Personal Digital Assistant Devices Research Articles

A proposed Cost-Effective approach using smartphones for capturing descriptive data for geographic information systems

Nowadays, achieving precise positioning accuracy may be accomplished by using an expensive geodetic receiver (GNSS). Moreover, some applications do not need such exact positional precision. In recent times, smartphones have included Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) to determine their location, particularly for collecting descriptive data to update the attribute data of geographic information systems (GIS). This process does not require high levels of positional precision. The present study comprises two experiments. The first experiment is conducted in a small, unobstructed local region that provides optimal circumstances. Its purpose is to demonstrate the varying levels of precision in Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) for precise point positioning (PPP). Both single- and dual-frequency devices are used, and the International GNSS Service (IGS) correction is applied to highlight the fact that high accuracy is not necessarily required. Conversely, the second proposal proposes a cost-effective idea for an application that may be developed utilizing a smartphone to update attribute data instead of relying on a personal digital assistant (PDA) device and PPP. The accuracy ranges were determined by applying PPP, GNSS, and IGS adjustments. For single frequency, the range was 0.054 m to 0.330 m, while for dual frequency; it was 0.053 m to 0.280 m. The accuracy of location utilizing a single-frequency GNSS on a smartphone ranged from 1.2 m to 1.6 m, as shown by the revised descriptive data in GIS applications.

A proposed Cost-Effective approach using smartphones for capturing descriptive data for geographic information systems

Nowadays, achieving precise positioning accuracy may be accomplished by using an expensive geodetic receiver (GNSS). Moreover, some applications do not need such exact positional precision. In recent times, smartphones have included Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) to determine their location, particularly for collecting descriptive data to update the attribute data of geographic information systems (GIS). This process does not require high levels of positional precision. The present study comprises two experiments. The first experiment is conducted in a small, unobstructed local region that provides optimal circumstances. Its purpose is to demonstrate the varying levels of precision in Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) for precise point positioning (PPP). Both single- and dual-frequency devices are used, and the International GNSS Service (IGS) correction is applied to highlight the fact that high accuracy is not necessarily required. Conversely, the second proposal proposes a cost-effective idea for an application that may be developed utilizing a smartphone to update attribute data instead of relying on a personal digital assistant (PDA) device and PPP. The accuracy ranges were determined by applying PPP, GNSS, and IGS adjustments. For single frequency, the range was 0.054 m to 0.330 m, while for dual frequency; it was 0.053 m to 0.280 m. The accuracy of location utilizing a single-frequency GNSS on a smartphone ranged from 1.2 m to 1.6 m, as shown by the revised descriptive data in GIS applications.

Electromagnetic Absorbing Materials Design by Optimization Using a Machine Learning Approach

One of the state-of-the-art strategies to decrease the isolation between sections of personal digital assistance devices, taking into account the unavoidable thermal, mechanical, weight, and manufacturability constraints is the proper introduction of electromagnetic (EM) absorbing materials. The global target of this study is the optimized synthesis of the EM properties of a material using a machine learning approach. The sought material must improve the shielding effectiveness between two regions of a device. The first part of this paper is dedicated to the assessment of the performances of an artificial neural network used as function approximation to compute the values of the shielding without resorting to complex and time-consuming full-wave numerical simulations. The network is assessed with respect to either the variations of the training set and algorithm or of its architecture. Significant figures of merit are introduced. The second part is devoted to the description and definition of nature-inspired algorithms demanded to manage the optimization problem.

Evaluation of a Personal Digital Assistant Device Implementation for Barcode Medication Administration with Nurses Using a Likert Questionnaire.

The majority of preventable medication errors occur at the administration stage. BCMA systems are used to improve safety and prevent errors in this stage. A variety of devices can be used for this purpose. Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires is a high complexity medical center implementing a BCMA project since 2015. It is currently migrating to PDA devices for nurses. The objective of this work is to evaluate the implementation of these new devices in selected wards at HIBA using a self-reported questionnaire. From 318 contacted nurses, 58 answered the questionnaire (18.2% response rate). Overall, agreement was high among all statements regarding the new devices. Nurses valued especially the increased safety to reduce errors, improvements in previous hospital processes and achieving improvements in the flow and quality of patient care. Nurses recommended the use of the device in their sector, with a mean score of 4.6/5 and 91.3% agreement, highest in total. This proved to be a cost-effective method of evaluation of the newly implemented devices and acceptance by nurses. Measures to incorporate the remaining nurses' feedback should be considered.

