Modern Smartphones Research Articles

A Mobile Solution for Augmenting a Manufacturing Environment with User-Generated Annotations

The ever-increasing complexity in manufacturing environments has caused delay and uncertainty for on-site personnel when retrieving critical information. Currently, information associated with manufacturing environments is created and stored in centralized terminals and even paper-based logbooks. Any delays in accessing this information can hinder critical decision-making processes that are essential to ensure maximum efficiency and productivity. To increase the competitiveness of manufacturing companies, the authors present a user-oriented markerless augmented reality authoring solution for the manufacturing environment utilizing the capability of a modern smartphone or head-mounted display. With a one-time setup and calibration, the end user is able to augment a physical workspace with a digital layer and annotate any stationary object with application data including maintenance records, service tickets, and usage logs. By directly mapping the data onto a relevant physical object, it allows more efficient reuse and better contextualization of manufacturing information. The backend expandable data structure also enhances extensibility so that the users can modify the digital layer with ease when the physical environment changes. This annotation tool defines a novel way of managing manufacturing information to help companies work more efficiently and effectively.

Linux page fault analysis in android systems

In modern smartphones, system performances are tightly related to a variety of underlying subsystems. In particular, internal storage, along the years, has become crucial because it is extensively used to access content relevant to the system and, finally, to the end user. To understand its role in a commercial Android smartphone and to evaluate its effects on the User experience, within the context of a real usage, we analyzed Linux page fault handling, a critical mechanism that puts pressure on storage devices and may cause system inefficiencies. A kernel tracing technique has been conceived for real-time measurement of Android applications and services on commercial smartphones. The experimental results presented in this work are derived from the use of this kernel tracing on a 64-bit Android smartphone, equipped with a ufs storage subsystem. The main subject of the study is major page fault handling, a kernel mechanism behind many end-user actions recognized at industry level as source of possible performance deterioration in a smartphone. The analysis shows that major page fault handling is dominated by read accesses to ufs (between 30% and 40% of the total time), and that the related storage traffic is significantly affected by the ReadAhead mechanism, which is not always efficient.

A Semi-Automatic Annotation Approach for Human Activity Recognition.

Modern smartphones and wearables often contain multiple embedded sensors which generate significant amounts of data. This information can be used for body monitoring-based areas such as healthcare, indoor location, user-adaptive recommendations and transportation. The development of Human Activity Recognition (HAR) algorithms involves the collection of a large amount of labelled data which should be annotated by an expert. However, the data annotation process on large datasets is expensive, time consuming and difficult to obtain. The development of a HAR approach which requires low annotation effort and still maintains adequate performance is a relevant challenge. We introduce a Semi-Supervised Active Learning (SSAL) based on Self-Training (ST) approach for Human Activity Recognition to partially automate the annotation process, reducing the annotation effort and the required volume of annotated data to obtain a high performance classifier. Our approach uses a criterion to select the most relevant samples for annotation by the expert and propagate their label to the most confident samples. We present a comprehensive study comparing supervised and unsupervised methods with our approach on two datasets composed of daily living activities. The results showed that it is possible to reduce the required annotated data by more than 89% while still maintaining an accurate model performance.

Not just every user of mobile music streaming shares the same characteristics: A classification analysis of mobile network operator subscribers in Germany

Based on the ubiquitous availability of broadband networks, music streaming (MS) services have become increasingly popular in the recent past. This holds in particular for MS delivery over cellular mobile communication infrastructures. However, most prior research on MS service proliferation did not focus on mobile music streaming (MMS). MMS differs from MS consumption over fixed networks, among others, in terms of use contexts, devices and pricing schedules. Instead, earlier work typically explored perceptual and socio-demographic differences between (self-reported) non-users and users of MS services in general. Therefore, this study extends the literature by exploring differences between non-users and three distinct groups of users (new, seasoned, lost) of MMS services with regard to socio-demographic, device, contract and service utilization characteristics. The empirical analysis draws on non-perceptual profile data of 3228 mobile network operator (MNO) subscribers residing in Germany. Mean comparisons and discriminant analysis show that non-users are about 10 to 15 years older, live in non-urban areas, are equipped with a less modern smartphone, were not addressed with a special MMS promotion campaign and have a much lower data allowance in their rate plan than the various user groups. Within the MMS user groups, new adopters have more modern devices, are in rate plans with higher metered allowances (excluding MMS data consumption) and exploit their data allowance to a larger degree. Lost MMS users are more likely to be older females who were not eligible for a special promotion offer and have a lower data allowance. Implications of the findings are discussed for MNOs striving to promote sustainable MMS use and for future research in the field of innovative digital media and communication services.

