Personalization and user verification in wearable systems using biometric walking patterns

In this article, a novel technique for user’s authentication and verification using gait as a biometric unobtrusive pattern is proposed. The method is based on a two stages pipeline. First, a general activity recognition classifier is personalized for an specific user using a small sample of her/his walking pattern. As a result, the system is much more selective with respect to the new walking pattern. A second stage verifies whether the user is an authorized one or not. This stage is defined as a one-class classification problem. In order to solve this problem, a four-layer architecture is built around the geometric concept of convex hull. This architecture allows to improve robustness to outliers, modeling non-convex shapes, and to take into account temporal coherence information. Two different scenarios are proposed as validation with two different wearable systems. First, a custom high-performance wearable system is built and used in a free environment. A second dataset is acquired from an Android-based commercial device in a ‘wild’ scenario with rough terrains, adversarial conditions, crowded places and obstacles. Results on both systems and datasets are very promising, reducing the verification error rates by an order of magnitude with respect to the state-of-the-art technologies.     

Automatic laser-based identification for UF6 cylinders

We present a laser item identification system (L2IS), installed in a real facility on trial, that is capable of automatically monitoring all transfers of uranium hexafluoride (UF₆) cylinders between different process areas. Each cylinder has a unique ‘fingerprint’ represented by the 3D micro-structure of its surface which remains intact even under extreme environmental conditions. L2IS automatically identifies each cylinder through exploring the 3D frontal surface acquired by the laser scanner. The system is composed of a portable unit (operated in attended mode) and a fixed installed unit (operated without inspector presence). The efficiency and accuracy of our identification system were evaluated on a large dataset acquired during several years including a full year of field testing.     

On sets of numbers accepted by P/T systems composed by join

Recently, some studies linked the computational power of abstract computing systems based on multiset rewriting to models of Petri nets and the computation power of these nets to their topology. In turn, the computational power of these abstract computing devices can be understood by just looking at their topology, that is, information flow.Here we continue this line of research by introducing J languages and proving that they can be accepted by place/transition systems whose underlying net is composed only by join. Moreover, we study how J languages relate to other families of formal languages.     

Agent-based architecture for designing hybrid control systems

When designing very complex control strategy using hybrid technology, one usually faces the challenge of balancing effective realization of multi-control modeling with design simplicity. To better manage this difficulty we have used the agent paradigm as a simple and powerful bridge between asynchronous/distributed computation and Matlab environment. The proposed architecture has been used to design a complex hybrid control environment using multi-objective, fuzzy c-means, and genetic algorithms optimization to design hybrid control strategies suitable for the energy flows management on board of hybrid electric vehicles.     

The evaluation of a social adaptive website for cultural events

In this paper, we present an evaluation of a social adaptive website in the domain of cultural events, iCITY DSA, which provides information about cultural resources and events that promote the cultural heritage in the city of Turin. Using this evaluation, our objective was to investigate the actual usage of a social adaptive website, in an effort to discover the real behavior of users, the unforeseen correlations among user actions and the consequent interactive behavior, the accuracy of both system and social recommendations and their impact on the users themselves, and the role of tagging in the user modeling process. The major contributions of the paper are manifold: insights into user interactions with social adaptive systems; guidelines for future designs; evaluation of the tagging activity and tag meanings in relation to the application domain and thus their impact on the representation of the user model; and a demonstration of how a combination and interplay of evaluation methodologies (e.g., quantitative and qualitative) can enhance our comprehension of evaluation data.     

THROO: a Tracked Hybrid Rover to Overpass Obstacles

In this paper, the design, simulation and experimental tests are presented for THROO: a Tracked Hybrid Rover, which has been developed to Overpass Obstacles. The proposed mobile robot has 3-DOFs and it is capable of straight motion, turning ability and two operations, namely rover-like motion with tracks on flat terrain and walking-like motion with track and legs to overpass obstacles to move on uneven terrain. The leg mechanism is composed of a four-bar linkage, which has been synthesized according to the desired features. In particular, the Burmester problem, which aims at finding the geometric parameters of a four-bar linkage required for a prescribed set of finitely separated poses are solved for the case understudy. Dynamic simulations have been carried out and a prototype has been built. The proposed results show the hybrid rover ability to overpass obstacles, for which size is comparable or greater than the track high.     

