称平台）开发技术，该平台用Vb2008编程，采用现代通信技术，实现C／S结构形式；还介绍用Vb2008连接Dbf和Txt文件，查询与读写Ftp文件，形成日报预报文件等实现日报预报移动办公技术难点。为新标准（《GB3096—2012》）对日报预报评价提供技术借鉴。     

A Generic Framework for Supporting Internet Services to Achieve Customer Value Creation

This paper discusses the current trends within the software industry that have affected the evolution of software support and its move to the Internet. Accordingly, it proposes a scheme for an Internet support framework within the software industry, and analyses the specific elements required for building and implementing such a system. The framework leverages and extends on strategic analysis discussed by Rayport and Viokla [1]. The evolution of ‘live’ support to Internet services emulates the evolution from the Physical Value Chain (PVC) to the Virtual Value Chain (VVC) discussed by them. In particular, the benefits of this proposed scheme to both the customer and the organisation are outlined.     

How User Experience Changes over Time: A Case Study of Social Network Services

While interacting with a product or a service, people have diverse experiences, which constitute user experience (UX). In this study, the hierarchical dimensions of UX were considered, including overall UX, its elements (usability, affect, and user value) and their subelements. To determine how UX changes over time, the temporal changes of the influence of each element and subelement were analyzed. Twenty subjects participated in a longitudinal experiment by using a social network service (SNS). The most important element of UX changed from usability to user value after one week of use. These results suggest that adoption of an SNS occurs in two phases: a phase of affected by usability and a phase affected by user value. Identification of these phases and the systematic approach used in the study are expected to contribute to design and evaluation of new SNSs and other products and services.     

Pinned OS/Services: A Case Study of XML Parsing on Intel SCC

Nowadays,we are heading towards integrating hundreds to thousands of cores on a single chip.However,traditional system software and middleware are not well suited to manage and provide services at such large scale.To improve the scalability and adaptability of operating system and middleware services on future many-core platform,we propose the pinned OS/services.By porting each OS and runtime system(middleware) service to a separate core(special hardware acceleration),we expect to achieve maximal performance gain and energy efficiency in many-core environments.As a case study,we target on XML(Extensible Markup Language),the commonly used data transfer/store standard in the world.We have successfully implemented and evaluated the design of porting XML parsing service onto Intel 48-core Single-Chip Cloud Computer(SCC) platform.The results show that it can provide considerable energy saving.However,we also identified heavy performance penalties introduced from memory side,making the parsing service bloated.Hence,as a further step,we propose the memory-side hardware accelerator for XML parsing.With specified hardware design,we can further enhance the performance gain and energy efficiency,where the performance can be improved by 20% with 12.27% energy reduction.     

Supporting NGNs Core Software Services: A Hybrid Architecture and its Performance Analysis

In the last few years telco providers are striving to migrate their services from the traditional Public Switch Telephone Network to so called Next Generation Networks (NGNs) based on standard IP connectivity. This switch is expected to produce a cost degression of 50% for CAPital EXpenditure, while OPerating EXpences remains fairly stable due to network management and energy costs. At the same time, the instantiation of new telco services (Voice over IP, video conferencing, etc.) and the support of third party applications (such as support to smartphone applications, etc.) are expected to produce a big increase of the load of a telco provider at the core level. The goal of this work is to show how management and energy costs can be effectively reduced by leveraging autonomic approaches to move some NGN services toward the telco network edge while still providing Quality of Service (QoS) levels comparable with those provided by a traditional fully-managed infrastructure. This is done by taking into consideration the increase of the load of such services that is expected to raise by one order of magnitude in the near future. Specifically, we propose a hybrid architecture letting telco administrators reduce the number of servers in the provider managed network by exploiting home devices in the computation and by organizing them in a self-configuring Peer to Peer system; in this way it is possible to reduce the overall system and operational costs. Our claims are supported by an experimental study based on both simulations and theoretical models that analyze the trade-off between the number of servers and home devices in order to guarantee a service within QoS constraints. Experiments are carried out on a realistic model that abstracts the lookup procedures within the NGN of a big telco provider (i.e., finding the IP address of a given unique user profile).     

