Search results for: smart kids coacher
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 1429

Search results for: smart kids coacher

679 Reduction of Peak Input Currents during Charge Pump Boosting in Monolithically Integrated High-Voltage Generators

Authors: Jan Doutreloigne

Abstract:

This paper describes two methods for the reduction of the peak input current during the boosting of Dickson charge pumps. Both methods are implemented in the fully integrated Dickson charge pumps of a high-voltage display driver chip for smart-card applications. Experimental results reveal good correspondence with Spice simulations and show a reduction of the peak input current by a factor of 6 during boosting

Keywords: bi-stable display driver, Dickson charge pump, high-voltage generator, peak current reduction, sub-pump boosting, variable frequency boosting

Procedia PDF Downloads 457
678 Cycleloop Personal Rapid Transit: An Exploratory Study for Last Mile Connectivity in Urban Transport

Authors: Suresh Salla

Abstract:

In this paper, author explores for most sustainable last mile transport mode addressing present problems of traffic congestion, jams, pollution and travel stress. Development of energy-efficient sustainable integrated transport system(s) is/are must to make our cities more livable. Emphasis on autonomous, connected, electric, sharing system for effective utilization of systems (vehicles and public infrastructure) is on the rise. Many surface mobility innovations like PBS, Ride hailing, ride sharing, etc. are, although workable but if we analyze holistically, add to the already congested roads, difficult to ride in hostile weather, causes pollution and poses commuter stress. Sustainability of transportation is evaluated with respect to public adoption, average speed, energy consumption, and pollution. Why public prefer certain mode over others? How commute time plays a role in mode selection or shift? What are the factors play-ing role in energy consumption and pollution? Based on the study, it is clear that public prefer a transport mode which is exhaustive (i.e., less need for interchange – network is widespread) and intensive (i.e., less waiting time - vehicles are available at frequent intervals) and convenient with latest technologies. Average speed is dependent on stops, number of intersections, signals, clear route availability, etc. It is clear from Physics that higher the kerb weight of a vehicle; higher is the operational energy consumption. Higher kerb weight also demands heavier infrastructure. Pollution is dependent on source of energy, efficiency of vehicle, average speed. Mode can be made exhaustive when the unit infrastructure cost is less and can be offered intensively when the vehicle cost is less. Reliable and seamless integrated mobility till last ¼ mile (Five Minute Walk-FMW) is a must to encourage sustainable public transportation. Study shows that average speed and reliability of dedicated modes (like Metro, PRT, BRT, etc.) is high compared to road vehicles. Electric vehicles and more so battery-less or 3rd rail vehicles reduce pollution. One potential mode can be Cycleloop PRT, where commuter rides e-cycle in a dedicated path – elevated, at grade or underground. e-Bike with kerb weight per rider at 15 kg being 1/50th of car or 1/10th of other PRT systems makes it sustainable mode. Cycleloop tube will be light, sleek and scalable and can be modular erected, either on modified street lamp-posts or can be hanged/suspended between the two stations. Embarking and dis-embarking points or offline stations can be at an interval which suits FMW to mass public transit. In terms of convenience, guided e-Bike can be made self-balancing thus encouraging driverless on-demand vehicles. e-Bike equipped with smart electronics and drive controls can intelligently respond to field sensors and autonomously move reacting to Central Controller. Smart switching allows travel from origin to destination without interchange of cycles. DC Powered Batteryless e-cycle with voluntary manual pedaling makes it sustainable and provides health benefits. Tandem e-bike, smart switching and Platoon operations algorithm options provide superior through-put of the Cycleloop. Thus Cycleloop PRT will be exhaustive, intensive, convenient, reliable, speedy, sustainable, safe, pollution-free and healthy alternative mode for last mile connectivity in cities.

Keywords: cycleloop PRT, five-minute walk, lean modular infrastructure, self-balanced intelligent e-cycle

Procedia PDF Downloads 134
677 Climate Change Awareness at the Micro Level: Case Study of Grande Riviere, Trinidad

Authors: Sherry Ann Ganase, Sandra Sookram

Abstract:

This study investigates the level of awareness to climate change and major factors that influence such awareness in Grande Riviere, Trinidad. Through the development of an Awareness Index and application of a Structural Equation Model to survey data, the findings suggest an Awareness index value of 0.459 in Grande Riviere. These results suggest that households have climate smart attitudes and behaviors but climate knowledge is lacking. This is supported by the structural equation model which shows a negative relationship between awareness and causes of climate change. The study concludes by highlighting the need for immediate action on increasing knowledge.

