Computer Sciences Commons^™

Travel Mode Identification With Smartphone Sensors, Xing Su

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Personal trips in a modern urban society typically involve multiple travel modes. Recognizing a traveller's transportation mode is not only critical to personal context-awareness in related applications, but also essential to urban traffic operations, transportation planning, and facility design. While the state of the art in travel mode recognition mainly relies on large-scale infrastructure-based fixed sensors or on individuals' GPS devices, the emergence of the smartphone provides a promising alternative with its ever-growing computing, networking, and sensing powers. In this thesis, we propose new algorithms for travel mode identification using smartphone sensors. The prototype system is built upon the latest …

Convergence Technologies For Sensor Systems In The Next Generation Networks, Conor Gildea, Declan Barber

The ITB Journal

This paper describes an approach to the internetworking of sensory nodes in a converged network environment. This preliminary investigation of sensory network creation is driven by a joint applied research project which seeks to establish the feasibility of the real-time remote monitoring of animal welfare while in transit between Ireland, Europe and the Middle East. This paper examines the use of Java to create sensor services in converging architectures which leverage the Internetworking protocols and describes our implementation of such a system.

Design Study Of A Heavy Duty Load Cell Using Finite Element Analysis: A Practical Introduction To Mechatronic Design Process, Mohamad Saleh

The ITB Journal

Mechatronics design process is a series of analytical brain storming operations from sepcification to implementation. The mechtronic products are widly available in the market for various use and applications. This is expected to develop futher in the future with great competitiveness. In order to succeed in the market, mechatronic products need to satisfy the market expectations with regard to quality, fitness for purpose, customer's appeal and cost efficiency. Therefore, the design analysis techniques play a significat part in the market success of these products. Finite Element Analysis is probably the most commonly used numerical technique for mechatronic product design. This …

Neural Networks For Real-Time Pathfinding In Computer Games, Ross Graham, Hugh Mccabe, Stephen Sheridan

The ITB Journal

One of the greatest challenges in the design of realistic Artificial Intelligence (Al) in computer games is agent movement. Pathfinding strategies are usually employed as the core of any AI movement system. The two main components for basic real-time pathfinding are (i) travelling towards a specified goal and (ii) avoiding dynamic and static obstacles that may litter the path to this goal. The focus of this paper is how machine learning techniques, such as Artificial Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithms, can be used to enhance an AI agent's ability to handle pathfinding in real-time by giving them an awareness of …

Emotion Authentication: A Method For Voice Integrity Checking, C. Reynolds, L. Vasiu, M. Smith

The ITB Journal

When people communicate with telephone type systems, it is often assumed that the listener would notice any modification of the speaker's voice. It is possible however to introduce small changes that would not be noticed by a listener but could modify the reading of a Voice Stress Analyser, popularly referred to as a lie detector. Existing approaches to checking the integrity of voice require significant amounts of processing or are able to detect only non-subtle modification such as change of speaker. With the advent of real time voice modification using software and hardware based signal processing, we argue that it …

Strengthening The Practices Of An Agile Methodology?, Jimmy Doody, Amanda O'Farrell

The ITB Journal

An investigation into how the software development process in an agile environment (Extreme Programming) can be aided by intelligent software, leading to the development of a tool that will automate the process of standardising and clarifying source code. The tool will also speed up and aid the testing process, by producing test objects based on the source code, and by providing full test tracking, without having a negative impact on the development process. By making the coding and testing processes more automated, the research aims to evaluate the following hypotheses: 1. That the programmer's productivity can be increased by the …

Camera Control Through Cinematography In 3d Computer Games, James Kneafsey, Hugh Mccabe

The ITB Journal

Modern 3D computer games have the potential to employ principles from cinematography in rendering the action in the game. Using principles of cinematography would take advantage of techniques that have been used to render action in cinematic films for more than a century. This paper outlines our proposal to develop a camera control system that uses principles of cinematography for 3D computer games and provides a critical review of related research.