Updated Goals, Operators, Methods, and Selection Rules (GOMS) with Touch Screen Operations for Quantitative Analysis of User Interfaces

When developing applications, User Interfaces (UI) are considered as an important and integral component of any application. With badly designed UI, users are less likely to use the application, leading to low adoption rates and is not desirable in any application development setting. The process of developing good intuitive and stream-lined UI for users is complex, that requires many processes and experts from many fields to contribute. When evaluating potential UI designs, there are many attributes and features that could be examined either in a qualitative and/or quantitative standpoint. The Updated Goals, Operators, Methods, and Selection Rules (GOMS) model is an approach that has been used in the area. With the Keystroke Level (KLM) extension, it is possible to quantitatively estimate the time requirement or efficiency of UI for completing different tasks with minimal effort, and has been adopted in many GUI improvement projects. Due to the usefulness, extensions to the GOMS model had been proposed over the years including extensions to account for motion control interfaces. Though the GOMS model has been useful for quantitatively evaluating UI design, the main input device of modern smartphones and tablets are touch screens, which are different in nature when compared to traditional computer inputs. The differences leads to the point that GOMS model with KLM is ill-suited for touch screen based applications. This research paper addresses the issue by proposing extensions to the GOMS model to account for UI that are based on touch screen input devices.

MII RetCam assisted smartphone based fundus imaging for retinopathy of prematurity.

Purpose:The gold standard for evaluating Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a potentially blinding disease in preterm babies, is by indirect ophthalmoscopy which is quite subjective. Digital imaging with RetCam, an advanced wide field imaging system is more precise but it is not easily available or affordable. Smartphones are being explored as an alternate cost effective and accessible imaging tool. This is possible because of the good illumination and the built-in high resolution cameras available in modern smartphones. The aim of this study is to illustrate the utility of MII RetCam assisted smartphone based fundus imaging (MSFI) in the documentation and monitoring of ROP.Methods:Single-centre, retrospective observational study of all the preterm babies subjected to MSFI as part of ROP screening from September 2017 to November 2018. iPhone 4S and + 20 Diopter lens attached to the MII RetCam device was used for fundus imaging at baseline and during follow up. The statistical analysis used for the same is the SPSS statistical software.Results:Good quality images of central and peripheral retina could be captured in 33 out of 42 babies (78.57%) with ROP. Serial imaging done in 24 babies with ROP helped in precise monitoring of the disease and planning management. Incidentally detected non-ROP findings were also documented. Unique design of the device enabled imaging by a single examiner. Image database created was useful for academic and counselling purposes. Smaller field images which can cause difficulty in distinguishing the zones is a limitation.Conclusion:MSFI is a potential alternate imaging tool enabling objective documentation and monitoring of ROP in low resource settings.

Mobile Cloud Support for Semantic-Enriched Speech Recognition in Social Care

Nowadays, most users carry high computing power mobile devices where speech recognition is certainly one of the main technologies available in every modern smartphone, although battery draining and application performance (resource shortage) have a big impact on the experienced quality. Shifting applications and services to the cloud may help to improve mobile user satisfaction as demonstrated by several ongoing efforts in the mobile cloud area. However, the quality of speech recognition is still not sufficient in many complex cases to replace the common hand written text, especially when prompt reaction to short-term provisioning requests is required. To address the new scenario, this paper proposes a mobile cloud infrastructure to support the extraction of semantics information from speech recognition in the Social Care domain, where carers have to speak about their patients conditions in order to have reliable notes used afterward to plan the best support. We present not only an architecture proposal, but also a real prototype that we have deployed and thoroughly assessed with different queries, accents, and in presence of load peaks, in our experimental mobile cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS) testbed based on Cloud Foundry.

Competences of older people to use smartphones as a factor of wellbeing in contemporary society

One of the key reflective aspects of modern society is the application of information communication technologies. According to SEB Bank and the information and communication technology company TEO [1] more people aged 65 and over are discovering the Internet and smart technology services to manage finances, communicate and spend their leisure time. Technological development has a large group of supporters even among seniors; however, many older adults have no skills and neither the intention nor the possibility to use digital devices which are critical for successful functioning in society. Escape from technological innovations in no way makes life easier. Modern smartphones can make life more enjoyable for seniors and to benefit society. The aim of this paper is to investigate seniors' opinions about the importance of increasing competence in smartphone usage in their daily lives. The investigation was conducted in two stages: 2018 April and 2018 September/October. During stage two, groups were former of 10–12 seniors. During and after the training, the participants were interviewed in focus groups about their opinions. The study revealed that older people's interest in new technologies activates their participation in the learning process, promotes interest in innovations and creates conditions for wellbeing in society.

