A survey of smart product-service systems: Key aspects,challenges and future perspectives

The rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICT) has enabled the prevailing digital transformation (i.e. digitalization), where physical products can be readily digitized in the virtual space and seamlessly interconnected. Meanwhile, industries are ever increasingly adopting service business models (i.e. servitization), so as to offer not only physical products but also services as a solution bundle to meet individual customer needs. Such convergence of both digitalization and servitization (i.e. digital servitization) has triggered an emerging IT-driven business paradigm, smart product-service systems (Smart PSS). As a novel paradigm coined in 2014, to the authors’ knowledge, only 2 conference papers have provided some literature review to date, and many issues remain uncovered or not comprehensively investigated. Aiming to fill this gap, this paper has conducted a systematic review of Smart PSS or related papers published ever since its first brought up to date (30/06/2019), and selected 97 representative items together with other 37 supplementary works to summarize the tendency towards Smart PSS, its business and technical aspects, current challenges, and future perspectives. From the survey, it is found that several hybrid concerns are the key challenges faced, and self-adaptiveness with sustainability, advanced IT infrastructure, human-centric perspectives, and circular lifecycle management are the core future perspectives to explore. It is hoped that this work can attract more open discussions and provide useful insights to both academics and industries in their exploration and implementation of Smart PSS.     

深度强化学习综述简

移动群智感知（mobile crowdsensing, MCS）是利用大规模移动智能设备进行数据收集、数据挖掘和智能决策的新范式,高效的任务分配方法是MCS获得高性能的关键. 传统的贪婪算法或蚂蚁算法假设工人和任务固定,不适用于工人和任务的位置、数量和时间动态变化的场景. 而且,现有任务分配方法通常由中央服务器收集工人和任务的信息进行决策,容易导致工人隐私泄露. 因此,提出具有隐私保护的深度强化学习（deep reinforcement learning, DRL）模型来获得优化的任务分配策略. 首先,将任务分配建模为多目标优化的动态规划问题,旨在最大化工人和平台的双向收益,实现纳什均衡. 其次,提出基于DRL的近端策略优化（proximal policy optimization, PPO）模型进行训练,学习模型参数. 最后,通过本地差分隐私方式,对工人位置等敏感信息加入随机噪声实现隐私保护,并由中央服务器训练整个模型,获得最优分配策略. 对收敛时间、最大收益和任务覆盖率等指标进行实验评估,在模拟数据集上的实验结果表明,与传统方法和其他基于DRL的方法对比,该方法在不同的评估指标上均有明显提升,并且能够保护工人的隐私.

     

A review on the characteristics of cyber-physical systems for the future smart factories

The emergence of new technologies is providing new ways to compete in the current context of changeable and unpredictable market requirements. The focus of this paper is on Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs), as one of the most promising transformative technological concept of such a context, thus considered by literature as the building blocks of future smart factories. However, CPSs are still in their conceptualization phase. To this end, much literature effort has been put on their technological characterization, while there is a lack of knowledge on the operations management characterization to manage such new systems. To contribute in this latter direction, this paper reviews literature in order to distinguish between technological characteristics of CPSs and operations management characteristics to build future CPS-based smart factories. This paper remarks the need for research on operations management characteristics as these may be the ones actually leading operations managers to the concrete implementation of CPS-based factories in manufacturing.     

Developing future human-centered smart cities: Critical analysis of smart city security,Data management,and Ethical challenges

As the globally increasing population drives rapid urbanization in various parts of the world, there is a great need to deliberate on the future of the cities worth living. In particular, as modern smart cities embrace more and more data-driven artificial intelligence services, it is worth remembering that (1) technology can facilitate prosperity, wellbeing, urban livability, or social justice, but only when it has the right analog complements (such as well-thought out policies, mature institutions, responsible governance); and (2) the ultimate objective of these smart cities is to facilitate and enhance human welfare and social flourishing. Researchers have shown that various technological business models and features can in fact contribute to social problems such as extremism, polarization, misinformation, and Internet addiction. In the light of these observations, addressing the philosophical and ethical questions involved in ensuring the security, safety, and interpretability of such AI algorithms that will form the technological bedrock of future cities assumes paramount importance. Globally there are calls for technology to be made more humane and human-centered. In this paper, we analyze and explore key challenges including security, robustness, interpretability, and ethical (data and algorithmic) challenges to a successful deployment of AI in human-centric applications, with a particular emphasis on the convergence of these concepts/challenges. We provide a detailed review of existing literature on these key challenges and analyze how one of these challenges may lead to others or help in solving other challenges. The paper also advises on the current limitations, pitfalls, and future directions of research in these domains, and how it can fill the current gaps and lead to better solutions. We believe such rigorous analysis will provide a baseline for future research in the domain.     