UbiCloud:一种面向普适终端的云计算系统

针对低性能终端的复杂计算需求,设计了面向普适终端的云计算系统UbiCloud。通过对云中计算资源的描 述、发现、访问、评价等问题进行研究,在前端普适终端与后端云之间构建虚拟计算环境,实现了一个异构终端的云计 算服务发布及访问平台。在对服务质量的评价上结合AHP算法给出了一个有效的服务评价模型,在建立判断矩阵 的过程中提出了两种一致性矩阵构建方法。最后对系统进行了性能测试,结果表明系统在应用响应时间等指标方面 可以达到设计目的。     

UbiCloud:一种面向普适终端的云计算系统

针对低性能终端的复杂计算需求,设计了面向普适终端的云计算系统UbiCloud.通过对云中计算资源的描述、发现、访问、评价等问题进行研究,在前端普适终端与后端云之间构建虚拟计算环境,实现了一个异构终端的云计算服务发布及访问平台.在对服务质量的评价上结合AHP算法给出了一个有效的服务评价模型,在建立判断矩阵的过程中提出了两种一致性矩阵构建方法.最后对系统进行了性能测试,结果表明系统在应用响应时间等指标方面可以达到设计目的.     

A Consensus Novelty Detection Ensemble Approach for Anomaly Detection in Activities of Daily Living

A new approach to creating an ensemble of novelty detection algorithms is proposed in this paper. The novelty detection process identifies new or unknown data by detecting if a test data differs significantly from the data available during training. It is applicable for anomaly detection in a situation where there is sufficiently large training data representing the normal class and little or no training data for the anomalous (abnormal) class. Abnormality in Activities of Daily Living (ADL) is identified as any significant deviation from an individual’s usual behavioural routine. Novelty detection is relevant to ADL anomaly detection since abnormalities in ADL are rare and data representing the anomalous cases are not readily available. The proposed Consensus Novelty Detection Ensemble approach is based on the concept of internal and external consensus. The internal consensus is an internal voting scheme within each model in the ensemble while the external consensus is an external voting scheme among the ensemble models. The weight of each model is estimated based on its performance and a score, called “Normality Score”. Computed score is used in classifying the data as abnormal (anomalous) based on certain threshold crossing, normal otherwise. Experimental evaluation is conducted to detect abnormalities in ADL data obtained from CASAS repository as well as experimental dataset collected for this research. The obtained results show that the proposed approach is able to identify anomalous instances. The proposed approach offers more flexibility compared with the existing approaches by allowing the Normality Score threshold to be adjusted without retraining the models.     

Computing for Human Experience: Semantics-Empowered Sensors, Services, and Social Computing on the Ubiquitous Web

Computing for human experience will employ a suite of technologies to nondestructively and unobtrusively complement and enrich normal human activities, with minimal explicit concern or effort on the humans' part.     

Increasing Productivity Through a Combination of Automation and Robotics: A Case Study of Assay Services

The Assay Services Department at Genentech, Inc., is a service laboratory that performs drug level measurement and antibody testing in support of pre-clinical animal studies and human clinical studies. As the number of Genentech products has increased, so have the number of studies, resulting in an annual increase in the number of samples generated and an increased demand for assay support. Assay Services has addressed this by increasing the efficiency and productivity of sample handling and assaying through the automation of various procedures. All sample dilutions are now done by automated dilutors, reducing the number of reassays and virtually eliminating the repetitive stress of manual sample dilutions. In addition, two complete ELISA robot stations have been in use over the last two years that have increased throughput by increasing the number of plates per run (a robot can assay ten to fifteen 96-well microtiter plates per run), and by allowing assays to run overnight without requiring the presence of lab personnel. The net gain from the automation efforts has been to double the number of samples run without increasing the number of lab personnel.     

TRIP: A Low-Cost Vision-Based Location System for Ubiquitous Computing

Sentient Computing provides computers with perception so that they can react and provide assistance to user activities. Physical spaces are made sentient when they are wired with networks of sensors capturing context data, which is communicated to computing devices spread through the environment. These devices interpret the information provided and react by performing the actions expected by the user. Among the types of context information provided by sensors, location has proven to be especially useful. Since location is an important context that changes whenever the user moves, a reliable location-tracking system is critical to many sentient applications. However, the sensor technologies used in indoor location tracking are expensive and complex to deploy, configure and maintain. These factors have prevented a wider adoption of Sentient Computing in our living and working spaces. This paper presents TRIP, a low-cost and easily deployable vision-based sensor technology addressing these issues. TRIP employs off-the-shelf hardware (low-cost CCD cameras and PCs) and printable 2-D circular markers for entity identification and location. The usability of TRIP is illustrated through the implementation of several sentient applications.