Individual Mobile Devices Research Articles

Method for monitoring and forecasting landslide phenomenon based on machine learning

A landslide involves the downward movement of a mass of rock, debris, earth, or soil. Landslides happen when gravitational forces and other types of shear stresses on a slope surpass the shear strength of the materials. Additionally, landslides can be triggered by processes that weaken the shear strength of the slope's material. Shear strength primarily depends on two factors such as frictional strength, which is the resistance to movement between the interacting particles of the slope material, and cohesive strength, which is the bonding between those particles. A landslide is a terrible natural disaster that causes much damage to both human life and the economy. It often occurs in steep mountainous areas or hilly regions, ranging in scale from medium to large. It progresses slowly (20–50 mm/year), but when it occurs, it can move at a speed of 3 m/s. Therefore, early detection or prevention of this disaster is an essential and significant task. This paper developed a method to collect and analyze data, with the purpose of determining the possibility of landslide occurrences to reduce its potential losses.•The proposed method is convenient for users to grasp information of landslide phenomenon.•A machine learning model is applied to forecast landslide phenomenon.•Internet of things (IoT) system is utilized to manage and send a warning text to individual email address and mobile devices.

A cooperative mobility model for multiple autonomous vehicles

A mobility model is a basis of constructing the simulation environment for vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) research. Most existing models mainly focus on the geographical movement of individual mobile communication devices. However, few works focus on the cooperative movement of multiple autonomous vehicles. In this paper, we propose a cooperative mobility model for multiple autonomous vehicles, making vehicles run as a swarm in an orderly manner. Specifically, inspired by artificial fish swarm algorithms, we draw on the cooperative behaviors of the fish swarm to model the collaboration and self-organization in multi-vehicle formation. Then we design several force functions to express the interactions between vehicles and the influence of the driving environment based on the artificial potential field. Under Newtonian dynamics, the proposed mobility model determines the coordinated movement of multiple autonomous vehicles by force functions. Furthermore, we introduce a parallel orientation area in the interaction area division to improve vehicle stability. Following existing works, we assume that the road is straight and of infinite length. This is, the considered environment is suitable for intersection-free double-lane roads. To comprehensively verify the effectiveness of our proposed approach, we conduct extensive simulations under different traffic scenarios. Simulation results confirm that using our mobility model, multiple vehicles are able to keep driving in the center of the lane at the allowed speed limit, form an ordered collision-free motorcade, and collaboratively avoid collisions with obstacles. Particularly, our proposed mobility model has better stability.

Estimating Population Density Without Contravening Citizen’s Privacy: Warsaw Use Case

Spatial data on a cellular network load can be used to develop commercial and public services. However, such data is calculated based on individual users’ behavior and can contravene their privacy rights. Moreover, direct tracking of individual devices violates the European Union’s regulations. To solve this issue, we propose to use data aggregated in individual cells of the public land mobile network without tracking an individual mobile device in the entire process. To prove that the proposed data collection method is useful, we compared the obtained results with a closed-circuit television system in an estimation of the number of people. The proposed system is sensitive enough to detect untypical global events in an urban area and distinguish transport demand zones of various types as we showed on real data from the City of Warsaw.

The system of personal early non-invasive diagnosis of cardiac conditions as an element of the cyber physical system

In the 21st century, the most common cause of death in the developed countries is cardio. The Covid’19 pandemic only confirms this claim that the circulatory system and the heart are possible. That is why, even during a pandemic, the quality of cardio remains paramount. The significant cost of solving each element of these problems is the main driver of the idea of developing the ideology of preliminary diagnostics, as it allows you to more quickly (and therefore more effectively) respond to problems. In addition, today in Ukraine (and in the world as well) the cost of medical care is growing rapidly and not every society can afford to pay for medical services according to the usual rules of 20th century. One of the solutions that Ukraine is familiar with is that the pressure measurement is now done independently, and not an ambulance is called (doctor, nurse / brother, driver). The authors set themselves the task of exploring the following possibility in the problem of preliminary diagnostics to reduce the burden on the medical system. The aim of the work is to test the hypothesis of the possibility of early detection of cardio abnormalities by developing / creating an individual mobile device for preliminary diagnosis of the condition. In particular, on the example of monitoring the most common problem, rapid early diagnosis based on cardio signals. The main advantage of using the studied approach is the possibility of early diagnosis (rapid response) to complications, which is read by the sensor and analyzed by the analytical system (monitoring system). A basic study and experimentally tested the basic hypotheses are presented in the paper. The level and number of basic tasks that need to be solved to achieve the ultimate goal are checked. The basic concept of a personal intellectual advisor is tested. The results obtained during the experiments are visualized.