Keywords: awareness, climate change, climate education, index structural equation model

Procedia PDF Downloads 469
676 An Internet of Things Based Home Automation Based on Raspberry Pi and Node JS Server

Authors: Ahmed Khattab, Bassem Shetta

Abstract:

Today, there are many branches of technology, one of them is the internet of things. In this paper, it's focused specifically on automating all the home appliances through E-mail using Node JS server, the server side stores, and processes this data. The server side contains user interface and notification system functionalities which is operated by Raspberry Pi. It will present the security requirements for the smart home. In this application, the privilege of home control including special persons to use it, using the hardware appliances through mobiles and tablets is achieved. The proposed application delivers high quality of service, long lifetime, low maintenance, fast deployment, and low power requirements with low cost needed for development.

Keywords: Raspberry Pi, E-mail, home automation, temperature sensor, PIR sensor, actuators, relay

Procedia PDF Downloads 263
675 Hybrid Stainless Steel Girder for Bridge Construction

Authors: Tetsuya Yabuki, Yasunori Arizumi, Tetsuhiro Shimozato, Samy Guezouli, Hiroaki Matsusita, Masayuki Tai

Abstract:

The main object of this paper is to present the research results of the development of a hybrid stainless steel girder system for bridge construction undertaken at University of Ryukyu. In order to prevent the corrosion damage and reduce the fabrication costs, a hybrid stainless steel girder in bridge construction is developed, the stainless steel girder of which is stiffened and braced by structural carbon steel materials. It is verified analytically and experimentally that the ultimate strength of the hybrid stainless steel girder is equal to or greater than that of conventional carbon steel girder. The benefit of the life-cycle cost of the hybrid stainless steel girder is also shown.

Keywords: smart structure, hybrid stainless steel members, ultimate strength, steel bridge, corrosion prevention

Procedia PDF Downloads 379
674 Web and Smart Phone-based Platform Combining Artificial Intelligence and Satellite Remote Sensing Data to Geoenable Villages for Crop Health Monitoring

Authors: Siddhartha Khare, Nitish Kr Boro, Omm Animesh Mishra

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Recent food price hikes may signal the end of an era of predictable global grain crop plenty due to climate change, population expansion, and dietary changes. Food consumption will treble in 20 years, requiring enormous production expenditures. Climate and the atmosphere changed owing to rainfall and seasonal cycles in the past decade. India's tropical agricultural relies on evapotranspiration and monsoons. In places with limited resources, the global environmental change affects agricultural productivity and farmers' capacity to adjust to changing moisture patterns. Motivated by these difficulties, satellite remote sensing might be combined with near-surface imaging data (smartphones, UAVs, and PhenoCams) to enable phenological monitoring and fast evaluations of field-level consequences of extreme weather events on smallholder agriculture output. To accomplish this technique, we must digitally map all communities agricultural boundaries and crop kinds. With the improvement of satellite remote sensing technologies, a geo-referenced database may be created for rural Indian agriculture fields. Using AI, we can design digital agricultural solutions for individual farms. Main objective is to Geo-enable each farm along with their seasonal crop information by combining Artificial Intelligence (AI) with satellite and near-surface data and then prepare long term crop monitoring through in-depth field analysis and scanning of fields with satellite derived vegetation indices. We developed an AI based algorithm to understand the timelapse based growth of vegetation using PhenoCam or Smartphone based images. We developed an android platform where user can collect images of their fields based on the android application. These images will be sent to our local server, and then further AI based processing will be done at our server. We are creating digital boundaries of individual farms and connecting these farms with our smart phone application to collect information about farmers and their crops in each season. We are extracting satellite-based information for each farm from Google earth engine APIs and merging this data with our data of tested crops from our app according to their farm’s locations and create a database which will provide the data of quality of crops from their location.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, satellite remote sensing, crop monitoring, android and web application

Procedia PDF Downloads 100
673 Smart Technology for Hygrothermal Performance of Low Carbon Material Using an Artificial Neural Network Model

Authors: Manal Bouasria, Mohammed-Hichem Benzaama, Valérie Pralong, Yassine El Mendili

