Civilian Users Research Articles

Assessment of the possible impact on the safety of civil navigation of existing concepts of «navigation pressure»

The features of the global satellite GNSS GPS, as originally a system for military purposes, are considered. The experience of its combat use in recent military conflicts, including during a special military operation, is summarized. Numerous failures in the reception of GPS signals by civilian users, including air carriers and navigators, have been identified when operating GPS in a military environment. The main provisions of the concept of navigation warfare adopted in the United States, one of the elements of which is GNSS GPS and the main goals that it pursues, are considered. An assessment was made of the possible impact of the provisions of the navigational war on the safety of civil navigation and the main directions of work to minimize this impact were outlined. The increasing role and place of nautical astronomy is indicated, as a completely autonomous means of navigation, suitable for use in any area of the World Ocean.

Mobile phone activism during Israel’s ‘Operation Guardian of the Wall’ in Gaza

The 11-day war in May 2021 between Israel and Palestine (Gaza) is worth investigating as a phenomenon of recording war testimonies and memories by civilian mobile phone users. This article explores mobile phone usage by Palestinian civilians to record and document everyday war narratives. The users document, archive and disseminate diverse war memories on various social media platforms. Semi-structured (ethnographic) interviews and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) are included in the methodological design to understand the patterns of mobile phone activism by civilians during Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Wall in Gaza. The authors argue that the physical and digital (phygital) spaces exist simultaneously, forming the socio-psychological presence of the users in the war and making them significant stakeholders of the Israel–Palestine war narrative. The emergence of a phygital presence signifies a comprehensive representation and archive of civilian war testimonies. Users’ mobile phone footage plays a significant role in shaping discourses of dissent and mobile activism, driving and sustaining collective emotions regarding the repercussions of war. These discourses also contribute to the socio-psychological construction of a phygital memory archive, enriching the conflict’s broader narrative.

THE IMPACT OF RUSSIA’S WAR AGAINST UKRAINE ON THE GLOBAL SPACE SECTOR

Russia’s war against Ukraine has had a significant impact on both global security in general and the space sector in particular. The article explores the specific uses of satellites, including civilian and dual-purpose, in relation to both combat and national security in broad terms. The purpose of the study is to analyze the impact of the Ukrainian-Russian war on the global space sector. The author argues that although the use of space technologies in military conflicts has historical precedents, the Russian-Ukrainian war has launched processes that have led to fundamental changes in the field of space security. The factors motivating these changes include, firstly, the growing independence of the EU space segment, which has long relied on Russia. Secondly, there is an increase in demand for satellite images, including radar images. Thirdly, the importance of low-orbit Internet for both military and civilian users in combat zones has been growing. The war has also changed the practices of space launches, which need to become even faster and cheaper to quickly replace satellites that have been attacked.
 This war revealed the weaknesses of space systems and a number of threats, including: the possibility of using satellite data for criminal purposes, the vulnerability of space infrastructure (for example, cyber attacks and signal jamming), as well as the limited range of suppliers of goods and services in the space sector, which makes supply chains unstable and vulnerable.
 Conflicts on Earth increase the risks of satellite collisions in space. Escalation can occur not only due to the deliberate action of one of the participants in space activities, but also accidentally due to the increase in the number of objects in near-Earth orbit. The author argues that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has more than clearly demonstrated the role that space plays in modern warfare. The United States, China and other major players are now carefully studying the experience of combat operations in Ukraine and in the near future we will see the launch of new satellites and the strengthening of existing groups of spacecraft.

Culturological approach to the development of a general civil culture of Internet communications security

The problem solved in this article is to determine the possibilities and advantages of a culturological approach to solving the problem of developing a general civil culture of Internet communications security. The subject of the study is the structural and functional features of this culture, and the object is the evolution of the formation of the corresponding complex of beliefs, knowledge, skills and abilities. The topic of expanding from a highly professional to a general civil culture of Internet communications security is considered. The increase in the share and importance of socio-cultural aspects compared with technical factors is analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the substantive aspects of the general civil culture of Internet communications security: the insufficiency of methods for broadcasting rules and relevant examples to a mass audience, as well as the underestimation of the formation of intuitive caution, the ability to recognize threats in a timely manner and respond correctly to incidents. The novelty lies in the postulation of the high representativeness of the security culture of financial Internet services, due to the combination of the mass nature of civilian users and transactions with funds that are highly attractive to intruders. It was here that mass Internet crime was first formed, threats and methods of attacks and, accordingly, security tools evolved. The conclusion is made: the experience of countering "social engineering" in the field of mass financial services is useful as a basis for the formation and development of a general civil culture of Internet communications security, including socio-cultural threats: fake news, disinformation, destructive and prohibited content, and others.

