WISDOM: A website design method based on reusing design and software solutions

ContextWebsites are increasingly important for advertising and announcing information and they have become virtual business operations support tools. Thus, website designers have to take an increasing number of criteria (cost, delay, quality, security, maintenance) into account during design process to satisfy the needs.ObjectiveThe objective of this paper was to present our WISDOM method that: guides the designer through the website design process, proposes design solutions based on already existing solutions for online website design, facilitates the choice of software components to implement specific services, and speeds up website construction.MethodThe originality of our method is that it links the design process to formalized experience and a software component characterization that allows both functional and non-functional aspects to be considered.ResultsThis method relies on the state-of-the-art strengths in the website design process, modeling dimensions, Model-Driven Engineering and the patterns approach. We propose an implementation of our method as a dedicated website which helps website design and provides a website analysis catalog and a software component analysis catalog.ConclusionOur analysis of the method’s use highlights that formalizing the steps of the design process helps designers, especially novice designers, to design a website; our analysis of the tool’s use highlights its efficiency for rapid website development and its use of the “website family” concept. The results are so very encouraging for both method and tool; both facilitate website design by reusing existing solutions and components.     

Specifying and optimizing robotic motion for visual quality inspection

Installation or even just modification of robot-supported production and quality inspection is a tedious process that usually requires full-time human expert engagement. The resulting parameters, e.g. robot velocities specified by an expert, are often subjective and produce suboptimal results. In this paper, we propose a new approach for specifying visual inspection trajectories based on CAD models of workpieces to be inspected. The expert involvement is required only to select – in a CAD system – the desired points on the inspection path along which the robot should move the camera. The rest of the approach is fully automatic. From the selected path data, the system computes temporal parametrization of the path, which ensures smoothness of the resulting robot trajectory for visual inspection. We then apply a new learning method for the optimization of robot speed along the specified path. The proposed approach combines iterative learning control and reinforcement learning. It takes a numerical estimate of image quality as input and produces the fastest possible motion that does not result in the degradation of image quality as output. In our experiments, the algorithm achieved up to 53% cycle time reduction from an initial, manually specified motion, without degrading the image quality. We show experimentally that the proposed algorithm achieves better results compared to some other policy learning approaches. The described approach is general and can be used with different types of learning and feedback signals.     

基于电流复用技术的低功耗正交信号VCO

针对低功耗蓝牙(Bluetooth Low Energy,BLE)正交上/下变频收发机,实现了一种低功耗的正交信号产生器。相比传统电流复用技术VCO,增加尾电流源以降低平均电流损耗,同时确保相位噪声满足指标要求。基于TSMC0.18μm标准CMOS工艺的仿真结果表明,正交信号频率为849.7 MHz时,在偏移中心频率1 MHz时的相位噪声为-126 d Bc/Hz;在1.8 V电源电压下仅消耗1.05 m A电流,Fo M值为182 d Bc。经过二分频后的正交信号总体频率范围是783~866 MHz,整体版图面积为0.38 mm~2。相位噪声和频率范围满足BLE指标要求,对其他低功耗射频应用具有指导意义。     

Calibrating and optimizing poses of visual sensors in distributed platforms

Many novel multimedia, home entertainment, visual surveillance and health applications use multiple audio-visual sensors. We present a novel approach for position and pose calibration of visual sensors, i.e., cameras, in a distributed network of general purpose computing devices (GPCs). It complements our work on position calibration of audio sensors and actuators in a distributed computing platform (Raykar et al. in proceedings of ACM Multimedia ‘03, pp. 572–581, 2003). The approach is suitable for a wide range of possible – even mobile – setups since (a) synchronization is not required, (b) it works automatically, (c) only weak restrictions are imposed on the positions of the cameras, and (d) no upper limit on the number of cameras under calibration is imposed. Corresponding points across different camera images are established automatically. Cameras do not have to share one common view. Only a reasonable overlap between camera subgroups is necessary. The method has been sucessfully tested in numerous multi-camera environments with a varying number of cameras and has proven itself to work extremely accurate. Once all distributed visual sensors are calibrated, we focus on post-optimizing their poses to increase coverage of the space observed. A linear programming approach is derived that determines jointly for each camera the pan and tilt angle that maximizes the coverage of the space at a given sampling frequency. Experimental results clearly demonstrate the gain in visual coverage.Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee.     