Abstract:

Reducing the quantity of cement in cementitious composites can help to reduce the environmental effect of construction materials. By-products such as ferronickel slags (FNS), fly ash (FA), and Crepidula fornicata (CR) are promising options for cement replacement. In this work, we investigated the relevance of substituting cement with FNS-CR and FA-CR on the mechanical properties of mortar and on the thermal properties of concrete. Foraging intervals ranging from 2 to 28 days, the mechanical properties are obtained by 3-point bending and compression tests. The chosen mix is used to construct a prototype in order to study the material’s hygrothermal performance. The data collected by the sensors placed on the prototype was utilized to build an artificial neural network.

Keywords: artificial neural network, cement, circular economy, concrete, by products

Procedia PDF Downloads 114
672 Streaming Communication Component for Multi-Robots

Authors: George Oliveira, Luana D. Fronza, Luiza Medeiros, Patricia D. M. Plentz

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The research presented in this article is part of a wide project that proposes a scheduling system for multi-robots in intelligent warehouses employing multi-robot path-planning (MPP) and multi-robot task allocation (MRTA) to reconcile multiple restrictions (task delivery time, task priorities, charging capacity, and robots battery capacity). We present the software component capable of interconnecting an open streaming processing architecture and robot operating system (ROS), ensuring communication and message exchange between robots and the environment in which they are inserted. Simulation results show the good performance of our proposed technique for connecting ROS and streaming platforms.

Keywords: complex distributed systems, mobile robots, smart warehouses, streaming platforms

Procedia PDF Downloads 194
671 Stimuli Responsives of Crosslinked Poly on 2-HydroxyEthyl MethAcrylate – Optimization of Parameters by Experimental Design

Authors: Tewfik Bouchaour, Salah Hamri, Yasmina Houda Bendahma, Ulrich Maschke

Abstract:

Stimuli-responsive materials based on UV crosslinked acrylic polymer networks are fabricated. A various kinds of polymeric systems, hydrophilic polymers based on 2-Hydroxyethyl methacrylate have been widely studied because of their ability to simulate biological tissues, which leads to many applications. The acrylic polymer network PHEMA developed by UV photopolymerization has been used for dye retention. For these so-called smart materials, the properties change in response to an external stimulus. In this contribution, we report the influence of some parameters (initial composition, temperature, and nature of components) in the properties of final materials. Optimization of different parameters is examined by experimental design.

Keywords: UV photo-polymerization, PHEMA, external stimulus, optimization

Procedia PDF Downloads 256
670 Pilot Directional Protection Scheme Using Wireless Communication

Authors: Nitish Sharma, G. G. Karady

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This paper presents a scheme for the protection of loop system from all type of faults using the direction of fault current. The presence of distributed generation in today’s system increases the complexity of fault detection as the power flow is bidirectional. Hence, protection scheme specific to this purpose needs to be developed. This paper shows a fast protection scheme using communication which can be fiber optic or wireless. In this paper, the possibility of wireless communication for protection is studied to exchange the information between the relays. The negative sequence and positive sequence directional elements are used to determine the direction of fault current. A PSCAD simulation is presented and validated using commercial SEL relays.

Keywords: smart grid protection, pilot protection, power system simulation, wireless communication

Procedia PDF Downloads 636
669 Developing Confidence of Visual Literacy through Using MIRO during Online Learning

Authors: Rachel S. E. Lim, Winnie L. C. Tan

Abstract:

Visual literacy is about making meaning through the interaction of images, words, and sounds. Graphic communication students typically develop visual literacy through critique and production of studio-based projects for their portfolios. However, the abrupt switch to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has made it necessary to consider new strategies of visualization and planning to scaffold teaching and learning. This study, therefore, investigated how MIRO, a cloud-based visual collaboration platform, could be used to develop the visual literacy confidence of 30 diploma in graphic communication students attending a graphic design course at a Singapore arts institution. Due to COVID-19, the course was taught fully online throughout a 16-week semester. Guided by Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle, the two lecturers developed students’ engagement with visual literacy concepts through different activities that facilitated concrete experiences, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. Throughout the semester, students create, collaborate, and centralize communication in MIRO with infinite canvas, smart frameworks, a robust set of widgets (i.e., sticky notes, freeform pen, shapes, arrows, smart drawing, emoticons, etc.), and powerful platform capabilities that enable asynchronous and synchronous feedback and interaction. Students then drew upon these multimodal experiences to brainstorm, research, and develop their motion design project. A survey was used to examine students’ perceptions of engagement (E), confidence (C), learning strategies (LS). Using multiple regression, it¬ was found that the use of MIRO helped students develop confidence (C) with visual literacy, which predicted performance score (PS) that was measured against their application of visual literacy to the creation of their motion design project. While students’ learning strategies (LS) with MIRO did not directly predict confidence (C) or performance score (PS), it fostered positive perceptions of engagement (E) which in turn predicted confidence (C). Content analysis of students’ open-ended survey responses about their learning strategies (LS) showed that MIRO provides organization and structure in documenting learning progress, in tandem with establishing standards and expectations as a preparatory ground for generating feedback. With the clarity and sequence of the mentioned conditions set in place, these prerequisites then lead to the next level of personal action for self-reflection, self-directed learning, and time management. The study results show that the affordances of MIRO can develop visual literacy and make up for the potential pitfalls of student isolation, communication, and engagement during online learning. The context of how MIRO could be used by lecturers to orientate students for learning in visual literacy and studio-based projects for future development are discussed.

Keywords: design education, graphic communication, online learning, visual literacy

Procedia PDF Downloads 114
668 Immersive Learning in University Classrooms

Authors: Raminder Kaur

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This paper considers the emerging area of integrating Virtual Reality (VR) technologies into the teaching of Visual Anthropology, Research Methods, and the Anthropology of Contemporary India in the University of Sussex. If deployed in a critical and self-reflexive manner, there are several advantages to VR-based immersive learning: (i) Based on data available for British schools, it has been noted that ‘Learning through experience can boost knowledge retention by up to 75%’. (ii) It can tutor students to learn with and from virtual worlds, devising new collaborative methods where suited. (iii) It can foster inclusive learning by aiding students with SEN and disabilities who may not be able to explore such areas in the physical world. (iv) It can inspire and instill confidence in students with anxieties about approaching new subjects, realms, or regions. (v) It augments our provision of ‘smart classrooms’ synchronised to the kinds of emerging immersive learning environments that students come from in schools.

Keywords: virtual reality, anthropology, immersive learning, university

Procedia PDF Downloads 83
667 Water End-Use Classification with Contemporaneous Water-Energy Data and Deep Learning Network

Authors: Khoi A. Nguyen, Rodney A. Stewart, Hong Zhang

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‘Water-related energy’ is energy use which is directly or indirectly influenced by changes to water use. Informatics applying a range of mathematical, statistical and rule-based approaches can be used to reveal important information on demand from the available data provided at second, minute or hourly intervals. This study aims to combine these two concepts to improve the current water end use disaggregation problem through applying a wide range of most advanced pattern recognition techniques to analyse the concurrent high-resolution water-energy consumption data. The obtained results have shown that recognition accuracies of all end-uses have significantly increased, especially for mechanised categories, including clothes washer, dishwasher and evaporative air cooler where over 95% of events were correctly classified.

Keywords: deep learning network, smart metering, water end use, water-energy data

Procedia PDF Downloads 306
666 Role of Power Electronics in Grid Integration of Renewable Energy Systems

Authors: M. N. Tandjaoui, C. Banoudjafar, C. Benachaiba, O. Abdelkhalek, A. Kechich

Abstract:

Advanced power electronic systems are deemed to be an integral part of renewable, green, and efficient energy systems. Wind energy is one of the renewable means of electricity generation that is now the world’s fastest growing energy source can bring new challenges when it is connected to the power grid due to the fluctuation nature of the wind and the comparatively new types of its generators. The wind energy is part of the worldwide discussion on the future of energy generation and use and consequent effects on the environment. However, this paper will introduce some of the requirements and aspects of the power electronic involved with modern wind generation systems, including modern power electronics and converters, and the issues of integrating wind turbines into power systems.