Medical students' awareness of Personal Digital Assistant Devices' impact on their health.

Aims:1. To evaluate medical students’ awareness of personal digital assistant devices impacts on their overall health. 2. To estimate medical students’ hours on digital devices. 3. To determine the most common effect of personal digital assistant devices on medical student health.Settings and Method:This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the college of medicine of a in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The participants were medical students, and a questionnaire consists of 3 sections was used. A sample of 289 medical students participated in the study. Kruskal–Wallis test was used to analyze the relationship between the knowledge score and the year of study.Statistical Analysis used and Results:The research included medical students whose ages ranged from 19 to 25 years with a median (IQR) of 22.00 (21.00–23.00). Approximately, 56% of the participants were males, and the majority of the students were from year 3. The average hours spent daily while using PDA for studying was 5 hours with SD 2.7. 167 (58%) of the students reported that studying using PDAs has affected their life. The most experienced effects reported was dry eyes and vision problems 53 (54%).Conclusions:The current study revealed that the majority of medical students have adequate knowledge of PDAs’ effects on their health despite their continuous use. More attention should be paid to reduce the effects on their health by raising campaigns to increase the awareness of all the students and the community.

Remote Patient Monitoring with Health Care Records Using Iot

For a medical treatment with IoT-based facilities, physicians always have to pay much more attentions to the raw medical records of target patients instead of directly making medical advice, conclusions or diagnosis from their experiences. Because the medical records in IoT-based hospital information system (HIS) are dispersedly obtained from distributed devices such as tablet computer, personal digital assistant, automated analyzer, and other medical devices, they are raw, simple, weak-content, and massive. Such medical records cannot be used for further analyzing and decision supporting due to that they are collected in a weak-semantic manner. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to enrich IoT-based medical records by linking them with the knowledge in linked open data. A case study is conducted on a real-world IoT-based HIS system in association with our approach, the experimental results show that medical records in the local HIS system are significantly enriched and useful for healthcare analysis and decision making, and further demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of our approach for knowledge accessing.

Open Knowledge Accessing Method in IoT-Based Hospital Information System for Medical Record Enrichment

For a medical treatment with IoT-based facilities, physicians always have to pay much more attentions to the raw medical records of target patients instead of directly making medical advice, conclusions or diagnosis from their experiences. Because the medical records in IoT-based hospital information system (HIS) are dispersedly obtained from distributed devices such as tablet computer, personal digital assistant, automated analyzer, and other medical devices, they are raw, simple, weak-content, and massive. Such medical records cannot be used for further analyzing and decision supporting due to that they are collected in a weak-semantic manner. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to enrich IoT-based medical records by linking them with the knowledge in linked open data. A case study is conducted on a real-world IoT-based HIS system in association with our approach, the experimental results show that medical records in the local HIS system are significantly enriched and useful for healthcare analysis and decision making, and further demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of our approach for knowledge accessing.

Concurrent and lagged relations between momentary affect and sedentary behavior in middle-aged women.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reciprocal relationship between sedentary behavior (SB) and momentary affect in the context of daily experiences. Community-dwelling midlife women (N = 121; age 40-60 y) were recruited for a 15-day daily diary study. The women rated their positive and negative affect when prompted on a personal digital assistant device four times per day and wore an accelerometer for objective assessment of SB. Multilevel models were estimated to test concurrent and lagged associations between momentary estimates of SB and affect. In models that controlled for day of week, number of hot flashes, and total minutes of accelerometer wear time, greater concurrent positive affect was associated with fewer minutes spent being sedentary (β = -31, P < 0.01). Neither lagged positive nor negative affect predicted later SB; however, more sedentary minutes predicted lower positive affect at the next occasion (β = -0.04, P < 0.01). These results suggest that SB has negative affective consequences from moment to moment. The implications of reduced positive affect after prolonged bouts of SB for subsequent motivational, behavioral, or well-being outcomes remain to be determined.

Prevalence of HIV testing and counseling and associated factors among secondary school students in Botswana.