Architecture And Development Methodology For Location Based Services, Aaron Hand, Dr. John Cardiff

The ITB Journal

This paper presents a LBS (Location Based Service) architecture, development methodology and a development tool to assist LBS developers in building new open standard LBS applications. The approach adopted has been to define new LBS systems based on open standards rather then proprietary driven technologies. SA GESS (Spatial Application Generic Environment System Standards) is an architecture platform for the development and deployment of wireless LBS applications. SAGE (Spatial Application Generic Environment) is a development methodology that outlines a step-by-step development approach to LBS application development. A prototype LBS application was deployed on the author's SA GESS architecture platform, developed using …

Justification Of Investment In It Systems, Aidan Farrell

The ITB Journal

For a company, capital investment of any sort is weighed up before a decision is made to invest. It is. true that the vast majority of investments for companies can be quantified financially. Investment in Iriformation Technology (IT) and Information Systems (IS) however has proved more complex than other investments as there are ·a large amount of intangible and non-financial benefits associated with this area of expenditure. Investments are traditionally rationalised by outweighing the costs and the benefits. The indirect costs associated with the deployment of IT/IS are equally difficult to put a measure on and hence the traditional methods …

An Evaluation Of On-Screen Keyboards For First Time Single Switch Users, Paul Ahern, Rupert Westrup

The ITB Journal

This paper presents an evaluation of three designs for on-screen keyboard layouts for use by Single Switch Users (SSUs). SSUs are those users who have a disability which means that they are able to activate a switch into an "on" or "off'' position but are not able to locate or position a particular switch. The first keyboard layout design was alphabetically based, the second design was based upon the most frequently occurring letters in the English alphabet and the third design was the standard QWERTY layout found on most keyboards. The research shows that there is no significant difference in …

Speech Synthesis For Pda, Peter Cahill, Fredrick Mtenzi

The ITB Journal

A Text-To-Speech (TTS) synthesiser is a computer-based system that should be able to read any text aloud. This paper presents the design and implementation of a speech synthesiser for a PDA. Our implementation is based on FreeTTS by Sun Microsystems Inc. This paper focuses on the issues that arise during the development and the differences with the desktop synthesiser. We carry out detailed experiments on different platforms to show how the quality and speed of conversion varies. Our TTS implementation on a P DA, apart from being platform independent produces the same sound quality with a far less powerful processor …

Setting Up And Mentoring In Coderdojo Dublin 15, Arnold Hensman

The ITB Journal

Initilally beginning in Ireland, CoderDojo is a non-profit organisation that has grown rapidly into a global network of community based programming clubs. Mentors teach coding skills to young people aged between 7 and 17. All classes are free of charge and clubs operate entirely on a volunteer basis. The first Dublin 15 based CoderDojo began just over two years ago and continues to thrive during weekend sessions held at The Institute of Technology Blanchardstown (ITB), which offers the use of its premises and resources for the sessions. This paper will chronicle the involvement of ITB staff and students with the …

We Need To Talk About 'Tesign' : Design Starting With Tech

SIGNED: The Magazine of The Hong Kong Design Institute

Emerging technologies always have the potential to change the way we live for the better. But such technolgies cannot succeed without the help of great Tesign

Robot Society

SIGNED: The Magazine of The Hong Kong Design Institute

Can the emerging field of social robotics deliver on its promise to revolutionise the way we use tech?

Levity Polymorphism, Richard A. Eisenberg, Simon Peyton Jones

Computer Science Faculty Research and Scholarship

Parametric polymorphism is one of the linchpins of modern typed programming, but it comes with a real performance penalty. We describe this penalty; offer a principled way to reason about it (kinds as calling conventions); and propose levity polymorphism. This new form of polymorphism allows abstractions over calling conventions; we detail and verify restrictions that are necessary in order to compile levity-polymorphic functions. Levity polymorphism has created new opportunities in Haskell, including the ability to generalize nearly half of the type classes in GHC's standard library.

What If We Do Not Know Correlations?, Michael Beer, Zitong Gong, Ingo Neumann, Songsak Sriboonchitta, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

It is well know how to estimate the uncertainty of the result y of data processing if we know the correlations between all the inputs. Sometimes, however, we have no information about the correlations. In this case, instead of a single value σ of the standard deviation of the result, we get a range [σ] of possible values. In this paper, we show how to compute this range.