Mobile Edge Computing: Opportunities,solutions, and challenges

The emergence of several new computing applications, such as virtual reality and smart environments, has become possible due to availability of large pool of cloud resources and services. However, the delay-sensitive applications pose strict delay requirements that transforms euphoria into a problem. The cloud computing paradigm is unable to meet the requirements of low latency, location awareness, and mobility support. In this context, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) was introduced to bring the cloud services and resources closer to the user proximity by leveraging the available resources in the edge networks. In this paper, we present the definitions of the MEC given by researchers. Further, motivation of the MEC is highlighted by discussing various applications. We also discuss the opportunities brought by the MEC and some of the important research challenges are highlighted in MEC environment. A brief overview of accepted papers in our Special Issue on MEC is presented. Finally we conclude this paper by highlighting the key points and summarizing the paper.     

Spatio-temporal constraints in fieldbus: Requirements and current solutions

Fieldbus are used to interconnect devices at the process level. At this level, temporal and spatial consistencies are of prime importance. The communication must provide ways to comply with these requirements.In this paper, we explain the consistency requirements and show how they are supported in existing fieldbus proposals. This study shows that only FIP takes them into account, although partially, while the other proposals leave it to the application. Finally, we show how these requirements may be satisfied in a simple and efficient manner with minor modification and appropriate use of the FIP mechanisms.     

Effects of experience and processing demands on visual information acquisition in drivers

This study investigated the differences between novices and experienced drivers in their distribution of visual attention under different levels of cognitive load imposed by different types of road, and as reflected in their visual search strategies. The task involved a 20-min drive on various roads while the drivers' eye movements were recorded. The measures taken included fixation durations, as an indicator of the time taken to assimilate fixated objects, and the variance of fixation co-ordinates to describe the spread of search in both the horizontal and vertical axes. Differences were found between novices and experienced drivers according to the type of road being driven. The results suggested that experienced drivers select visual strategies according to the complexity of the roadway, and that the strategies of novices are too inflexible to meet changing demands.     

Mobile video literacy: negotiating the use of a new visual technology

In this article, we examine the practice of learning to produce video using a new visual technology. Drawing upon a design intervention at a science centre, where a group of teenagers tried a new prototype technology for live mobile video editing, we show how the participants struggle with both the content and the form of producing videos, i.e., what to display and how to do it in a comprehensible manner. We investigate the ways in which video literacy practices are negotiated as ongoing accomplishments and explore the communicative and material resources relied upon by participants as they create videos. Our results show that the technology is instrumental in this achievement and that as participants begin to master the prototype, they start to focus more on the narrative aspects of communicating the storyline of a science centre exhibit. The participants are explicitly concerned with such issues as how to create a comprehensible storyline for an assumed audience, what camera angles to use, how to cut and other aspects of the production of a video. We consider these observed activities to be candidate steps in an emerging mobile video literacy trajectory that involves developing a capacity to document and argue by means of this specific medium.     

Retrieval of high-dimensional visual data: current state,trends and challenges ahead

Information retrieval algorithms have changed the way we manage and use various data sources, such as images, music or multimedia collections. First, free text information of documents from varying sources became accessible in addition to structured data in databases, initially for exact search and then for more probabilistic models. Novel approaches enable content-based visual search of images using computerized image analysis making visual image content searchable without requiring high quality manual annotations. Other multimedia data followed such as video and music retrieval, sometimes based on techniques such as extracting objects and classifying genre. 3D (surface) objects and solid textures have also been produced in quickly increasing quantities, for example in medical tomographic imaging. For these two types of 3D information sources, systems have become available to characterize the objects or textures and search for similar visual content in large databases. With 3D moving sequences (i.e., 4D), in particular medical imaging, even higher-dimensional data have become available for analysis and retrieval and currently present many multimedia retrieval challenges. This article systematically reviews current techniques in various fields of 3D and 4D visual information retrieval and analyses the currently dominating application areas. The employed techniques are analysed and regrouped to highlight similarities and complementarities among them in order to guide the choice of optimal approaches for new 3D and 4D retrieval problems. Opportunities for future applications conclude the article. 3D or higher-dimensional visual information retrieval is expected to grow quickly in the coming years and in this respect this article can serve as a basis for designing new applications.     