The World Health Organization recommends HIV testing and counseling (HTC) for all adolescents living in countries with generalized HIV epidemics. In Botswana, HIV prevalence among adolescents 15-19 years is 3.7% and among pregnant adolescents is 10%. We describe the proportion and characteristics of secondary school students who have accessed HTC. A multistage sample survey was conducted among students in Botswana's public secondary schools in 2010. The survey was self-administered using a personal digital assistant device. The HTC rate was estimated using self-reported history of HIV testing. Of 1,632 participants, 52% were girls, 43% aged below 16 years, and 27% had ever had sexual intercourse. Most (81%) students knew where to get tested for HIV. Overall, 2.2% of students were HIV positive by self-report. The HTC rate was 23% overall, 34% among students who had ever had sexual intercourse, and 45% among students who had sexual intercourse in the past 12 months. Being pregnant or having made someone pregnant and having had sexual intercourse in the past 12 months were associated with having been tested for HIV among students who had ever had sexual intercourse. Overall, the HTC rate was low, and the self- reported HIV prevalence was high among secondary students in Botswana. Most sexually active students have never been tested for HIV. Health communications efforts for adolescents that increase demand for HTC, routine opt-out HIV testing in healthcare facilities, and school-based HIV testing are needed as part of a national HIV prevention strategy.

Study on risk factors and phenotypes of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Guangzhou, China-design and baseline characteristics.

To describe a study design that focuses on risk factors and patterns of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations. A 2-year, single centre, observational study was conducted in Guangzhou in China. The study enrolled 318 subjects with COPD aged 40-79 years, stratified into different but equally sized groups according to global initiative for chronic obstructive lung disease (GOLD) stage (including Stage 0) and 86 lung healthy controls. An assessment each year was scheduled including questionnaires, lung function testing, Chest X-ray and blood collection. A sub-group, called sub-group X, consisting of 203 subjects with COPD and 51 lung healthy controls, was selected to answer a symptom questionnaire daily (EXACT-PRO) via a BlackBerry Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) device. Upon an alert that indicated a change in daily symptom pattern, the patients were contacted by the clinic to decide whether they had experienced an exacerbation and should have an extra visit within 24-48 hours. At an extra visit, nasal and throat swabs, induced sputum and blood were collected. Air pollution, temperature and humidity were also monitored daily. A subset of sub-group X, called sub-group M that consisted of 52 COPD patients and 15 healthy controls was dedicated to measure muscle strength and a dexa scan. More than 78% of the enrolled patients completed the study successfully. There appeared a difference between the patient groups and the controls in gender, age, body mass index (BMI), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), FEV1/FVC and smoking at baseline. In sub-group X 90 out of 203 (44.4%) selected COPD patients developed one or more exacerbations in the 2-year observation period. They were more severe COPD patients according to GOLD stage at study start. On average most exacerbations occurred in the month March and the least number of exacerbations occurred in October. This study with the obtained patient dataset will allow a better insight in many aspects of exacerbations in COPD (e.g., the identification, the risk factors, phenotypes and the biomarkers).

Preprocessing and Feature Selection for Improved Sensor Interoperability in Online Biometric Signature Verification

Due to the technological evolution and the increasing popularity of smartphones, people can access an application using authentication based on biometric approaches from many different devices. Device interoperability is a very challenging problem for biometrics, which needs to be further studied. In this paper, we focus on interoperability device compensation for online signature verification since this biometric trait is gaining a significant interest in banking and commercial sector in the last years. The proposed approach is based on two main stages. The first one is a preprocessing stage where data acquired from different devices are processed in order to normalize the signals in similar ranges. The second one is based on feature selection taking into account the device interoperability case, in order to select to select features which are robust in these conditions. This proposed approach has been successfully applied in a similar way to two common system approaches in online signature verification, i.e., a global features-based system and a time functions-based system. Experiments are carried out using Biosecure DS2 (Wacom device) and DS3 (Personal Digital Assistant mobile device) dynamic signature data sets which take into account multisession and two different scenarios emulating real operation conditions. The performance of the proposed global features-based and time functions-based systems applying the two main stages considered in this paper have provided an average relative improvement of performance of 60.3% and 26.5% Equal Error Rate (EER), respectively, for random forgeries cases, compared with baseline systems. Finally, a fusion of the proposed systems has achieved a further significant improvement for the device interoperability problem, especially for skilled forgeries. In this case, the proposed fusion system has achieved an average relative improvement of 27.7% EER compared with the best performance of time functions-based system. These results prove the robustness of the proposed approach and open the door for future works using devices as smartphones or tablets, commonly used nowadays.