Fusing Mobile, Wearable And Infrastructure Sensing For Immersive Daily Lifestyle Analytics, Sougata Sen

Dissertations and Theses Collection

With the prevalence of sensors in public infrastructure as well as in personal devices, exploitation of data from these sensors to monitor and profile basic activities (e.g., locomotive states such as walking, and gestural actions such as smoking) has gained popularity. Basic activities identified by these sensors will drive the next generation of lifestyle monitoring applications and services. To provide more advanced and personalized services, these next-generation systems will need to capture and understand increasingly finer-grained details of various common daily life activities. In this dissertation, I demonstrate the possibility of building systems using offthe- shelf devices, that not only …

Taking Into Account Interval (And Fuzzy) Uncertainty Can Lead To More Adequate Statistical Estimates, Ligang Sun, Hani Dbouk, Steffen Schön, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Traditional statistical data processing techniques (such as Least Squares) assume that we know the probability distributions of measurement errors. Often, we do not have full information about these distributions. In some cases, all we know is the bound of the measurement error; in such cases, we can use known interval data processing techniques. Sometimes, this bound is fuzzy; in such cases, we can use known fuzzy data processing techniques.

However, in many practical situations, we know the probability distribution of the random component of the measurement error and we know the upper bound -- numerical or fuzzy -- on the …

A Thought On Refactoring Java Loops Using Java 8 Streams, Khandoker Rahad, Zejing Cao, Yoonsik Cheon

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Java 8 has introduced a new abstraction called a stream to represent an immutable sequence of elements and to provide a variety of operations to be executed on the elements in series or in parallel. By processing a collection of data in a declarative way, it enables one to write more concise and clean code that can also leverage multi-core architectures without needing a single line of multithread code to be written. In this document, we describe our preliminary work on systematically refactoring loops with Java 8 streams to produce more concise and clean code. Our idea is to adapt …

Markowitz Portfolio Theory Helps Decrease Medicines' Side Effect And Speed Up Machine Learning, Thongchai Dumrongpokaphan, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In this paper, we show that, similarly to the fact that distributing the investment between several independent financial instruments decreases the investment risk, using a combination of several medicines can decrease the medicines' side effects. Moreover, the formulas for optimal combinations of medicine are the same as the formulas for the optimal portfolio, formulas first derived by the Nobel-prize winning economist H. M. Markowitz. A similar application to machine learning explains a recent success of a modified neural network in which the input neurons are also directly connected to the output ones.

Maximum Entropy As A Feasible Way To Describe Joint Distributions In Expert Systems, Thongchai Dumrongpokaphan, Vladik Kreinovich, Hung T. Nguyen

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In expert systems, we elicit the probabilities of different statements from the experts. However, to adequately use the expert system, we also need to know the probabilities of different propositional combinations of the experts' statements -- i.e., we need to know the corresponding joint distribution. The problem is that there are exponentially many such combinations, and it is not practically possible to elicit all their probabilities from the experts. So, we need to estimate this joint distribution based on the available information. For this purpose, many practitioners use heuristic approaches -- e.g., the t-norm approach of fuzzy logic. However, this …

Recommending Personalized Schedules In Urban Environments, Cen Chen

Dissertations and Theses Collection

In this thesis, we are broadly interested in solving real world problems that involve decision support for coordinating agent movements in dynamic urban environments, where people are agents exhibiting different human behavior patterns and preferences. The rapid development of mobile technologies makes it easier to capture agent behavioral and preference information. Such rich agent specific information, coupled with the explosive growth of computational power, opens many opportunities that we could potentially leverage, to better guide/influence the agents in urban environments. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how we can effectively and efficiently guide and coordinate the agents with …

Opencollab: A Blockchain Based Protocol To Incentivize Open Source Software Development, Yondon Fu

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

Open source software is one of the fundamental building blocks of today's technology dependent society and is relied upon by parties ranging from large technology corporations to individual hobbyist developers. The open question left for technologists is how to make open source software projects more sustainable. The rise of decentralized networks of self-organizing, self-coordinating users incentivized by valuable cryptographic tokens enabled by Ethereum smart contracts creates the possibility of a system with embedded economics for open source software development that aligns the incentives of all parties. We present two contributions that can serve as building blocks for a potentially better …