Benchmarking a High-End Smartphone’s Antenna Efficiencies

In an effort to create a benchmark for antenna designs for mobile applications, the total and radiation efficiencies of a modern high-end smartphone’s antennas are measured. To this end, an adapter board is designed that facilitates the connection to a calibrated measurement system. Its shape is chosen to closely resemble the original phone’s dimensions while allowing connection of the antennas via spring fingers to a coaxial measurement system. The characterization of this mock-up is performed in a reverberation chamber, which offers the advantage of an on-average isotropic environment, making it ideal for antenna reflection coefficient and efficiency measurements. The reflection coefficients, total efficiencies, and radiation efficiencies of the mock-up are then measured from 0.75 to 6 GHz. The total antenna efficiencies, not accounting for a possible improvement due to adaptive matching networks, are found to be below 15% up to 4 GHz and up to 25% below 6 GHz. Meanwhile, the radiation efficiencies are up to 15% below 2.5 GHz and up to 40% below 6 GHz. Such antenna efficiency measurements are the first and serve well as a benchmark for future designs and concepts.

The Video Authentication and Camera Identification Database: A New Database for Video Forensics

Modern technologies have made the capture and sharing of digital video commonplace; the combination of modern smartphones, cloud storage, and social media platforms have enabled video to become a primary source of information for many people and institutions. As a result, it is important to be able to verify the authenticity and source of this information, including identifying the source camera model that captured it. While a variety of forensic techniques have been developed for digital images, less research has been conducted toward the forensic analysis of videos. In part, this is due to a lack of standard digital video databases, which are necessary to develop and evaluate state-of-the-art video forensic algorithms. In this paper, to address this need, we present the video authentication and camera identification (video-ACID) database, a large collection of videos specifically collected for the development of camera model identification algorithms. The video-ACID database contains over 12 000 videos from 46 physical devices representing 36 unique camera models. Videos in this database are hand collected in a diversity of real-world scenarios are unedited and have known and trusted provenance. In this paper, we describe the qualities, structure, and collection procedure of video-ACID, which includes clearly marked videos for evaluating camera model identification algorithms. Finally, we provide baseline camera model identification results on these evaluation videos using the state-of-the-art deep-learning techniques. The Video-ACID database is publicly available at misl.ece.drexel.edu/video-acid.

Patterned plasmonic gradient for high-precision biosensing using a smartphone reader.

Smartphone-compatible biosensors are believed to be one of the key techniques for improving the quality of diagnosis in remote areas. However, to date, few smartphone-compatible biosensors can reach the specifications of their conventional counterparts due to the limitations of consumer-grade detectors carried by phones. To circumvent this issue, we reported a metasurface-inspired bio-sensor, patterned plasmonic gradient (PPG), which transduces local index information into 2D patterns. By harnessing the powerful imaging and computational capability of modern smartphones, the PPG is sensitive enough to detect tiny refractive index changes induced by a submonolayer of molecules with high precision (Δn < 0.001) in a large dynamic range. It allows us to monitor the conjugation process between biotin and a trace amount of streptavidin (15 nM, 20 μL) in real-time. With high sensitivity and accuracy, the PPG provides a high performance bio-sensing solution for the places where professional equipment is inaccessible.

Eight Element Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Antenna for 5G Mobile Applications

This work presents a systematic design of high performance eight element antenna array for a 5G mobile terminal operating at 2.6/3.5 GHz bands. The proposed eight element slot antenna array based on unit monopole slot antenna embedded in the metal casing or ground resonates at fundamental mode at 2.6 GHz. The antenna array is developed from four antennas (open-end slot antenna) etched near to the corner edges of the printed circuited board with supported pairs of vertically mounted slot antennas in middle section of the long edge ground plane. This combination of the antenna elements provided pattern diversity and enabled the smartphone in the reception of the signal in a different direction. The impedance bandwidth based on -10 dB return loss criteria cover from 2.4 GHz to 3.6 GHz includes the two allocated bands of (2400 MHz to 2600 MHz) and (3400 MHz to 3600 MHz) for 5G cellular communication systems. The vital MIMO performance measures as envelope correlation coefficient or ECC is less than 0.2 for any two antenna array meeting the required standard of less than 0.5 alongside the mean effective gain or MEG ratio of any two antenna meeting the required standard of less than 3 dB for power balance and optimal diversity performance. As modern smartphone demand desires slim handsets, the after mentioned compact multiple antenna structure can be easily implemented for the future smartphones as it utilizes the conductive sheet or chassis and the middle vertically mounted antenna do not use the additional space of the chassis or ground. The customer hand or human hand effect on the multiple antenna array to mimic the use of mobile phone customer is also studied. The maximum MIMO Channel capacity based on measured result is 34.25bps/Hz and is about 3 times of 2 × 2 MIMO operations.