Past, present and future of mobile payments research: A literature review

The mobile payment services markets are currently under transition with a history of numerous tried and failed solutions, and a future of promising but yet uncertain possibilities with potential new technology innovations. At this point of the development, we take a look at the current state of the mobile payment services market from a literature review perspective. We review prior literature on mobile payments, analyze the various factors that impact mobile payment services markets, and suggest directions for future research in this still emerging field. To facilitate the analysis of literature, we propose a framework of four contingency and five competitive force factors, and organize the mobile payment research under the proposed framework. Consumer perspective of mobile payments as well as technical security and trust are best covered by contemporary research. The impacts of social and cultural factors on mobile payments, as well as comparisons between mobile and traditional payment services are entirely uninvestigated issues. Most of the factors outlined by the framework have been addressed by exploratory and early phase studies.     

Analytics of location-based big data for smart cities: Opportunities,challenges, and future directions

The growing ubiquity of location/activity sensing technologies and location-based services (LBS) has led to a large volume and variety of location-based big data (LocBigData), such as location tracking or sensing data, social media data, and crowdsourced geographic information. The increasing availability of such LocBigData has created unprecedented opportunities for research on urban systems and human environments in general. In this article, we first review the common types of LocBigData: mobile phone network data, GPS data, Location-based social media data, LBS usage/log data, smart card travel data, beacon log data (WiFi or Bluetooth), and camera imagery data. Secondly, we describe the opportunities fueled by LocBigData for the realization of smart cities, mainly via answering questions ranging from “what happened” and “why did it happen” to “what's likely to happen in the future” and “what to do next”. Thirdly, pitfalls of dealing with LocBigData are summarized, such as high volume/velocity/variety; non-random sampling; messy and not clean data; and correlations rather than causal relationships. Finally, we review the state-of-the-art research trends in this field, and conclude the article with a list of open research challenges and a research agenda for LocBigData research to help achieve the vision of smart and sustainable cities.     

Review Paper: A critical review of the present and future prospects for electronic paper

Abstract— The commercial success of monochrome electronic paper (e‐Paper) is now propelling the development of next‐generation flexible, video, and color e‐Paper products. Unlike the early battles in the 1980s and 1990s between transmissive and emissive display technologies, there is a extraordinary diversity of technologies vying to become the next generation of e‐Paper. A critical review of all major e‐Paper technologies, including a technical breakdown of the performance limitations based on device physics and commentary on possible future breakthroughs, is presented. In addition, the visual requirements for color e‐Paper are provided and compared to standards used in conventional print. It is concluded that researchers have much work remaining in order to bridge the significant gap between reflective electronic displays and print‐on‐paper.     

Interactive recommender systems: A survey of the state of the art and future research challenges and opportunities

Recommender systems have been researched extensively over the past decades. Whereas several algorithms have been developed and deployed in various application domains, recent research efforts are increasingly oriented towards the user experience of recommender systems. This research goes beyond accuracy of recommendation algorithms and focuses on various human factors that affect acceptance of recommendations, such as user satisfaction, trust, transparency and sense of control. In this paper, we present an interactive visualization framework that combines recommendation with visualization techniques to support human-recommender interaction. Then, we analyze existing interactive recommender systems along the dimensions of our framework, including our work. Based on our survey results, we present future research challenges and opportunities.     

Past,present, and future barriers to digital transformation in manufacturing: A review

Research in digital transformation (DT) is burgeoning. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has not only influenced both day-to-day functions of firms dramatically, but also their efforts to become more digitally mature. In this review paper, we discuss the barriers to DT before, during, and what may well continue after the COVID-19 pandemic and offer a new strategy discipline—Strategic Doing—that may be useful to manufacturing firms in achieving successful DT. We discuss the divergent definitions and drivers of DT diving deep into the barriers for manufacturing firms to mature digitally. We briefly describe digital readiness and current efforts of DT in manufacturing while describing the impact of COVID-19 on DT initiatives. We conclude by describing Strategic Doing and suggesting new paths for research in this area.     

A review of retinal blood vessels extraction techniques: challenges,taxonomy, and future trends

Pattern Analysis and Applications - The visual exploration of retinal blood vessels assists ophthalmologists in the diagnoses of different abnormalities of the eyes such as diabetic retinopathy,...     