Novenanetwork: A Catholic Social Media Ios Application For Praying Novenas As A Community, Marissa Le Coz

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

Recent years have seen the rise of a Catholic presence on the Internet and on social media in particular. At the same time, there has been a movement among young Catholics to rediscover and revitalize the traditions of the Church. Novenas, an ancient form of spirituality involving praying for nine consecutive days for some special purpose, are one such tradition. NovenaNetwork, which debuted in the App Store on May 23, 2017 and acquired over 50 users in three countries within its first six days, is an iOS social media application for praying novenas with others. While multiple apps and websites …

Efficient Large-Universe Multi-Authority Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption With White-Box Traceability, Kai Zhang, Hui Li, Jianfeng Ma, Ximeng Liu

Research Collection School of Computing and Information Systems

Traceable multi-authority ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) is a practical encryption method that can achieve user traceability and fine-grained access control simultaneously. However, existing traceable multi-authority CP-ABE schemes have two main limitations that prevent them from practical applications. First, these schemes only support small universe: the attributes must be fixed at system setup and the attribute space is restricted to polynomial size. Second, the schemes are either less expressive (the access policy is limited to “AND gates with wildcard”) or inefficient (the system is constructed in composite order bilinear groups). To address these limitations, we present a traceable large universe multi-authority …

The R Journal (June 2017) 9(1): Complete Issue, The R Foundation

The R Journal

Editorial, Roger Bivand

Contributed Research Articles

iotools: High-Performance I/O Tools for R, Taylor Arnold, Michael J. Kane, and Simon Urbanek

IsoGeneGUI: Multiple Approaches for Dose-Response Analysis of Microarray Data Using R, Martin Otava, Rudradev Sengupta, Ziv Shkedy, Dan Lin, Setia Pramana, Tobias Verbeke, Philippe Haldermans, Ludwig A. Hothorn, Daniel Gerhard, Rebecca M. Kuiper, Florian Klinglmueller, and Adetayo Kasim

Network Visualization with ggplot2, Sam Tyner, François Briatte, and Heike Hofmann

OrthoPanels: An R Package for Estimating a Dynamic Panel Model with Fixed Effects Using the Orthogonal Reparameterization Approach, Mark Pickup, Paul Gustafson, Davor Cubranic, and Geoffrey Evans

The mosaic Package: Helping …

The Noisefiltersr Package: Label Noise Preprocessing In R, Pablo Morales, Julián Luengo, Luís P.F. Garcia, Ana C. Lorena, André C.P.L.F. De Carvalho

The R Journal

In Data Mining, the value of extracted knowledge is directly related to the quality of the used data. This makes data preprocessing one of the most important steps in the knowledge discovery process. A common problem affecting data quality is the presence of noise. A training set with label noise can reduce the predictive performance of classification learning techniques and increase the overfitting of classification models. In this work we present the NoiseFiltersR package. It contains the first extensive R implementation of classical and state-of-the-art label noise filters, which are the most common techniques for preprocessing label noise. The algorithms …

Selecting Link Resolver And Knowledge Base Software: Implications Of Interoperability, Cyndy Chisare, Jody C. Fagan, David J. Gaines, Michael Trocchia

Libraries

Link resolver software and their associated knowledge bases are essential technologies for modern academic libraries. However, because of the increasing number of possible integrations involving link resolver software and knowledge bases, a library’s vendor relationships, product choices, and consortial arrangements may have the most dramatic effects on the user experience and back-end maintenance workloads. A project team at a large comprehensive university recently investigated link resolver products in an attempt to increase efficiency of back-end workflows while maintaining or improving the patron experience. The methodology used for product comparison may be useful for other libraries.

Introduction (2017), Association Of Christians In The Mathematical Sciences

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2017

No abstract provided.

Kuznets Curve: A Simple Dynamical System-Based Explanation, Thongchai Dumrongpokaphan, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In the 1950s, a future Nobelist Simon Kuznets discovered the following phenomenon: as a country's economy improves, inequality first grows but then decreases. In this paper, we provide a simple dynamical system-based explanation for this empirical phenomenon.