User-Centric Thermal Management for Smartphones

For high-performance smartphones, keeping the on-chip temperature under a given critical temperature is a major concern. In order to prevent the temperature from rising above the critical point, modern smartphones widely adopt the dynamic thermal management (DTM) scheme, which limits the maximum CPU frequency when the CPU reaches high temperatures (thus making the CPU temperature drop). In this paper, we propose a novel DTM scheme based on userperceived response time analysis called SmartDTM. Unlike existing DTM schemes that can significantly degrade the quality of user experience, SmartDTM explicitly accounts for the quality of the user experience in making DTM decisions. We divide an execution of a given user-interactive session into two intervals, one where the system response time directly affects the user experience and the other where the system response time does not affect the user experience. In the user-perceived response time interval, our proposed scheme conservatively makes DTM decisions so that the quality of the user experience is not affected by the reduced maximum CPU frequency. On the other hand, in the user-oblivious response time interval, SmartDTM aggressively lowers the CPU frequency so that the CPU temperature can be quickly decreased to a safe level without negatively affecting user experience. Our experimental results on an ODROID-XU+E board show that SmartDTM can improve the performances of user-perceived intervals by 12.2% and 21.4% over the Android’s default DTM policy when the initial temperature was set to 65°C and 70°C, respectively, under the critical temperature of 85°C.

LISTEN ENGLISH FULL AUDIO as a SUPPORTING MEDIA in IMPROVING STUDENTS’ LISTENING SKILL

Listen English Full Audio is a smartphone application that can be downloaded freely from a smartphone. In this modern Era smartphone is not a rare thing anymore because most of the students even all the students have their own gadget or smartphone. So, the students can use this application wherever and whenever they want. The aims of this research are to find out whether the use of Listen English Full Audio Application can help the students to improve their listening skill. Furthermore, it also focuses in analyzing the students’ perception toward the application. The method used in this research is Quan-Qual method with a type of quasi experimental design namely regression discontinuity design. The population is the first semester of STKIP Muhammadiyah Palopo students academic year 2017/2018. The total number of population was 240 students. Related to the sampling technique, this research uses the combination of random sampling and non random sampling technique. Random sampling is used to decide the sample of the quantitative analysis and non random sampling to decide the qualitative analysis. The data are collected by test which is analyze by using SPSS 20 program and interview which is analyze by using open coding. The result showed that Listen English Full Audio is affective in improving the students’ listening skill. Furthermore, all students agree that English Listen English Full Audio is a good supporting media.

Evaluating Smartphones for Infrastructure Work Order Management

&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"&gt;Infrastructure managers require timely and accurate state information to diagnose, prioritize, and repair the substantial infrastructure assets supporting modern society. Challenges in obtaining sufficient information can often be attributed to inadequate data collection procedures (phone calls, paper reports, etc.) or a general lack of knowledge or ability on the part of the reporting individual to accurately convey what is actually wrong with the facility. Fortunately, modern smart-phone technology offers the potential to improve maintenance work requests by providing better geolocation and problem description accuracy. An experiment simulating real-world maintenance requests was conducted comparing smart-phones with traditional verbal work order request systems. Usefulness and description accuracy ratios revealed smartphone systems generated more useful information regardless of submitter background or experience. However, interestingly the smart-phone applications did not improve asset geolocation and actually negatively impacted the ability of maintenance personnel to accurately relocate the asset needing service. Given the ubiquitous nature of smartphone technology, the potential exists to turn any citizen into an infrastructure sensor. This study takes a step toward understanding the benefits, as well as the limitations, of the smart-phone based work order submission systems.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

OXIDATIVE AND MUTAGENIC EFFECTS OF LOW INTENSITY GSM 1800 MHz MICROWAVE RADIATION

Despite a significant number of epidemiological studies on potential carcinogenicity of microwave radiation (MWR) from wireless devices and a bulk of experimental studies on oxidative and mutagenic effects of low intensity MWR, the discussion on potential carcinogenicity of low intensity MWR is going on. This study aims to assess oxidative and mutagenic effects of low intensity MWR from a typical commercial model of a modern smartphone. The model of developing quail embryos has been used for the assessment of oxidative and mutagenic effects of Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) 1800MHz MWR from a commercial model of smartphone. The embryos were exposed in ovo to 0.32µW/cm2, discontinuously- 48s- On, 12s- Off, during 5days before and 14days through the incubation period. The exposure of quail embryos before and during the incubation period to low intensity GSM 1800MHz has resulted in expressive statistically significant oxidative effects in embryonic cells, including a 2-fold increase in superoxide generation rate and 85% increase in nitrogen oxide generation rate, damages of DNA integrity and oxidative damages of DNA (up to twice increased levels of 8-oxo-dG in cells of 1-day old chicks from the exposed embryos). Finally, the exposure resulted in a significant, almost twice, increase of embryo mortality. The exposure of model biological system to low intensity GSM 1800MHz MWR resulted in significant oxidative and mutagenic effects in exposed cells, and thus should be recognized as a significant risk factor for living cells.