Conversational artificial intelligence in the AEC industry: A review of present status,challenges and opportunities

The idea of developing a system that can converse and understand human languages has been around since the 1200 s. With the advancement in artificial intelligence (AI), Conversational AI came of age in 2010 with the launch of Apple’s Siri. Conversational AI systems leveraged Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand and converse with humans via speech and text. These systems have been deployed in sectors such as aviation, tourism, and healthcare. However, the application of Conversational AI in the architecture engineering and construction (AEC) industry is lagging, and little is known about the state of research on Conversational AI. Thus, this study presents a systematic review of Conversational AI in the AEC industry to provide insights into the current development and conducted a Focus Group Discussion to highlight challenges and validate areas of opportunities. The findings reveal that Conversational AI applications hold immense benefits for the AEC industry, but it is currently underexplored. The major challenges for the under exploration were highlighted and discusses for intervention. Lastly, opportunities and future research directions of Conversational AI are projected and validated which would improve the productivity and efficiency of the industry. This study presents the status quo of a fast-emerging research area and serves as the first attempt in the AEC field. Its findings would provide insights into the new field which be of benefit to researchers and stakeholders in the AEC industry.     

Enterprise information systems state of the art: Past,present and future trends

This state-of-the-art paper is intended to set the scene for a special issue of the Computers in Industry Journal on “Future Perspectives on Next Generation Enterprise Information Systems”. It gives a brief history of Enterprise Information Systems (EISs) and discusses various aspects of EISs, including EIS design and engineering, the impact of enterprise modelling, enterprise architecture, enterprise integration and interoperability and enterprise networking on EISs before concluding.     

A systematic review for smart identifier networking

The current Internet has revealed numerous shortcomings due to the limitations in its original design, and is being challenged by the user’s increasingly complicated requirements for efficient data distribution. To this end, a novel network paradigm namely SINET(smart identifier networking) is proposed,aiming to shift the communication pattern of the traditional IP networks from passive best-effort packet delivery to the active on-demand adaptation of network and service resources. In this way, ...     

A mutation carol: Past, present and future

Context

The field of mutation analysis has been growing, both in the number of published papers and the number of active researchers. This special issue provides a sampling of recent advances and ideas. But do all the new researchers know where we started?

Objective

To imagine where we are going, we must first know where we are. To understand where we are, we must know where we have been. This paper reviews past mutation analysis research, considers the present, then imagines possible future directions.

Method

A retrospective study of past trends lets us the ability to see the current state of mutation research in a clear context, allowing us to imagine and then create future vectors.

Results

The value of mutation has greatly expanded since the early view of mutation as an expensive way to unit test subroutines. Our understanding of what mutation is and how it can help has become much deeper and broader.

Conclusion

Mutation analysis has been around for 35 years, but we are just now beginning to see its full potential. The papers in this issue and future mutation workshops will eventually allow us to realize this potential.     

A survey of photon mapping state-of-the-art research and future challenges

Global illumination is the core part of photo-realistic rendering. The photon mapping algorithm is an effective method for computing global illumination with its obvious advantage of caustic and color bleeding rendering. It is an active research field that has been developed over the past two decades. The deficiency of precise details and efficient rendering are still the main challenges of photon mapping. This report reviews recent work and classifies it into a set of categories including radiance estimation, photon relaxation, photon tracing, progressive photon mapping, and parallel methods. The goals of our report are giving readers an overall introduction to photon mapping and motivating further research to address the limitations of existing methods.     

WAP: present and future

In 1997, several wireless-phone manufacturers organized an industry group called the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) forum. This group defined the WAP specification in the form of a technical document series that defines standards for implementing wireless-network applications. Hundreds of industries strongly supported the WAP forum for standardization to help the technology become widely adopted. Unfortunately, most of the enthusiasm surrounding WAP has evaporated owing to inherently low channel bandwidth, increased round-trip delays, and a lack of security. WAP technology is primitive and still evolving, and its future depends on how quickly it can improve the transfer rate and effectively enhance its business model.     

Transputers-past, present and future

The progress, products, and results of ongoing work in transputer development are discussed with particular reference to the ESPRIT Supernode project and other ESPRIT projects. The Supernode project, which lasted from Dec. 1985 to Nov. 1989, was aimed to create a low-cost, high-performance computer system from transputers and incorporated the development of the T800 floating-point transputer and the Supernode RTP (Reconfigurable Transputer Processor). The three-year GPMIMD (General-Purpose, Multiple-Instruction, MUltiple-Data) project aims to develop a standard European MIMD architecture based on H1 transputers and virtual communications. The OMI MAP (Open Microsystems Initiative Microprocessor Architecture Project) forms the core of the European-led Open Microsystems Initiative. It aims to define the architecture of a new microprocessor family designed to exploit the VLSI capabilities anticipated in the latter half of the 1990s