Quad-Band Dual-Layer Microstrip Antenna Design for Mobile Handset

Due to the rapid acceleration and evolution of the wireless communication and their equipment, integrating more services in the personal devices, Personal Digital Assistance (PDA) devices has to work in multi-band frequencies. In this paper, a quad-band, dual-layer Microstrip Antenna was proposed. The proposed antenna is suggested to be used in a mobile phone handset that covers four frequency bands which include GSM 900 (889-960), GSM 1800 DCS 1800 (1710-1885)W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access); IMT 2000 (International Mobile Telecommunication)1885-2200, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi/WLAN (IEEE 802.11 b/g/n) ISM 2450 (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) (2400-2500). The antenna is fixed on a printed circuit board together with a standard mobile battery and LCD. All other components were packed in a mobile phone handset plastic cover. An extensive analysis of the return loss, radiation pattern, and gain of the designed antenna with and without cover were presented. Packing effects on the antenna parameters were studied, the proposed antenna shows return loss (RL) of -16 dB at 0.92 GHz; -20 dB RL at 1.735 GHz; -37 dB RL at 2.1 GHz; and -16 dB RL at 2.42 GHz which are encouraging results. Designing and simulation of the proposed antenna were based on CST software package.

A randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of handheld computers for improving everyday memory functioning in patients with memory impairments after acquired brain injury

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of personal digital assistant devices on achievement of memory and organization goals in patients with poor memory after acquired brain injury. Design: Assessor blinded randomized controlled trial. Setting: Specialist brain injury rehabilitation hospital (inpatients and outpatients). Participants: Adults with acquired brain impairments (85% traumatic brain injury; aged ≥17 years) who were assessed as having functional memory impairment on the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (General Memory Index). Interventions: Training and support to use a personal digital assistant for eight weeks to compensate for memory failures by an occupational therapist. The control intervention was standard rehabilitation, including use of non-electronic memory aids. Main outcome measures: Goal Attainment Scale which assessed achievement of participants’ daily memory functioning goals and caregiver perception of memory functioning; and General Frequency of Forgetting subscale of the Memory Functioning Questionnaire administered at baseline (pre-randomization) and post intervention (eight weeks later). Results: Forty-two participants with memory impairment were recruited. Use of a personal digital assistant led to greater achievement of functional memory goals (mean difference 1.6 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.0 to 2.2), P = 0.0001) and improvement on the General Frequency of Forgetting subscale (mean difference 12.5 (95% CI 2.0 to 22.9), P = 0.021). Conclusions: Occupational therapy training in the use of a handheld computer improved patients’ daily memory function more than standard rehabilitation.

MGuiding (Mobile Guiding) – Using a Mobile GIS app for Guiding

Yehliu Geopark mGuiding is an Android application that can perform several tasks related to guiding tourists. The improvement of the application is based on a user evaluation of the former version of the Yehliu Geopark tour guiding system which was designed to be executed on a personal digital assistant device. The user evaluation data were acquired from a questionnaire survey comprising a sample of 101 respondents and were processed using ridits analysis and importance-performance analysis. Results revealed the tourists' preferences for the tour guiding system. The application was redesigned based on the tourists' preferences. The new features of the application include: (1) a Geopark map that is attractive and easy to read; (2) augmented reality (AR) with camera and global positioning system (GPS) functions; (3) user-friendly guiding interface of scenic spots. The application integrates tracking and location functions using GPS coordinates, multi-media guiding (descriptions of scenic spots, videos, photographs and audio presentations), suggested tour selection and searching using AR. The Yehliu Geopark mGuiding system offers a user-friendly interface that the tourists can use on their own smartphone for a complete tour.

Review and evaluation of innovative technologies for measuring diet in nutritional epidemiology