TLE orbit determination using simplex method

Two-Line Element (TLE) datasets are the only orbital data source of Earth-orbiting space objects for many civil users for their research and applications. The datasets have uneven qualities that may affect the reliability of the propagated positions of space objects using a single TLE. The least squares approach to use multiple TLEs also suffers from the poor quality of some TLEs, and reliable error information cannot be available. This paper proposes a simplex algorithm to estimate an optimal TLE from multiple TLEs and obtain the uncertainty of each element. It is a derivative-free technique that can deal with various orbit types. Experiments have demonstrated that using the TLE estimated from the simplex method is more reliable, stable, and effective than those from the batch least squares method. As an application example, the optimal TLE and its uncertainty are used for predicting the fallen area, keeping the actual fallen site in the prediction areas.

Safety Occurrence Reporting amongst New Zealand Uncrewed Aircraft Users

Safety reporting has long been recognised as critical to reducing safety occurrences by identifying issues early enough that they can be remedied before an adverse outcome. This study examines safety occurrence reporting amongst a sample of 92 New Zealand civilian uncrewed aircraft users. An online survey was created to obtain the types of occurrences that these users have had, how (if at all) these are reported, and why participants did or did not report using particular systems. This study focussed on seven types of occurrences that have been highlighted by the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand as being reportable using a CA005RPAS form, the template for reporting to the authority for uncrewed aircraft occurrences. The number of each type of occurrence was recorded, as well as what percentage of occurrences were reported using a CA005RPAS form, an internal reporting system, or were non-reported. Qualitative questions were used to understand why participants did or did not report using particular systems. Categorical and numerical data were analysed using Chi-Squared Tests of Independence, Kruskal–Wallis H Tests, and Mann–Whitney U Tests. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings reveal that 85.72% of reportable safety occurrences went unreported by pilots, with only 2.74% of occurrences being self-reported by pilots using a CA005RPAS form. The biggest reason for non-reporting was that the user did not perceive the occurrence as serious enough, with not being aware of reporting systems and not being legally required to report also being major themes. Significant differences were observed between user groups, providing policy implications to improve safety occurrence reporting, such as making reporting compulsory, setting minimum training standards, having an anonymous and non-punitive reporting system, and through working with member-based organisations.

Information Sharing in Solving an Opium Problem: Multiple-Agency Management with Integration of Online and Offline Channels

Information-sharing projects in public administration need to pay attention to the organizational stability of the network or communities and the satisfaction of civil users. Therefore, the sustainability of processes and outcomes in resolving the multi-agency problem is necessary. This research aims to explore information sharing in the context of a multi-agency network assigned to eradicate opium cultivation and consumption in Thailand. The research found that three dimensions of management are crucial to the performance of a multi-agency network: firstly, the setting of clear goals; secondly, the balancing of benefits and adequate resources; and thirdly, constructive coordination. In addition, this network applies both online and offline channels in the information-sharing process. At the same time, these two channels have their respective strengths and weaknesses. This network can enhance efficiency and cope with any limitations by integrating both channels. This paper argues that the information-sharing strategy that supports a multi-agency network operation should be integrated between online and offline channels. Moreover, the integration of information-sharing methods is key to the success of a digital government taskforce in providing an efficient network for a long-term problem-solving structure.

GPS Spoofing Detection by Neural Network Machine Learning

GPS today is ubiquitous. It provides real-time positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) data for countless military and civilian users worldwide. Yet, a proliferation of GPS degrading and denying devices threatens GPS PNT capabilities. The biggest threat is spoofing, which deceives a GPS receiver into accepting false signals as genuine. Current antispoofing techniques are highly dependent on specific spoofing scenarios, choice of mathematical models, values of thresholds, and often require significant hardware and/or software modifications to existing GPS receivers. Efforts are also underway to replace GPS with alternate sources. However, no such sensor can match the availability, accuracy, and global utility of GPS. This article examines an alternate antispoofing method using neural networks. The supervised machine learning technique uses well-understood GPS observables such as pseudorange, carrier phase, Doppler shift, and carrier-to-noise density ratio to distinguish between authentic and spoofed signals. Network architecture, training sample size, number of hidden layers, distribution of neurons between hidden layers, and number of hidden neurons are examined. Results show that the proposed method is capable of detecting spoofing signals with a high probability of correct classification and a low probability of misclassification.

