Anne E. James

Challenges for Database Management in the Internet of Things

Abstract This article discusses the challenges for Database Management in the Internet of Things. We provide scenarios to illustrate the new world that will be produced by the Internet of Things, where physical objects are fully integrated into the information highway. We discuss the different types of data that will be part of the Internet of Things. These include identification, positional, environmental, historical, and descriptive data. We consider the challenges brought by the need to manage vast quantities of data across heterogeneous systems. In particular, we consider the areas of querying, indexing, process modeling, transaction handling, and integration of heterogeneous systems. We refer to the earlier work that might provide solutions for these challenges. Finally we discuss a road map for the Internet of Things and respective technical priorities.

Enhancing the low quality images using Unsupervised Colour Correction Method

Underwater images are affected by reduced contrast and non-uniform colour cast due to the absorption and scattering of light in the aquatic environment. This affects the quality and reliability of image processing and therefore colour correction is a necessary pre-processing stage. In this paper, we propose an Unsupervised Colour Correction Method (UCM) for underwater image enhancement. UCM is based on colour balancing, contrast correction of RGB colour model and contrast correction of HSI colour model. Firstly, the colour cast is reduced by equalizing the colour values. Secondly, an enhancement to a contrast correction method is applied to increase the Red colour by stretching red histogram towards the maximum (i.e., right side), similarly the Blue colour is reduced by stretching the blue histogram towards the minimum (i.e., left side). Thirdly, the Saturation and Intensity components of the HSI colour model have been applied for contrast correction to increase the true colour using Saturation and to address the illumination problem through Intensity. We compare our results with three well known methods, namely Gray World, White Patch and Histogram Equalisation using Adobe Photoshop. The proposed method has produced better results than the existing methods.

Content-based image retrieval approach for biometric security using colour, texture and shape features controlled by fuzzy heuristics

In this paper, we discuss a new content-based image retrieval approach for biometric security, which is based on colour, texture and shape features and controlled by fuzzy heuristics. The proposed approach is based on the three well-known algorithms: colour histogram, texture and moment invariants. The use of these three algorithms ensures that the proposed image retrieval approach produces results which are highly relevant to the content of an image query, by taking into account the three distinct features of the image and similarity metrics based on Euclidean measure. Colour histogram is used to extract the colour features of an image. Gabor filter is used to extract the texture features and the moment invariant is used to extract the shape features of an image. The evaluation of the proposed approach is carried out using the standard precision and recall measures, and the results are compared with the well-known existing approaches. We present results which show that our proposed approach performs better than these approaches.

An agent-based approach to engineering design

Among the features of concurrent engineering is the notion of distributed design, and the ability to communicate design changes to multidisciplinary teams. Engineering design is a complex activity. Differences in system architectures and information structures, and co-ordination requirements tend to reduce the effectiveness of distributed design. Current thinking indicates that multi-agent systems (MAS) can alleviate some of the complex engineering design problems. In this paper, it is argued that agent attributes such as proactiveness and autonomy can overcome these limitations. Agents provide a flexible and dynamic approach to distributed/multidisciplinary design team which can reduce redundant design activities, and improve coordination.

Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design II

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Ten usability principles for the development of effective WAP and m-commerce services

This paper reports on the results of a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) usability study, which consists of a survey, an evaluation of two UK WAP portals and an experiment that was carried out between November 2001 and February 2002. A number of usability issues, which prevented the users from completing basic and common tasks, were identified. For instance, 70 per cent of the users were not successful in searching for a textbook on the Amazon.co.uk WAP site. Additionally, even experienced users were not immune to these problems. The general conclusion of the study is that WAP usability remains poor. We argue that this could have a negative effect on the future of WAP and m‐commerce. Finally, we propose a set of ten principles, which are based on the findings of this study, and we believe will aid towards the development of more usable WAP and m‐commerce services.

Improving network intrusion detection system performance through quality of service configuration and parallel technology

This paper outlines an innovative software development that utilises Quality of Service (QoS) and parallel technologies in Cisco Catalyst Switches to increase the analytical performance of a Network Intrusion Detection and Protection System (NIDPS) when deployed in high-speed networks. We have designed a real network to present experiments that use a Snort NIDPS. Our experiments demonstrate the weaknesses of NIDPSs, such as inability to process multiple packets and propensity to drop packets in heavy traffic and high-speed networks without analysing them. We tested Snorts analysis performance, gauging the number of packets sent, analysed, dropped, filtered, injected, and outstanding. We suggest using QoS configuration technologies in a Cisco Catalyst 3560 Series Switch and parallel Snorts to improve NIDPS performance and to reduce the number of dropped packets. Our results show that our novel configuration improves performance.

Sampling, information extraction and summarisation of hidden web databases

Hidden Web databases maintain a collection of specialised documents, which are dynamically generated using page templates. This paper presents the Two-Phase Sampling (2PS) technique that detects and extracts query-related information from documents contained in databases. 2PS is based on a two-phase framework for the sampling, information extraction and summarisation of Hidden Web documents. In the first phase, 2PS samples and stores documents for further analysis. In the second phase, it detects Web page templates from sampled documents and extracts relevant information from which a content summary is then generated. Experimental results demonstrate that 2PS effectively eliminates irrelevant information from sampled documents and generates terms and frequencies with improved accuracy.

Designing with ethnography: An integrative approach to CSCW design

This paper presents a part of wider research endeavor within the field of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) to leverage the use of ethnography for systems design. It investigates the role of ethnography in the development of CSCW systems and its relevance to real world problems, particularly, to uncover the social organisation of work practices. The usage of ethnography to inform CSCW design constitutes many challenges to systems design. The most significant of these design challenges is the inevitable need for well-established methods for applying the ethnography within CSCW to inform systems design. We have developed an integrative approach based on ethnography and meta-modelling for use in the context of CSCW research and practice. We have also applied this approach to the analysis of cooperative work in the academic domain of investigation.

An ant based multi constraints QoS aware service selection algorithm in Wireless Mesh Networks

Abstract Over the years, multihop Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are providing cost effective services to the end users such as Video on demand (VoD), Voice over IP (VoIP), and Video conferencing in an efficient manner. Most of these services require an efficient service selection mechanism that can provide Quality of Service (QoS) in presence of various constraints such as delay, jitter, and service availability. In presence of these constraints, multi-constraint QoS aware service selection in WMNs is an NP-hard problem. In this paper, we propose an ant colony based multi constraints QoS aware service selection (QSS) algorithm. In the proposed algorithm, ants are launched from source node. The best path is chosen based upon the defined cost effective (CE) metric in presence of constraints. The constraints are chosen both from network and user perspectives. The goodness of the chosen path is determined by the CE metric. Moreover, ants are not launched randomly from the source node. They are launched based upon the guided search evaluation (GSE) criterion. This criterion is also used if the two paths have the same CE metric. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is more effective than the earlier improved ant colony QoS routing algorithm (IAQR) algorithm with respect to convergence, end-to-end delay (jitter), and service availability. Specifically, the service availability increases by 35–50% in the proposed QoS aware scheme compared to IAQR algorithm.