The use of innovative technologies is deemed to improve dietary assessment in various research settings. However, their relative merits in nutritional epidemiological studies, which require accurate quantitative estimates of the usual intake at individual level, still need to be evaluated. To report on the inventory of available innovative technologies for dietary assessment and to critically evaluate their strengths and weaknesses as compared with the conventional methodologies (i.e. Food Frequency Questionnaires, food records, 24-hour dietary recalls) used in epidemiological studies. A list of currently available technologies was identified from English-language journals, using PubMed and Web of Science. The search criteria were principally based on the date of publication (between 1995 and 2011) and pre-defined search keywords. Six main groups of innovative technologies were identified ('Personal Digital Assistant-', 'Mobile-phone-', 'Interactive computer-', 'Web-', 'Camera- and tape-recorder-' and 'Scan- and sensor-based' technologies). Compared with the conventional food records, Personal Digital Assistant and mobile phone devices seem to improve the recording through the possibility for 'real-time' recording at eating events, but their validity to estimate individual dietary intakes was low to moderate. In 24-hour dietary recalls, there is still limited knowledge regarding the accuracy of fully automated approaches; and methodological problems, such as the inaccuracy in self-reported portion sizes might be more critical than in interview-based applications. In contrast, measurement errors in innovative web-based and in conventional paper-based Food Frequency Questionnaires are most likely similar, suggesting that the underlying methodology is unchanged by the technology. Most of the new technologies in dietary assessment were seen to have overlapping methodological features with the conventional methods predominantly used for nutritional epidemiology. Their main potential to enhance dietary assessment is through more cost- and time-effective, less laborious ways of data collection and higher subject acceptance, though their integration in epidemiological studies would need additional considerations, such as the study objectives, the target population and the financial resources available. However, even in innovative technologies, the inherent individual bias related to self-reported dietary intake will not be resolved. More research is therefore crucial to investigate the validity of innovative dietary assessment technologies.

Evaluation of a wireless handheld medication management device in the prevention of drug-drug interactions in a Medicaid population.

With the passage of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, widespread adoption of certain health information technologies, such as electronic health records (EHRs) and electronic prescribing (e-prescribing), is imminent. Drug-drug interaction (DDI) screening and medication history information are commonly incorporated into health information exchange systems to improve medical decision making, safety, and quality of care, but the value of these features is unclear. To evaluate the effect of providing access to an early generation electronic medication management program with medication history accessible to prescribers via a wireless handheld personal digital assistant (PDA) device on the incidence of potential DDIs (i.e., DDIs that may or may not cause patient harm). This study employed a retrospective pre-intervention/post-intervention study design with a comparison group to evaluate the effectiveness of a wireless handheld medication management program in preventing serious potential DDIs. Licensed prescribers in a state Medicaid program who wrote prescriptions during the period from August 2003 through June 2006 were included in this study. The intervention (PDA) group consisted of clinicians who requested and were granted access to the wireless handheld device containing prescription drug history between August 1, 2004, and June 30, 2005. Initially the device contained 100-day patient-specific medication history, but other functionalities were added during the study period including the ability to check for drug-drug interactions and e-prescribing. The comparison group consisted of prescribers who sent a request to obtain, but did not receive, the wireless handheld device during the same time period. Baseline prescribing patterns of 25 previously identified clinically important potential DDIs were assessed over two 12-month periods, one period prior to (baseline) and one period after (follow-up) an index date (date of device deployment for PDA group; date of request for comparison group). A random-effects negative binomial model was used to analyze the primary outcome, the number of potential DDIs per prescriber per 12-month time period. A secondary outcome of interest, the likelihood that a prescriber would prescribe at least 1 potentially interacting medication pair during the baseline and follow-up periods, was analyzed using a random-effects logistic model. A total of 1,615 prescribers constituted the PDA group, and 600 prescribers made up the comparison group. Prescribers in the 2 groups were significantly different in their specialty practice areas (P less than 0.001), number of pharmacy claims at baseline (P less than 0.001), and the likelihood of prescribing at least 1 potential DDI combination during the 1-year baseline period (P=0.003). However, the prescriber groups were similar in their average age (P=0.241) and geographic location (P=0.181). The most widely prescribed potential DDIs included those involving warfarin with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and thyroid hormones. The median number of patient medication history updates requested per PDA group prescriber during follow-up was 24 (range 0 to 1,073). At baseline, 1,104 (68.4%) of the PDA group and 449 (74.8%) of the comparison group had no potential DDIs. During the next year, 1,131 (70.0%) and 462 (77.0%) of the PDA group and comparison group, respectively, had no DDIs. The incidence rate ratio was 1.01 (95% CI=0.87-1.17) for the PDA group relative to the comparison group for change in number of potential DDIs. In the logistic regression model, the odds of prescribing at least 1 potential DDI did not significantly differ by group (odds ratio=1.26, 95% CI=0.96-1.66). These results indicate that there was no significant difference between the intervention and comparison group with regard to the change in the rate of potential DDIs between the baseline and follow-up periods. A stand-alone medication management program in a wireless PDA device was not frequently used by most prescribers to update patient medication histories and was not associated with a reduction in the rate of prescribing potentially clinically important DDIs.