Through a Drone Darkly: Drone Media as Pandemic Witnessing

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020, countries around the world began enacting lockdown measures and enforcing social distancing rules. Almost at the same time, the use of drones also began to see a spike, especially in the hands of civilian users. This article examines the phenomenon of the drone video as a genre of the pandemic. While drone imagery is not endemic to the COVID-19 crisis, in the face of mass deaths and lockdowns, drone users globally began to turn to the drone as a mobile archive machine. Drawing on recent scholarship on drones, I examine how the drone’s vertical vision afforded a form of pandemic witnessed by proxy. Despite the increasing use of drones for policing, surveillance and warfare, in the case of India, drone imagery also played an important role in countering government narratives about the pandemic and its body counts. Examining the drone images captured by the late photographer Danish Siddiqui, I demonstrate how the drone’s ‘vertical play’ facilitated the emergence of a counter-archive of the pandemic.

Smart Blind Stick Using IoT

In this paper, a smart blind stick guidance model for visually disabled citizens has been presented. Ultrasonic sensor is added to the transmitter and receiver of the stick. If there is an obstacle in the path buzzer or voice module will alert the blind person. The pulse and spo2 sensor are used to monitor the pulse rate and oxygen level of the blind person. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a radio navigation system that provides reliable positioning, navigation, and timing services to civilian users on a continuous worldwide basis. For anyone with a GPS receiver, the system will provide location and time information for an unlimited number of people in all weather, day and night, anywhere in the world. GPS based blind man device with user input interfacing (remote controlled based) intellectually finds the current location and gives the alert to the blind man if it was his destination area. Node MCU is the heart of the device. It stores the data of the current location which it receives from the GPS system, so that it can make use if the data stored to compare with the destination location of the user. By this it can trace out the distance from the destination and produce an alarm to alert the user in advance. Here instead of an alarm sound the blind man can directly hear the location recorded by the user itself.

Imagining the social future of drones

Despite the opportunities afforded by the growing use of drones, their civilian use causes concern as they can capture, share and store images of events and people following a set of norms still in development. The main challenges risen by drone usage relates mainly to existing gaps in regulation and the difficulty to enforce approved guidelines. Further changes and implementation of drone legislation will broadly affect current applications and future opportunities shaping the way civilians will be allowed to use drones. This article explores these issues qualitatively, analysing (i) civilian users’ and developers’ views on drone usage, (ii) their knowledge of relevant regulations and (iii) how they imagine its use should be regulated. In its conclusion, this article discusses the general concern of potential privacy infringements and the importance to take into account civilians’ thoughts in further implementation of drone law in order to protect recreational practices.

A mirror in the sky: the effects of map format and user expertise on navigation performance and mental workload

A novel map display concept named Mirror in the Sky (MitS) has been introduced to improve performance and reduce workload in navigation tasks. However, this display will be novel to most users and as such, an evaluation of MitS in comparison with more conventional map formats is warranted. This study investigated the effects of map display format (MitS vs. north-up and track-up maps) and user expertise on mental workload (MWL) and performance, using both soldiers (experts) and civilians (novices) as participants. Participants followed a prescribed route to a destination in a virtual environment (route following task) while also performing a secondary task (detection response task). Soldiers generally performed better than civilians. Soldiers reported a higher MWL with MitS than with the north-up map, whereas civilians reported a higher MWL with MitS than with the track-up map. Regardless of user expertise, there were performance and workload challenges with MitS, despite its potential. Practitioner summary: A new map display concept called Mirror in the Sky (MitS) was compared with two conventional map formats: a north-up and track-up map. The experiment tested soldier and civilian users in a route following task. Both groups got further into the route and had fewer obstacle collisions with north-up and track-up maps than they did with the MitS map. MWL measures generally indicated higher workload with MitS. Abbreviations: MitS: mirror in the sky; FFOV: forward field of view; AR: augmented reality; MWL: mental workload; VR: virtual reality; HF: human factors; HR: heart rate; HRV: heart rate variability; DRT: detection response task; DRDC: defence research and development Canada; VE: virtual environment; RT: response time; ANOVA: analysis of variance