Investigating the multimedia pointing techniques in the tabletop-centric cross-device interaction

Group collaboration needs the support of a digital interaction system composed of a tabletop-centric shared display and individual operational physical cursors and mobile devices. We examine the usability of a fundamental function of the system, i.e., the pointing techniques. Direct pointing refers to the selection with a cursor placed on the target object, and proximity pointing requires the cursor nearby the target object. The empirical evidence from sixty-two participants shows that the direct pointing technique, although proved as the best choice in single device interaction, is inferior to proximity pointing in cross-device interaction in completion time and operation correctness. We also examine how the display for confirmation on mobile devices fits for pointing technique, discuss how users habituated to single device interaction adapt to cross-device interaction, and suggest guidelines for the design practice.

Государство в цифровом преобразовании управленческих процессов: от электронного документооборота к цифровым экосистемам

This article explores the changes arising from the introduction of information and communication technologies in public administration using an institutional approach. Practical examples are used to consider transformations in the way government institutions interact with citizens and organizations, as well as new emerging opportunities in the provision of public and socially important services. The author analyses both the retrospective formation of centralised government information systems in countries that have reached digital maturity, the formation of electronic, digital and smart governments, and the emerging trends of the next round of digital transformation - the development of interstate digital ecosystems and regional digital environments of megacities and urban agglomerations. In particular, the article examines the steps taken by the US government in the early 21st century to establish electronic interaction between government agencies and to create a system for delivering public services that excludes personal contact by citizens and companies. It then identifies technologies that have subsequently enabled other countries to make the transition to fully digital governmental information. A significant innovation that, in the author's opinion, determined the further vector of transformation of administrative processes was the integration of payment and government information systems. Such a technological solution, implemented through a closer partnership between government and corporate entities, combined with the spread of individual mobile digital devices – smartphones and tablets – has become the basis for the development of unified digital platforms designed to optimize both the provision and receipt of virtually all socially important services. The article also examines the role of government information systems in the development of the data economy and highlights emerging models of government regulation in this area. The following trends of digitalization in the public sector are analysed as relevant: regulators of digital ecosystems acquiring the ability to provide digital services to extraterritorial communities, scaling digital infrastructure in territories with high population concentration when implementing economic development projects and introducing digital technologies in the social sphere.

TRANSIT: Fine-grained human mobility trajectory inference at scale with mobile network signaling data

Call detail records (CDR) collected by mobile phone network providers have been largely used to model and analyze human-centric mobility. Despite their potential, they are limited in terms of both spatial and temporal accuracy thus being unable to capture detailed human mobility information. Network Signaling Data (NSD) represent a much richer source of spatio-temporal information currently collected by network providers, but mostly unexploited for fine-grained reconstruction of human-centric trajectories. In this paper, we present TRANSIT, TRAjectory inference from Network SIgnaling daTa, a novel framework capable of processing NSD to accurately distinguish mobility phases from stationary activities for individual mobile devices, and reconstruct, at scale, fine-grained human mobility trajectories, by exploiting, with a DBSCAN-based clustering approach, the inherent recurrence of human mobility and the higher sampling rate of NSD. The validation on a ground-truth dataset of GPS trajectories showcases the superior performance of TRANSIT (80% precision and 96% recall) with respect to state-of-the-art solutions in the identification of movement periods, as well as an average 190 m spatial accuracy in the estimation of the trajectories. We also leverage TRANSIT to process a unique large-scale NSD dataset of more than 10 millions of individuals and perform an exploratory analysis of city-wide transport mode shares, recurrent commuting paths, urban attractivity and analysis of mobility flows.

Integrating Mobile Display Energy Saving into Cloud-Based Video Streaming via Rate-Distortion-Display Energy Profiling

Mobile displays have been recognized as the major contributors to the energy consumption of contemporary mobile video services. Existing display energy reduction (DER) algorithms focus on local video/image processing by utilizing the computation resources on the mobile devices. As such, a per-device DER strategy is highly inefficient from the systematic perspective since the same computation is repeated among millions of individual mobile devices. In this new era of cloud-based video streaming, a natural question to ask is can ubiquitous cloud resources be exploited to overcome these drawbacks. It is based on this motivation that we design a paradigm-shifting strategy to integrate the display energy saving engine into cloud-based video streaming in order to simultaneously benefit massive mobile devices with a one-time video processing in the cloud. By taking full advantage of the computational and storage resources in the cloud, a family of Rate-Distortion-Display Energy (R-D-DE) profiles can be created for a given video source and for different types of mobile devices. The preliminary experimental results with OLED displays prove that we can achieve the desired DER performance through jointly managing the display energy and user experience by implementing the proposed R-D-DE integrated video encoding engine in the cloud.