Keywords: power electronics, renewable energy, smart grid, green energy, power technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 655
665 The Challenges and Opportunities Faced by Women in Geomatics Engineering: The Case of the SADC Region

Authors: Moreblessings Shoko

Abstract:

Polymersomes are materials which are considered as artificial counterparts of natural vesicles. The nanotechnology of such smart nanovesicles is very useful to enhance the efficiency of many therapeutic and diagnostic drugs. Those compounds show a higher stability, flexibility, and mechanical strength to the membrane compared to natural liposomes. Also, they can be designed in detail, the permeability of the membrane can be controlled by different stimuli, and the surface can be functionalized with different biological molecules to facilitate monitoring and target. For this purpose, this study demonstrates the formation of multifunctional and pH sensitive polymersomes and their functionalization with different reactive groups or biomolecules inside and outside of polymersomes´ membrane providing by crossing the membrane and docking/undocking processes for biomedical applications. Overall, they are highly versatile and thus present new opportunities for the design of targeted and selective recognition systems, for example, in mimicking cell functions and in synthetic biology.

Keywords: women, geomatics, challenges, capacity building

Procedia PDF Downloads 574
664 Stability Analysis of a Low Power Wind Turbine for the Simultaneous Generation of Energy through Two Electric Generators

Authors: Daniel Icaza, Federico Córdova, Chiristian Castro, Fernando Icaza, Juan Portoviejo

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In this article, the mathematical model is presented, and simulations were carried out using specialized software such as MATLAB before the construction of a 900-W wind turbine. The present study was conducted with the intention of taking advantage of the rotation of the blades of the wind generator after going through a process of amplification of speed by means of a system of gears to finally mechanically couple two electric generators of similar characteristics. This coupling allows generating a maximum voltage of 6 V in DC for each generator and putting in series the 12 V DC is achieved, which is later stored in batteries and used when the user requires it. Laboratory tests were made to verify the level of power generation produced based on the wind speed at the entrance of the blades.

Keywords: smart grids, wind turbine, modeling, renewable energy, robust control

Procedia PDF Downloads 233
663 Centralized Peak Consumption Smoothing Revisited for Habitat Energy Scheduling

Authors: M. Benbouzid, Q. Bresson, A. Duclos, K. Longo, Q. Morel

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Currently, electricity suppliers must predict the consumption of their customers in order to deduce the power they need to produce. It is, then, important in a first step to optimize household consumption to obtain more constant curves by limiting peaks in energy consumption. Here centralized real time scheduling is proposed to manage the equipment's starting in parallel. The aim is not to exceed a certain limit while optimizing the power consumption across a habitat. The Raspberry Pi is used as a box; this scheduler interacts with the various sensors in 6LoWPAN. At the scale of a single dwelling, household consumption decreases, particularly at times corresponding to the peaks. However, it would be wiser to consider the use of a residential complex so that the result would be more significant. So, the ceiling would no longer be fixed. The scheduling would be done on two scales, firstly, per dwelling, and secondly, at the level of a residential complex.

Keywords: smart grid, energy box, scheduling, Gang Model, energy consumption, energy management system, wireless sensor network

Procedia PDF Downloads 313
662 Ethical Leadership and Employee Creative Behaviour: A Case Study of a State-Owned Enterprise in South Africa

Authors: Krishna Kistan Govender, Alex Masianoga

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The aim of this explanatory study was to critically understand how ethical leadership impacts employee creative behaviour, as well as the creative behaviour dimensions, in a South African transport and logistics SOE. A quantitative study was conducted using a pre-developed questionnaire, and data for 160 middle and executive managers was analysed through structural equation modelling and multiple regression techniques conducted with the Smart PLS statistical software. All five hypothesized relationships were supported, and it was confirmed that ethical leadership has a significant positive influence on employee creative behaviour, as well as on each of the creative behaviour dimensions, namely: idea exploration, idea generation, idea championing, and idea implementation.

Keywords: ethical leaders, employee creative behaviour, state-owned enterprises, South Africa

Procedia PDF Downloads 127
661 A Study of Different Factors Influencing Youngsters’ Mobile Device Buying Behaviors in Malaysia

Authors: Z. S. Yip, T. K. Tan, C. C. Geh, T. T. Ting

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The mobile phone is an indispensable device in today’s daily living. The arising new brands in the market with different specification are targeting at the different population. The most promising market would be the younger generation who are IT savvy. Therefore, it is beneficial to find out their factors of consideration in purchasing a mobile phone. A survey is carried out in Malaysia to discover the current youngster’s mobile phone buying behavior. This study has found that the most influencing factor of consideration is Price, followed by Feature, and Battery Lifespan. Gender and Income have no relationship with certain factors of consideration. It is important to discover the factors of consideration in order to provide industry insight into the current trend of smartphone in Malaysia.