Micellization Behavior of Cationic Gemini Surfactants in Aqueous-Ethylene Glycol Solution

The micellization behavior of gemini surfactants i.e. alkanediyl-α,ω-bis(cetyldimethylammonium bromide) (C₁₆-s-C₁₆,2Br⁻ where s = 3, 4, 10) in 10% (v/v) ethylene glycol solution was investigated by surface tension and conductometric measurements at 300 K. The critical micelle concentration, degree of micellar ionization, surface excess concentration, minimum surface area per molecule of surfactant, surface pressure at the CMC and Gibbs energy of adsorption of the dimeric surfactants have also been determined in the presence of different salts (NaCl, NaBr and NaI). The critical micelle concentration and degree of micellar ionization values decrease significantly in the presence of sodium halides and follows the sequence NaCl < NaBr < NaI. The free energy, enthalpy and entropy of micellization of dimeric surfactants in 10% (v/v) ethylene glycol solution were determined using the temperature dependence of the critical micelle concentration. The standard free energy of micellization was found to be negative in all the cases.     

Novel,Rapid Identification,and Quantification of Adulterants in Extra Virgin Olive Oil Using Near‐Infrared Spectroscopy and Chemometrics

A new, rapid Fourier transform near infrared (FT‐NIR) spectroscopic procedure is described to screen for the authenticity of extra virgin olive oils (EVOO) and to determine the kind and amount of an adulterant in EVOO. To screen EVOO, a partial least squares (PLS1) calibration model was developed to estimate a newly created FT‐NIR index based mainly on the relative intensities of two unique carbonyl overtone absorptions in the FT‐NIR spectra of EVOO and other mixtures attributed to volatile (5280 cm^?1) and non‐volatile (5180 cm^?1) components. Spectra were also used to predict the fatty acid (FA) composition of EVOO or samples spiked with an adulterant using previously developed PLS1 calibration models. Some adulterated mixtures could be identified provided the FA profile was sufficiently different from those of EVOO. To identify the type and determine the quantity of an adulterant, gravimetric mixtures were prepared by spiking EVOO with different concentrations of each adulterant. Based on FT‐NIR spectra, four PLS1 calibration models were developed for four specific groups of adulterants, each with a characteristic FA composition. Using these different PLS1 calibration models for prediction, plots of predicted vs. gravimetric concentrations of an adulterant in EVOO yielded linear regression functions with four unique sets of slopes, one for each group of adulterants. Four corresponding slope rules were defined that allowed for the determination of the nature and concentration of an adulterant in EVOO products by applying these four calibration models. The standard addition technique was used for confirmation.     

Application of a Novel,Heated, Nine-Reflection ATR Crystal and a Portable FTIR Spectrometer to the Rapid Determination of Total <Emphasis Type="Italic">Trans</Emphasis> Fat

Since trans fat labeling requirements became mandatory in the US and many other countries, there has been a need for rapid and accurate analytical methodologies that can facilitate compliance with the various regulations. The determination of total trans fatty acids by mid-infrared (IR) spectroscopy is a widely used procedure that was standardized and validated as AOCS Official Method Cd 14e-09 (negative second derivative infrared spectroscopic method for the rapid (5 min) determination of total isolated trans fat) in 2009. The C–H out-of-plane deformation mid-IR band observed at 966 cm⁻¹ is uniquely characteristic of isolated (non-conjugated) double bonds with trans configuration. AOCS Official Method Cd 14e-09, the most recent attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform IR (ATR-FTIR) official method, entails the measurement of the height of the negative second derivative of the trans absorption band. In the present study, the performance of a novel, portable FTIR system equipped with a heated 9-bounce diamond ATR crystal was evaluated and compared to that of a conventional benchtop single-bounce ATR-FTIR spectrometer. The introduction of the 9-bounce diamond ATR crystal resulted in the lowering of the limit of quantification of trans fat, as a percentage of the total fat, from approximately 2 to 0.34%. The data collected from accurately weighed gravimetric standards and 28 unknown test samples ranging in trans fat content from about 0.5 to 54%, as a percentage of the total fat, indicated that this IR official method and the use of the new 9-bounce portable ATR-FTIR instrumentation could lead to a five-fold enhancement in sensitivity relative to single-bounce systems. Implementing these changes would facilitate regulatory compliance and verification of fat and oil samples for trans fat content in the US and other countries, since all of the published regulations (e.g., “0 g trans fat per serving”) have levels of trans fat, as percentage of total fat, that exceed 0.34%.