Facile and Scalable Fabrication of Flexible Reattachable Ionomer Nanopatterns by Continuous Multidimensional Nanoinscribing and Low-temperature Roll Imprinting.

We develop a facile route to the scalable fabrication of flexible reattachable ionomer nanopatterns (RAINs) by continuous nanoinscribing and low-temperature roll imprinting, which are repeatedly attachable to and detachable from arbitrarily shaped surfaces. First, by sequentially performing continuous nanoinscribing over a polymer substrate along the multiple directions, we readily create the multidimensional nanopattern, which otherwise demands complex nanofabrication. After its transfer to an elastomer pad for use as a soft nanoimprinting stamp, we then conduct a low-temperature roll imprinting of the ionomer film to fabricate a flexible and highly transparent RAIN. Reversible loosening of ionic units in the ionomer material at the mild temperature as low as ∼60-70 °C enables the faithful nanopatterning over thermosensitive organic compounds and fragile materials under a slight pressure. The excellent adhesion purely emerging from ionic interactions uniquely realizes the conformal attachability and clean detachability of RAINs for universal targets in ambient conditions, particularly beneficial for individual wearable and mobile devices requiring the user-specific "on/off" of the nanopattern-driven functionalities. As one vivid example, we demonstrate that a single light-emitting device can be switched from the focused pointer to the widespread flashlight depending on the RAIN application upon user's purpose.

Selfish Decentralized Computation Offloading for Mobile Cloud Computing in Dense Wireless Networks

Offloading computation to a mobile cloud is a promising solution to augment the computation capabilities of mobile devices. In this paper, we consider selfish mobile devices in a dense wireless network, in which individual mobile devices can offload computations through multiple access points or through the base station to a mobile cloud so as to minimize their computation costs. We provide a game theoretical analysis of the problem, prove the existence of pure strategy Nash equilibria, and provide an efficient decentralized algorithm for computing an equilibrium. For the case when the cloud computing resources scale with the number of mobile devices, we show that all improvement paths are finite. Furthermore, we provide an upper bound on the price of anarchy of the game, which serves as an upper bound on the approximation ratio of the proposed decentralized algorithms. We use simulations to evaluate the time complexity of computing Nash equilibria and to provide insights into the price of anarchy of the game under realistic scenarios. Our results show that the equilibrium cost may be close to optimal, and the convergence time is almost linear in the number of mobile devices.

A bandwidth allocation and energy-optimal transmission rate scheduling scheme in multi-services wireless networks

The energy-saving of mobile devices during their application offloading process has always been the research hotspot in the field of mobile cloud computing (MCC). In this paper, we focus on the scenario where multiple mobile devices with MCC and non-MCC services coexist. A bandwidth allocation and the corresponding transmission rate scheduling schemes are proposed with the objectives of simultaneously maximizing the overall system throughput and minimizing the energy consumption of individual mobile device with MCC service. To allocate the bandwidth to all mobile devices, two different algorithms are proposed, i.e., 0–1 integer programming algorithm and Lagrange dual algorithm. The transmission rate scheduling scheme for mobile device with MCC service is presented based on reverse order iteration method. The numerical results suggest that energy consumed by individual mobile device with MCC service can be remarkably saved while the overall system throughput can also be maximized. Moreover, the results show that 0–1 integer programming algorithm can get greater system throughput but has higher computational complexity, which means the algorithm is more suitable for small-scale systems, whereas Lagrange dual algorithm can achieve a good balance between the performance and computational complexity.

Design of Vectored Sum-Based Fuzzy Logic Control System and Its Application to Segway-Type Mobile Robot

The study of individual mobile devices has been widely conducted. In this paper, we propose the design of some fuzzy logic control systems for the control of the Segway-type mobile robot, which is a kind of inverted pendulum system. We first design two conventional fuzzy logic control systems for position and balance control of the Segway-type mobile robot. And then, we design another two fuzzy logic control systems with a single input variable for position and its balance control. We also propose a new defuzzification method called vectored sum scheme. Finally, in order to check the feasibility of the proposed systems we present some simulation examples.

μEMA: Microinteraction-based Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) Using a Smartwatch.

Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) is a method of in situ data collection for assessment of behaviors, states, and contexts. Questions are prompted during everyday life using an individual's mobile device, thereby reducing recall bias and increasing validity over other self-report methods such as retrospective recall. We describe a microinteraction-based EMA method ("micro" EMA, or μEMA) using smartwatches, where all EMA questions can be answered with a quick glance and a tap - nearly as quickly as checking the time on a watch. A between-subjects, 4-week pilot study was conducted where μEMA on a smartwatch (n=19) was compared with EMA on a phone (n=14). Despite an ≈8 times increase in the number of interruptions, μEMA had a significantly higher compliance rate, completion rate, and first prompt response rate, and μEMA was perceived as less distracting. The temporal density of data collection possible with μEMA could prove useful in ubiquitous computing studies.

Uncertainty-Aware Autonomic Resource Provisioning for Mobile Cloud Computing

Mobile platforms are becoming the predominant medium of access to Internet services due to the tremendous increase in their computation and communication capabilities. However, enabling applications that require real-time in-the-field data collection and processing using mobile platforms is still challenging due to i) the insufficient computing capabilities and unavailability of complete data on individual mobile devices and ii) the prohibitive communication cost and response time involved in offloading data to remote computing resources such as cloud datacenters for centralized computation. A novel resource provisioning framework for organizing the heterogeneous sensing, computing, and communication capabilities of static and mobile devices in the vicinity in order to form an elastic resource pool—a hybrid static/mobile computing grid (also called a loosely-coupled mobile device cloud)—is presented. This local computing grid can be harnessed to enable innovative data- and compute-intensive mobile applications such as ubiquitous context-aware health and wellness monitoring of the elderly, distributed rainfall and flood-risk estimation, distributed object recognition and tracking, and content-based distributed multimedia search and sharing. In order to address challenges such as the inherent uncertainty in the hybrid grid (in terms of network connectivity and device availability), the proposed role-based resource provisioning framework is imparted with autonomic capabilities, namely, self-organization, self-optimization, and self-healing. A thorough experimental analysis aimed at verifying and demonstrating the benefits brought by autonomic capabilities of the framework is also presented in detail.

Health Literacy and Medical Policy Advocacy

In 2014, almost one third of the world's population had access to the fixed Internet through individual home computers or mobile devices, with China and the United States being the top users. Introduction of mobile devices produced significant shifts in access to information. The network penetration is now approaching the size of the world population, providing more convenient, affordable, on demand, and on the go services. This expanded access has led to a new global cyber-society, which is influencing socioeconomic, political, and educational developments. Medical and public health workers, professional societies, educators, and publishers, are either exploring or already using social media for research, information dissemination and educational purposes (Djuricich, 2014; Frosch et al., 2011). Online social networking rapidly expands its reach to health consumers, patients, and advocates. Unfortunately many websites can also contain misleading information (Phillips, Wang, & Guenzel, 2005). Thus, health literacy is becoming an important asset to promote health safety while navigating social media “health” networks, in interpreting, understanding, and analyzing the information, and effectively participating in advocacy programs. While access to social media has dramatically increased, the same is not true for health literacy. Socioeconomic disparities affect health literacy in developed economy countries (Champlin & Mackert, 2015; Chesser, Burke, Reyes, & Rohrberg, 2015), while the information from developing countries is sparse or nonexistent. Health literacy, especially underpinned by evidence, is a scarce commodity, but when used effectively can lead to beneficial outcomes. Smoking cessation; HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment; and, more recently, political actions taken by the European Union (EU) and the United States to combat microbial resistance through comprehensive prevention plans, legislation, and research, are success stories. In contrast, we still struggle with inadequate immunization rates for preventable infections worldwide, youth smoking, and the rising threat of sexually transmitted disease. Several models for developing health literacy programs have been identified (Champlin & Mackert, 2015; Sørensen et al., 2012). These models can be adapted by governments for conducting educational campaigns and empowering their citizenry. Health literacy is an essential tool for the successful delivery and practice of medicine in the twenty-first century. As we move toward a participatory health-care approach, consumers, patients, and medical professionals will share the responsibilities for improvement in their health care and the promotion of healthy lifestyles. Medical and health professional societies and organizations must continue to address and advance health literacy among their constituents, policy-makers, and different interest groups by developing informational and educational materials to be accessible through social media.