An overview of smartphone technology for citizen-centered, real-time and scalable civil infrastructure monitoring

Modern smartphones are equipped with various sensors along with on-board storage, computing and communication capabilities. Owing to these features, they can become an intelligent, scalable, autonomous and potentially cost-free component of the next generation civil infrastructure monitoring systems in future smart cities. Over the past few years, there has been a growing interest in the deployment of smartphone-based monitoring technologies within the civil engineering arena. Overall, the smartphone sensing paradigm is still in its infancy, with great promise for researchers to rapidly expand its many potential applications. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review of smartphone-centric research for the monitoring of civil infrastructure systems. The historical deployment of smartphones in major areas of civil engineering has been explored. An emphasis is placed on sensing capabilities of smartphones and their crowdsourcing power for monitoring several distinct civil infrastructure systems. Furthermore, a case study is presented to provide our most recent efforts in deployment of smartphones for evaluation of highway pavements and challenges ahead. Finally, limitations, challenges and future directions for widespread application of smartphone-driven monitoring systems are discussed. The survey implies that much research is still required to explore the power of crowdsourced smartphone-based measurements, and to branch out into new application domains.

Patients, pictures, and privacy: managing clinical photographs in the smartphone era.

It is easy to capture and share clinical photographs and x-ray images using modern smartphones. This technology affords health-care providers the ability to rapidly collaborate and facilitate care for their patients. This improvement, however, has increased concerns regarding patient privacy and the safeguarding of protected health information. Health-care providers should understand the deidentification process for patient photographs because this process fundamentally changes the expectations and requirements for how providers are to handle this information. Properly deidentified patient photographs (and other data) are no longer considered identifiable protected health information and are not subject to the handling requirements mandated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This article addresses patient privacy concerns attendant to the acquisition, transmission, and sharing of clinical photographs among health-care providers. It provides guidelines for providers seeking to minimize the risk of noncompliance with privacy requirements as they adopt these new technologies into their practices.

The future role of mobile learning and smartphones applications in the Iraqi private universities

The higher education sector has witnessed a drastic change due to new advanced technologies including computers and smartphones. As a result, higher education will need to establish a solid foundation aided by information communication technologies (ICT) where mobile applications can extend learning opportunities for students and graduates so they meet the requirements of the fast-changing jobs market. Many studies conducted in various contexts have revealed the drastic change of using mobile applications (henceforth apps) and advanced communication which help students develop their skills by means of using the digital environment.The study aims at identifying the general impression of Iraqi private universities students about the future role of ICT and the mobile learning in higher education. Al-Maarif University College is selected as a case study to measure the extent of students’ reliance on the use of modern smartphones applications in research, study, and skills development in the field of specialization. The study also sheds light upon specifying the important variables and methods for enhancing the role of the mobile learning as a part of the electronic education for the private education sector in Iraq.

A Robust Deep Learning Approach for Position-Independent Smartphone-Based Human Activity Recognition.

Recently, modern smartphones equipped with a variety of embedded-sensors, such as accelerometers and gyroscopes, have been used as an alternative platform for human activity recognition (HAR), since they are cost-effective, unobtrusive and they facilitate real-time applications. However, the majority of the related works have proposed a position-dependent HAR, i.e., the target subject has to fix the smartphone in a pre-defined position. Few studies have tackled the problem of position-independent HAR. They have tackled the problem either using handcrafted features that are less influenced by the position of the smartphone or by building a position-aware HAR. The performance of these studies still needs more improvement to produce a reliable smartphone-based HAR. Thus, in this paper, we propose a deep convolution neural network model that provides a robust position-independent HAR system. We build and evaluate the performance of the proposed model using the RealWorld HAR public dataset. We find that our deep learning proposed model increases the overall performance compared to the state-of-the-art traditional machine learning method from 84% to 88% for position-independent HAR. In addition, the position detection performance of our model improves superiorly from 89% to 98%. Finally, the recognition time of the proposed model is evaluated in order to validate the applicability of the model for real-time applications.