Formal Ontology: Foundation of Domain Knowledge Sharing and Reusing

Domain analysis is the activity of identifying and representing the relevant information in a domain,so that the information can be shared and reused in similar systems.But until now,no efficient approaches are available for capturing and representing the results of domain analysis and then for sharing and reusing the domain knowledge.This paper proposes an ontology-oriented approach for formalizing the domain models.The architecture for the multiple-layer structure of the domain knowledge base is also discussed.And finally,some genetic algorithm-based methods have been given for supporting the knowledge sharing and reusing.     

Mobile robot localization using a self-organized visual environment representation

Owing to the upcoming applications in the field of service robotics mobile robots are currently receiving increasing attention in industry and the scientific community. Applications in the area of service robotics demand a high degree of system autonomy, which robots without learning capabilities will not be able to meet. Learning is required in the context of action models and appropriate perception procedures. In both areas flexible adaptivity is difficult to achieve especially when high bandwidth sensors (e.g. video cameras) - which are needed in the envisioned unstructured worlds - are used. This paper proposes a new methodology for image-based navigation using a self-organized visual representation of the environment. Self-organization leads to internal representations, which can be used by the robot, but are not transparent to the user. It is shown how this conceptual gap can be bridged.     

Developing visual systems and exposure to virtual reality and stereo displays: some concerns and speculations about the demands on accommodation and vergence

Little is known about the developmental plasticity of the vergence and accommodative systems, an important issue since abnormalities can lead to visual problems, e.g. strabismus. One way of artificially altering the links between accommodation and vergence is to vary the stimulus to vergence while fixing the accommodative stimulus, as is found in virtual reality displays. While it would be of interest to study developmental plasticity in this situation, since many children are exposed to games machines which use this arrangement, no studies to date have tackled this issue. There is, however, some indication that long-term VR viewing in adults can lead to visual problems. It seems important to determine the safety of these systems for the developing human visual system before they come into common use. In this paper, adaptation of the accommodation and vergence systems and the effect of VR viewing in adults is discussed. The sparse literature on adaptation in children is then reviewed, and suggestions made for approaches that would enhance our knowledge of plasticity of accommodation and vergence in children.     

Concept formation from design cases: why reusing experience and why not

This paper describes an environment that supports novice information systems designers in initial concept formation by organising design `cases' in evolving networks, automatically clustered by a neural agent to suggest generalisations of design patterns. Flexible reframing of the cases also supports creativity by uncovering less obvious but relevant design concepts. If the responsibility, of linking related design cases is distributed to a population of learners who contribute their cases and tentative generalisations, genetic techniques can be applied to sustain the evolution of the base of cases towards ontological forms that better guide and constrain the case reuse process, thus supporting knowledge transfer.     

Two efficient solutions for visual odometry using directional correspondence

This paper presents two new, efficient solutions to the two-view, relative pose problem from three image point correspondences and one common reference direction. This three-plus-one problem can be used either as a substitute for the classic five-point algorithm, using a vanishing point for the reference direction, or to make use of an inertial measurement unit commonly available on robots and mobile devices where the gravity vector becomes the reference direction. We provide a simple, closed-form solution and a solution based on algebraic geometry which offers numerical advantages. In addition, we introduce a new method for computing visual odometry with RANSAC and four point correspondences per hypothesis. In a set of real experiments, we demonstrate the power of our approach by comparing it to the five-point method in a hypothesize-and-test visual odometry setting.     

A survey on content-centric technologies for the current Internet: CDN and P2P solutions

One of the most striking properties of the Internet is its flexibility to accommodate features it was not conceived for. Among the most significant examples, in this survey we consider the transition of the Internet from a reliable fault-tolerant network for host-to-host communication to a content-centric network, i.e. a network mostly devoted to support efficient generation, sharing and access to content. We survey this research area according to a top-down approach. We present a conceptual framework that encompasses the key building blocks required to support content-centric networking in the Internet. Then we describe in detail the two most important types of content-centric Internet technologies, i.e., Content-Delivery Networks (CDNs) and P2P systems. For each of them, we show how they cover the key building blocks. We then identify the functional components of CDN and P2P content management solutions, and discuss the main solutions proposed in the literature for each of them. We consider different types of content (both real time and non real time), and different networking environments (fixed, mobile, …). Finally, we also discuss the main recent research trends focused on how to design the Future Internet as a native content-centric network.     