A model-based analysis for mobile knowledge management in organizations

The consumerization of information technology (IT) has created a growing population of mobile knowledge workers that requires organizations to implement appropriate strategies of mobile knowledge management to support their business-related activities. This research presents and investigates an analytical model of mobile knowledge management by capturing the mutual effects of a central knowledge base and individual mobile devices for a mobile platform. We investigate the best technology level of the mobile platform for both the homogeneous and heterogeneous settings and explore how they change with several critical factors including the central knowledge base, environmental mobility and knowledge volatility. Our model-based framework and analytical results provide valuable insights for practitioners to effectively design mobile platforms and manage mobile knowledge assets.

Do Free Mobile Apps Harm Consumers?

Google distributes proprietary applications for its open-source Android mobile operating system (OS) free of charge. Some of those applications (apps) are offered together as a suite of apps known as Google Mobile Services (GMS). Manufacturers of mobile devices can agree, pursuant to Google’s Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA), to install the suite of apps on their devices at a price of zero. Some theorize that Google’s policy of offering some applications together as a suite of apps harms competitors or menaces consumer welfare. In April 2015, the European Commission expressed such concerns when it initiated a formal antitrust investigation that will scrutinize Google’s licensing practice with respect to Android, mobile apps, and mobile services. In April 2014, an antitrust class-action complaint filed against Google by individual mobile device owners in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California presented similar allegations. However, the theory that the MADA’s requirements have anticompetitive effects is wrong. As a matter of economics, Google’s practice of distributing free mobile apps in the GMS suite benefits consumers (as well as manufacturers, mobile carriers, app developers, and advertisers) by stimulating demand, by reducing the risk of fragmentation of the Android OS, and by preventing Google’s competitors from free riding on its investment to make the Android OS and mobile apps a viable open-source competitor to closed and proprietary — “walled garden” — platforms for mobile devices. As a matter of antitrust law, Google’s distribution of apps as part of a larger whole — GMS — is lawful under the Supreme Court’s four-part test for such arrangements. Google does not force consumers to pay for apps they do not want, and the MADA’s requirements enhance competition overall. The same conclusion holds with even greater certainty under the rule-of-reason analysis for software integration that the D.C. Circuit adopted in its historic Microsoft decision. Although European competition law differs in some respects from American antitrust law, the pertinent economic analysis does not vary by jurisdiction. Google’s licensing practice has invigorated competition among mobile platforms and mobile devices. Google’s distribution of free mobile apps in GMS has produced a market success, not a market failure, and should not be considered anticompetitive.

Remote E-Voting Using the Smart Card Web Server

Voting in elections is the basis of democracy, but voting at polling stations may not be possible for all citizens. Remote (Internet) e-voting uses the voter's own equipment to cast votes, but is potentially vulnerable to many common attacks, which affect the election's integrity. Security can be improved by distributing vote processing over many web servers installed in tamper-resistant, secure environments, using the Smart Card Web Server (SCWS) on a mobile phone Subscriber Identity Module (SIM). A generic voting model is proposed, using a SIM/SCWS voting application with standardised Mobile Network Operator (MNO) management procedures to process the votes cast. E-voting systems Prêt à Voter and Estonian I-voting are used to illustrate the generic model. As the SCWS voting application is used in a distributed processing architecture, e-voting security is enhanced: to compromise an election, an attacker must target many individual mobile devices, rather than a centralised web server.

Towards Enhanced Searching Architecture for Unstructured Peer-to-Peer Over Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

With the rapid growth of individual mobile devices, the researchers are facing new challenges to deploy unstructured peer-to-peer (P2P) applications over mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). Empirical ...

Using student response systems in the accounting classroom: Strengths, strategies and limitations

A Student Response System (SRS), often referred to as a “clicker,” enables students to individually answer instructor questions on a real-time basis using individual mobile devices, and have the aggregate responses displayed as feedback to the class at the instructor’s discretion. A mobile device can be a proprietary, vendor-specific remote, or a multi-purpose item such as a smartphone or computer. While SRSs have been used in education for some time, we perceive the adoption rate in accounting classes as still being quite low. This paper is a “how to” and “why” guide for accounting faculty who are considering using SRSs, and for experienced users who seek to refine or expand their SRS use. We briefly review key features of current technology choices, noting the wide range of functions and technology types that can facilitate both casual experimentation and more demanding uses. We then review and synthesize the related experimental literature on SRSs, and find clear evidence of student satisfaction and engagement, but evidence for only small improvements in learning and antecedent behaviors. We use the existing research on SRSs, combined with our collective 18 years of experience with this technology to provide an educator’s “how to” for using an SRS in conjunction with teaching accounting. We cover such issues as how many questions to ask, when to ask them, how to grade them, sources of questions, and the issue of cheating. We conclude by suggesting opportunities for future research.