Keywords: buying behavior, smart phone, mobile brand, mobile operating system, specification, battery lifespan

Procedia PDF Downloads 356
660 Passive Seismic Energy Dissipation Mechanisms for Smart Green Structural System (SGSS)

Authors: Daniel Y. Abebe, Jaehyouk Choi

Abstract:

The design philosophy of building structure has been changing over time. The reason behind this is an increase in human interest regarding the improvements in building materials and technology that will affect how we live, the aim to speed up construction period, and the environmental effect which includes earthquakes and other natural disasters. One technique which takes into account the above case is using a prefabricable structural system, in which each and every structural element is designed and prefabricated and assembled on a site so that the construction speed is increased and the environmental impact is also enhanced. This system has immense advantages such as reduced construction cost, reusability, recyclability, faster construction period and less enviromental effect. In this study, some of the developed and evaluated structural elements of building structures are presented.

Keywords: eccentrically braced frame, natural disaster, prefabricable structural system, removable link, SGSS

Procedia PDF Downloads 434
659 A Photovoltaic Micro-Storage System for Residential Applications

Authors: Alia Al Nuaimi, Ayesha Al Aberi, Faiza Al Marzouqi, Shaikha Salem Ali Al Yahyaee, Ala Hussein

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In this paper, a PV micro-storage system for residential applications is proposed. The term micro refers to the size of the PV storage system, which is in the range of few kilo-watts, compared to the grid size (~GWs). Usually, in a typical load profile of a residential unit, two peak demand periods exist: one at morning and the other at evening time. The morning peak can be partly covered by the PV energy directly, while the evening peak cannot be covered by the PV alone. Therefore, an energy storage system that stores solar energy during daytime and use this stored energy when the sun is absent is a must. A complete design procedure including theoretical analysis followed by simulation verification and economic feasibility evaluation is addressed in this paper.

Keywords: battery, energy storage, photovoltaic, peak shaving, smart grid

Procedia PDF Downloads 321
658 Perovskite Solar Cells Penetration on Electric Grids Based on the Power Hardware in the Loop Methodology

Authors: Alaa A. Zaky, Bandar Alfaifi, Saleh Alyahya, Alkistis Kontou, Panos Kotsampopoulos

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In this work, we present for the first time the grid-integration of 3rd generation perovskite solar cells (PSCs) based on nanotechnology in fabrication. The effect of this penetration is analyzed in normal, fault and islanding cases of operation under different irradiation conditions using the power hardware in the loop (PHIL) methodology. The PHL method allows the PSCs connection to the electric grid which is simulated in the real-time digital simulator (RTDS), for laboratory validation of the PSCs behavior under conditions very close to real.

Keywords: perovskite solar cells, power hardware in the loop, real-time digital simulator, smart grid

Procedia PDF Downloads 30
657 Usability Issues of Smart Phone Applications: For Visually Challenged People

Authors: Anam Ashraf, Arif Raza

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In this era of globalization, adoption of technology is quite difficult for people with physical disabilities compared to people with normal abilities. The advancement in mobile based accessible applications has opened up several different avenues for the visually challenged across the globe. Smartphones applications are not very common for blind people, but they access and use these applications in their daily lives to some extent. Several smartphone applications have a number of usability issues for the visually impaired. In this paper, we evaluate the usability of various android and iPhone applications for blind people through analysis and surveys. This paper aspires to provide guidance in order to increase smartphone application accessibility for the visually impaired. An abstract application design is also proposed to overcome usability issues in smartphone applications for visually challenged people.