Achieving Identity-Based Cryptography in a Personal Digital Assistant Device

Continuous technological advances have allowed that mobile devices, such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), can executesophisticated applications that more often than not must be equipped with a layer of security that should include theconfidentiality and the authentication services within its repertory. Nevertheless, when compared against front-end computingdevices, most PDAs are still seen as constrained devices with limited processing and storage capabilities.In order to achieve Identity-Based Cryptography (IBC), which was an open problem proposed by Adi Shamir in 1984, Bonehand Franklin presented in Crypto 2001, a solution that uses bilinear pairings as its main building block. Since then, IBC hasbecome an active area of investigation where many efficient IBC security protocols are proposed year after year. In this paper, we present a cryptographic application that allows the secure exchange of documents from a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) that is wirelessly connected to other nodes. The architecture of our application is inspired by the traditional PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) email security protocol. Our application achieves identity-based authentication and confidentiality functionalities at the 80-bit security level through the usage of a cryptographic library that was coded in C++. Our library can perform basic primitives such as bilinear pairings defined over the binary field and the ternary field , as well as other required primitives known as map-to-point hash functions. We report the timings achieved by our application and we show that they compare well against other similar works published in the open literature.

Electronic Reminding Technology Following Traumatic Brain Injury

To determine whether automated reminders from 2 contemporary personal digital assistant (PDA) devices produce higher rates of timely task completion in people with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Outpatient and community rehabilitation settings. Thirty-six adults aged 18 to 66 years with TBI and self-determined complaints of memory impairment. Timely completion rates for assigned memory tasks under 4 randomly assigned memory aid conditions. Significantly, higher completion rates were found when using either PDA device when compared with a combined baseline and paper memory aid condition (for Palm OS device, Incidence Rate Ratio [IRR] = 2.14, P < .0005, CI [confidence interval] = 1.77-2.59; for Microsoft Pocket PC OS device, IRR = 1.47, P < .001, CI = 1.18-1.82). A significant difference in completion rates was also found between the 2 PDA devices (IRR = 1.46, P < .0005, CI = 1.26-1.70), with the Palm version producing the better scores. Substantially higher rates of task completion (more than double in some cases) when using either PDA device suggest that rehabilitation clinicians can make productive use of PDA-based memory aids in their TBI patient populations. The strength of the effects of PDA device usage argues for further investigation of the impact of device usage on quality-of-life and costs of care, and of personal and caregiver factors predictive of successful and sustained device usage.

In-store one-to-one marketing

With the proliferation of electronic media, one-to-one marketing has become more accessible and it is moving toward widespread adoption. It is particularly important for retailers, where several forms of one-to-one marketing are performed either before or after a shopping experience. One-to-one marketing during the shopping experience is still elusive; however, with recent technological advances it could soon become reality. We show how it can be carried out by using either personal digital assistance devices and wireless communication, or radio frequency identification. The main concept is based on providing coupons during a shopping experience and then routing the customer within the facility to possibly redeem them. The novel approach of selecting the coupons based on the already purchased goods enables one-to-one marketing during the actual shopping trip. Several models are presented based on the underlying technology and the option of a loyalty card. The concepts are computationally evaluated based on data obtained from a grocery store. They allude to substantially increased revenue by the store.

Smart Surveillance using PDA

The aim of this research is to develop a fast and reliable surveillance system based on a personal digital assistant (PDA) device. This is to extend the capability of the device to detect moving objects which is already available in personal computers. Secondly, to compare the performance between Background subtraction (BS) and Temporal Frame Differencing (TFD) techniques for PDA platform as to which is more suitable. This project is designed for Pocket PC devices (windows Mobile 2003 SE or windows CE 4.2) meant for indoor use only. The system is capable to operate at 5 frames per second. The entire surveillance program has been developed and programmed using Embedded Visual C++ taking the advantage of the built-in camera. In order to reduce noise and to prepare frames for the moving object detection part, each frame is first converted to a gray-scale representation and then smoothed using a Gaussian low pass filter. Two moving object detection schemes i.e., BS and TFD have been analyzed. TFD is done by taking the difference between the current frame and the previous frame. On the other hand BS is accomplished by taking the difference between subsequence frame and the background frame. The background frame is updated by using Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) filter so that the background frame is adapted to the varying illuminate conditions and geometry settings. In order to reduce the effect of noise pixels resulting from frame differencing morphological filters erosion and dilation are applied. In this work, it has been found that TFD technique is more suitable for motion detection purpose than the BS in term of speed. On average TFD is approximately 170 ms faster than the BS technique