The effect of the Cold War era on maps for public use in the Eastern Bloc countries: Tourist maps

Abstract. Cartography of the Cold War era was very characteristic in the Eastern Bloc countries. The abnormal secrecy instructions forced by military cartographic authorities (following the Soviet advisors) influenced the making of all kinds of large- and medium-scale cartographic products for public use. Most of these maps were somehow distorted, although it was not easy to implement the technology of distortions developed by cartographers in the analogue map production era in the early 1960s. Tourist maps are expected to be created using topographic maps, but the access to classified topographic maps (both civilian and military) was limited for civilian users (even for civilian national mapping agencies, at least in the early years of the Cold War era). The tourist maps of this era were quite different from country to country in the Eastern Bloc, partly due to their cartographic traditions and to the relationships between the military and civilian cartography even influenced by the users’ demands.

A Mirror-in-the-Sky Navigation Aid: Summary of Qualitative Feedback from Soldier and Civilian Users

We tested the efficacy of a novel augmented reality navigation aid, called SkyMap, which presents survey navigation information in the sky, above the user. Soldier and civilian users completed a route following task using Mirror-in-the-Sky (a virtual reality prototype of the SkyMap concept), a north-up map, and a track-up map. In this paper, we analyzed and presented a summary of qualitative user feedback and compare feedback from soldier and civilian users. Specifically we used affinity diagrams to categorize verbal qualitative feedback, which led us to identify six themes: 1) an interest in MitS as an innovative navigation display, 2) challenges with identifying turns and orienting, 3) learning MitS over time, 4) the position of MitS in the field of view, 5) customizability and flexibility and 6) ) use in the context of a military operation. We discuss these themes and highlight areas for design improvements.

Deep Fuzzy Graph Convolutional Networks for PolSAR Imagery Pixelwise Classification

Pixelwise classification plays an important role for image interpretation. The remote sensing images, especially polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR), have provided wide applications for both military and civilian users regardless of weather or lighting conditions. However, the classification of heterogeneous imagery is still challenging. In this article, we propose a novel deep fuzzy graph convolutional network (DFGCN) for pixelwise classification of PolSAR imagery. Inspired by the fuzzy logic, the imagery (i.e., a reflection of the backscattering of the ground) is represented by a fuzzy graph, whose node is associated with a feature vector, and fuzzy weights denoting the similarity degrees between nodes are defined by using both feature distance and spatial relation. We also construct a new graph residual module stacking multiple residual layers to extend the depth of our fuzzy graph network. Moreover, we present a graph shrinking strategy to reduce the graph size for training and predicting the labels of large-scale PolSAR imagery, which can cut down the computational cost. The experimental results on various real-world PolSAR datasets indicate that DFGCN dramatically enhances classification accuracies on both heterogeneous and homogeneous regions with limited labeled pixels compared with the state-of-the-art methods.

Possibilities of Detection of the Jamming of the GNSS Receiver with the Helical Antenna

Abstract Jamming of GNSS signals is lately treated as essential threat for GNSS users. It is especially dangerous in the face of common usage of GPS-like systems in everyday life, and the great belief of everyday users in the truth of devices indications. In spite of the legal prohibition of using them, jammers are commonly accessible, especially in the Internet. Last years showed however that such threat generated purposely also some governments, what is clearly visible in armed conflicts, and during military exercises. Of course this creates the great threat for civilian users if will be in the vicinity. Applications and services based upon GNSS are becoming increasingly embedded in modern society, so community have now become critically dependent upon their correct operation. This refers positioning first of all, but telecommunications networks, power grids, financial transactions, whole world of logistics are dependant as well. The main users of GNSS, both professional and non-professional smartphones users are not prepared on such situation, and usually have no technical possibilities to detect of jamming. For operators of critical installations, for example seaports, or airfields, the detection of jamming cases is extremely important. It can be provided with special devices, which are usually based on specific antennas, and deep analysis of signal. In this paper experiments in detection of the jamming with helical antennas are discussed

Civilian pepper spray for self defense: Understanding user perception and impact of design on user performance