Keywords: eyes-free shell, human computer interaction, usability engineering, visually challenged

Procedia PDF Downloads 365
656 Assessment of Current and Future Opportunities of Chemical and Biological Surveillance of Wastewater for Human Health

Authors: Adam Gushgari

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The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has catalyzed the rapid adoption of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) methodologies both domestically and internationally. To support the rapid scale-up of pandemic-response wastewater surveillance systems, multiple federal agencies (i.e. US CDC), non-government organizations (i.e. Water Environment Federation), and private charities (i.e. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) have funded over $220 million USD supporting development and expanding equitable access of surveillance methods. Funds were primarily distributed directly to municipalities under the CARES Act (90.6%), followed by academic projects (7.6%), and initiatives developed by private companies (1.8%). In addition to federal funding for wastewater monitoring primarily conducted at wastewater treatment plants, state/local governments and private companies have leveraged wastewater sampling to obtain health and lifestyle data on student, prison inmate, and employee populations. We explore the viable paths for expansion of the WBE m1ethodology across a variety of analytical methods; the development of WBE-specific samplers and real-time wastewater sensors; and their application to various governments and private sector industries. Considerable investment in, and public acceptance of WBE suggests the methodology will be applied to other future notifiable diseases and health risks. Early research suggests that WBE methods can be applied to a host of additional “biological insults” including communicable diseases and pathogens, such as influenza, Cryptosporidium, Giardia, mycotoxin exposure, hepatitis, dengue, West Nile, Zika, and yellow fever. Interest in chemical insults is also likely, providing community health and lifestyle data on narcotics consumption, use of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCP), PFAS and hazardous chemical exposure, and microplastic exposure. Successful application of WBE to monitor analytes correlated with carcinogen exposure, community stress prevalence, and dietary indicators has also been shown. Additionally, technology developments of in situ wastewater sensors, WBE-specific wastewater samplers, and integration of artificial intelligence will drastically change the landscape of WBE through the development of “smart sewer” networks. The rapid expansion of the WBE field is creating significant business opportunities for professionals across the scientific, engineering, and technology industries ultimately focused on community health improvement.

Keywords: wastewater surveillance, wastewater-based epidemiology, smart cities, public health, pandemic management, substance abuse

Procedia PDF Downloads 111
655 Automatic Detection of Suicidal Behaviors Using an RGB-D Camera: Azure Kinect

Authors: Maha Jazouli

Abstract:

Suicide is one of the most important causes of death in the prison environment, both in Canada and internationally. Rates of attempts of suicide and self-harm have been on the rise in recent years, with hangings being the most frequent method resorted to. The objective of this article is to propose a method to automatically detect in real time suicidal behaviors. We present a gesture recognition system that consists of three modules: model-based movement tracking, feature extraction, and gesture recognition using machine learning algorithms (MLA). Our proposed system gives us satisfactory results. This smart video surveillance system can help assist staff responsible for the safety and health of inmates by alerting them when suicidal behavior is detected, which helps reduce mortality rates and save lives.

Keywords: suicide detection, Kinect azure, RGB-D camera, SVM, machine learning, gesture recognition

Procedia PDF Downloads 190
654 A Survey on Smart Security Mechanism Using Graphical Passwords

Authors: Aboli Dhanavade, Shweta Bhimnath, Rutuja Jumale, Ajay Nadargi

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Security to any of our personal thing is our most basic need. It is not possible to directly apply that standard Human-computer—interaction approaches. Important usability goal for authentication system is to support users in selecting best passwords. Users often select text-passwords that are easy to remember, but they are more open for attackers to guess. The human brain is good in remembering pictures rather than textual characters. So the best alternative is being designed that is Graphical passwords. However, Graphical passwords are still immature. Conventional password schemes are also vulnerable to Shoulder-surfing attacks, many shoulder-surfing resistant graphical passwords schemes have been proposed. Next, we have analyzed the security and usability of the proposed scheme, and show the resistance of the proposed scheme to shoulder-surfing and different accidental logins.

Keywords: shoulder-surfing, security, authentication, text-passwords

Procedia PDF Downloads 364
653 An Ontology for Smart Learning Environments in Music Education

Authors: Konstantinos Sofianos, Michail Stefanidakis

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Nowadays, despite the great advances in technology, most educational frameworks lack a strong educational design basis. E-learning has become prevalent, but it faces various challenges such as student isolation and lack of quality in the learning process. An intelligent learning system provides a student with educational material according to their learning background and learning preferences. It records full information about the student, such as demographic information, learning styles, and academic performance. This information allows the system to be fully adapted to the student’s needs. In this paper, we propose a framework and an ontology for music education, consisting of the learner model and all elements of the learning process (learning objects, teaching methods, learning activities, assessment). This framework can be integrated into an intelligent learning system and used for music education in schools for the development of professional skills and beyond.