Capturing and reusing knowledge in engineering change management: A case of automobile development

The development of complex products, such as automobiles, involves engineering changes that frequently require redesigning or altering the products. Although it has been found that efficient management of knowledge and collaboration in engineering changes is crucial for the success of new product development, extant systems for engineering changes focus mainly on storing documents related to the engineering changes or simply automating the approval processes, while the knowledge that is generated from collaboration and decision-making processes may not be captured and managed easily. This consequently limits the use of the systems by the participants in engineering change processes. This paper describes a model for knowledge management and collaboration in engineering change processes, and based on the model, builds a prototype system that demonstrates the model’s strengths. We studied a major Korean automobile company to analyze the automobile industry’s unique requirements regarding engineering changes. We also developed domain ontologies from the case to facilitate knowledge sharing in the design process. For achieving efficient retrieval and reuse of past engineering changes, we used a case-based reasoning (CBR) with a concept-based similarity measure.

Practical issues in the application of occlusion to measure visual demands imposed on drivers by in-vehicle tasks

Occlusion is a practical technique to measure the visual demand imposed by in-vehicle tasks and to assess whether a task can be resumed having been interrupted. This study describes a number of important factors and variables that need to be controlled to ensure reliability of results. Training of participants on in-vehicle tasks is found to help consistency and five training sessions are required for complex tasks. No significant differences in training with and without occlusion goggles are reported. The required sample size is dependent on the variability of the task; for those investigated an appropriate sample size is found to be 14. For in-vehicle systems that exhibit a delay in response to the user, consistency is improved when these delays are excluded from timing measurements. In terms of calculating the occlusion parameter R, the within-participant basis is most consistent by taking the ratio of the respective median total shutter open time and total task times across trial repetitions completed by one participant on each task under evaluation and, for the purposes of identifying interface designs that exhibit poor resumability, the 85th percentile value is identified as most suitable. Findings from the study are discussed in terms of future application of the occlusion technique to assess in-vehicle information systems (IVIS).     

Practical issues in the application of occlusion to measure visual demands imposed on drivers by in-vehicle tasks

Occlusion is a practical technique to measure the visual demand imposed by in-vehicle tasks and to assess whether a task can be resumed having been interrupted. This study describes a number of important factors and variables that need to be controlled to ensure reliability of results. Training of participants on in-vehicle tasks is found to help consistency and five training sessions are required for complex tasks. No significant differences in training with and without occlusion goggles are reported. The required sample size is dependent on the variability of the task; for those investigated an appropriate sample size is found to be 14. For in-vehicle systems that exhibit a delay in response to the user, consistency is improved when these delays are excluded from timing measurements. In terms of calculating the occlusion parameter R, the within-participant basis is most consistent by taking the ratio of the respective median total shutter open time and total task times across trial repetitions completed by one participant on each task under evaluation and, for the purposes of identifying interface designs that exhibit poor resumability, the 85th percentile value is identified as most suitable. Findings from the study are discussed in terms of future application of the occlusion technique to assess in-vehicle information systems (IVIS).     

Indoor location based services challenges,requirements and usability of current solutions

Indoor Location Based Services (LBS), such as indoor navigation and tracking, still have to deal with both technical and non-technical challenges. For this reason, they have not yet found a prominent position in people’s everyday lives. Reliability and availability of indoor positioning technologies, the availability of up-to-date indoor maps, and privacy concerns associated with location data are some of the biggest challenges to their development. If these challenges were solved, or at least minimized, there would be more penetration into the user market. This paper studies the requirements of LBS applications, through a survey conducted by the authors, identifies the current challenges of indoor LBS, and reviews the available solutions that address the most important challenge, that of providing seamless indoor/outdoor positioning. The paper also looks at the potential of emerging solutions and the technologies that may help to handle this challenge.     

Encapsulation of legacy software: A technique for reusing legacy software components

The following paper reviews the possibilities of encapsulating existing legacy software for reuse in new distributed architectures. It suggests wrapping as an alternative strategy to reengineering and redevelopment. It then defines the levels of granularity at which software can be encapsulated before going on to describe how to construct a wrapper and how to adapt host programs for wrapping. Some wrapping products are discussed and the state of the art summarized. The advantage of wrapping over conventional reengineering is the low cost and even lower risks involved. This is the driving force in the search for improved wrapping technology. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.