Pepper spray is widely used in the US, and is marketed as an effective self-defense device. While pepper spray can be useful in deterring an attacker, many pepper spray owners do not have any experience using it. There is a dearth of published studies that focus on civilian pepper-spray use, not to mention first time pepper-spray users. A study to analyze pepper-spray designs with first-time users, to see how the design, specifically the safety mechanism, affects response time and overall performance would be helpful. The study was conducted in 2 parts – a survey to understand user perception, and a lab experiment using a 2 × 2 randomized block design with two designs of pepper sprays (side-slide safety and flip-top safety) and the two starting locations for the pepper spray (purse or pocket) as the manipulated factors. Results revealed a significant difference in response times between the flip-top pepper-spray and the side-slide pepper-spray. There was also a significant difference in response times between using the index or thumb as the trigger finger but no significant difference in response times when the pepper-spray for location (purse or pocket). Overall, participants rated the side-slide device as the most effective self-defense device. Relevance to industryBecause there is no other research in the area of first-time pepper-spray users, let alone civilian pepper-spray users, much can be learned about how well people use these devices in a real-world situation, and when there is a highly stressful situation how well does pepper-spray allow an individual to protect him or herself. This study starts the discussion on some of these topics.

Intelligent learning diversity mechanism for unmanned aerial vehicles applications

The increased use of drones and aerial vehicles in applications poses challenges of airspace safety for aviation organizations. It is important to ensure the safety of the airspace when a significant number of unmanned aerial vehicles are deployed by civilian users. A solution that meets this requirement is important to promote innovation in the commercialization of air space for civilian users deploying unmanned aerial vehicle. The discussion in this paper proposes a mechanism that uses artificial intelligence to address this challenge. The proposed mechanism utilizes a low altitude platform (LAP) and entities in terrestrial wireless networks. The low altitude platform (LAP) observes, develops insights and training data (with human aid). The training data is used to develop learning mechanisms which determine the suitable unmanned aerial vehicles flight parameters in different scenarios. The use of the LAP reduces the burden of communicating with terrestrial base stations. The unmanned aerial vehicles have a reduced altitude between the LAPs in comparison to terrestrial base stations. This reduces the free space path loss and rain-induced attenuation. The performance benefit of the proposed mechanism in comparison to existing solution is examined via MATLAB simulations. Evaluation shows that the proposed mechanism reduces the network access costs by up to 90% on average. The proposed mechanism also increases available flight power and improves airspace safety by 37.3% and up to 53.2% on average respectively.
 Keywords: Autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles, Intelligence Paradigm; Aviation Safety, Capital Constrained Aviation Organizations.

Design of Helical Antenna for IRNSS Applications

GNSS (Global-Navigation-Satellite System) is a satellite navigation system that provides positioning with global coverage, e.g: GPS, GLONASS. IRNSS system will provide real-time positioning and timing services accurately all over India up to a range of 1500km. For a civilian user, the helical antenna is more suitable or suggestable in order to receive IRNSS signals because the satellites transmit circularly polarized signals. Therefore, in this project, a helical antenna is designed at 1176.45MHz and simulated using MATLAB 2017b antenna toolbox. The directivity at the operating frequency is 10.7dBi. The maximum value of directivity (14.8dBi) has occurred at nearly 1.9GHz.

Case Study: Performance Observation of NavIC Ionodelay and Positioning Accuracy

The NavIC is an Indian satellite based navigation system uses the L5 and S-band signals to provide 10 m (metres) and 0.1 m positioning accuracy services for civilian and military users respectively. The positioning accuracy of the NavIC system is affected by many sources of error, and the ionospheric delay (Ionodelay) error is the dominant error in all. We observed the NavIC L5 band Iono delay and positioning accuracy under the influence of the intense geomagnetic storm (D st = −124, KP = 8) that occurred on 8 September 2017 at various geographical locations. Here, the NavIC S band is explored to observe the impact of geomagnetic storm (8 September 2017) and the performance is compare with NavIC L5 band at the low-latitude SVNIT Surat station (21.16° N, 72.78° E) for the second week of September 2016, 2017 and 2018. To observe the impacts of seasonal variation on the NavIC L5 and S band Ionodelay is also measured for the days of June 2016 to May 2017. It has been observed that in the days of the Summer season and an intense geomagnetic stormy day (8 September 2017) NavIC performance has faced challenges for positioning accuracy. It has been also observed the compare to NavIC L5 band S band faced more challenges for positioning accuracy. After correcting the ionosphere, troposphere, clock, and other deviations, the average ∼70% NavIC positioning accuracy is improved for the overall observed duration, conditions, and locations.