Keywords: intelligent learning systems, e-learning, music education, ontology, semantic web

Procedia PDF Downloads 140
652 Establishing the Optimum Location of a Single Tower Crane Using a Smart Mathematical Model

Authors: Yasser Abo El-Magd, Wael Fawzy Mohamed

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Due to the great development in construction and building field, there are many projects and huge works appeared which consume many construction materials. Accordingly, that causes difficulty in handling traditional transportation means (ordinary cranes) due to their limited capacity; there is an urgent need to use high capacity cranes such as tower cranes. However, with regard to their high expense, we have to take into consideration selecting what type of cranes to be utilized which has been discussed by many researchers. In this research, a proposed technique was created to select the suitable type of crane and the best place for crane erection, in addition to minimum radius for requested crane in order to minimize cost. To fulfill that target, a computer program is designed to numerate these problems, demonstrating an example explaining how to apply program and the result donated the best place.

Keywords: tower crane, jib length, operating time, location, feasible area

Procedia PDF Downloads 226
651 Stuttering Persistence in Children: Effectiveness of the Psicodizione Method in a Small Italian Cohort

Authors: Corinna Zeli, Silvia Calati, Marco Simeoni, Chiara Comastri

Abstract:

Developmental stuttering affects about 10% of preschool children; although the high percentage of natural recovery, a quarter of them will become an adult who stutters. An effective early intervention should help those children with high persistence risk for the future. The Psicodizione method for early stuttering is an Italian behavior indirect treatment for preschool children who stutter in which method parents act as good guides for communication, modeling their own fluency. In this study, we give a preliminary measure to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of Psicodizione method on stuttering preschool children with a high persistence risk. Among all Italian children treated with the Psicodizione method between 2018 and 2019, we selected 8 kids with at least 3 high risk persistence factors from the Illinois Prediction Criteria proposed by Yairi and Seery. The factors chosen for the selection were: one parent who stutters (1pt mother; 1.5pt father), male gender, ≥ 4 years old at onset; ≥ 12 months from onset of symptoms before treatment. For this study, the families were contacted after an average period of time of 14,7 months (range 3 - 26 months). Parental reports were gathered with a standard online questionnaire in order to obtain data reflecting fluency from a wide range of the children’s life situations. The minimum worthwhile outcome was set at "mild evidence" in a 5 point Likert scale (1 mild evidence- 5 high severity evidence). A second group of 6 children, among those treated with the Piscodizione method, was selected as high potential for spontaneous remission (low persistence risk). The children in this group had to fulfill all the following criteria: female gender, symptoms for less than 12 months (before treatment), age of onset <4 years old, none of the parents with persistent stuttering. At the time of this follow-up, the children were aged 6–9 years, with a mean of 15 months post-treatment. Among the children in the high persistence risk group, 2 (25%) hadn’t had stutter anymore, and 3 (37,5%) had mild stutter based on parental reports. In the low persistency risk group, the children were aged 4–6 years, with a mean of 14 months post-treatment, and 5 (84%) hadn’t had stutter anymore (for the past 16 months on average).62,5% of children at high risk of persistence after Psicodizione treatment showed mild evidence of stutter at most. 75% of parents confirmed a better fluency than before the treatment. The low persistence risk group seemed to be representative of spontaneous recovery. This study’s design could help to better evaluate the success of the proposed interventions for stuttering preschool children and provides a preliminary measure of the effectiveness of the Psicodizione method on high persistence risk children.

Keywords: early treatment, fluency, preschool children, stuttering

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650 Real Time Detection, Prediction and Reconstitution of Rain Drops

Authors: R. Burahee, B. Chassinat, T. de Laclos, A. Dépée, A. Sastim

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to propose a solution to detect, predict and reconstitute rain drops in real time – during the night – using an embedded material with an infrared camera. To prevent the system from needing too high hardware resources, simple models are considered in a powerful image treatment algorithm reducing considerably calculation time in OpenCV software. Using a smart model – drops will be matched thanks to a process running through two consecutive pictures for implementing a sophisticated tracking system. With this system drops computed trajectory gives information for predicting their future location. Thanks to this technique, treatment part can be reduced. The hardware system composed by a Raspberry Pi is optimized to host efficiently this code for real time execution.

Keywords: reconstitution, prediction, detection, rain drop, real time, raspberry, infrared

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