Asim Majeed

Evidence of a simple cubic phase in electron beam vacuum evaporated indium–oxide on a glass substrate

Indium oxide normally exists in the body‐centered‐cubic structure. With thin films of the compound, deposited on a glass substrate by the electron beam vacuum evaporation technique, x‐ray diffraction results indicate a simple cubic structure for some films.

Facial Recognition Cane for the Visually Impaired

The modern era is accompanied by various traditional mobility aids which help visually impaired to stay independent and enabling them detecting the objects and scanning surroundings. The use of haptic touch, as well as ultrasound, is embedded in today’s smart canes which detect obstacles up to 3 m distance, GPS navigation, informs the user through Bluetooth and earpiece, and guide the visually impaired to direct from one location to another. The evolution of this technology has motivated the integration of inexpensive camera technology within the cane for facial recognition purposes. The concept of developing this intelligent smart cane which would detect obstacles from up to 10 m as well as recognises friends and family faces, was envisioned by students at Birmingham City University. The developments in this product and adopted technologies guide a visually impaired user to detect obstacles and to find an alternative route while at the same time try to recognize any family or friends within the vicinity. These have been reflected in this research paper along with the limitations and wider issues which may come up when adopting the high-tech advances.

Users’ perceptions of e-learning environments and services effectiveness: The emergence of the concept functionality model

Purpose E-learning environments and services (ELES) adoption and success rates challenge ELES designers, practitioners and organisations. Enterprise decision makers continue to seek effective instruments in launching such systems. The purpose of this paper is to understand users’ perceptions of ELES effectiveness and develop a theoretical framework which improves understanding of success factors for adoption. Design/methodology/approach Grounded theory method is used to reflect on the relationships between changing users’ requirements and expectations, technological advances and ELES effectiveness models. A longitudinal study collecting data from social media blogs over four years was authenticated based on the context evaluation, language structure and conversational constructs. Findings Identification of a new core dimension named “Concept Functionality” which can be used to understand the relationships between e-learning effectiveness factors including the relationships with other domains such as security. The findings are also used to validate major existing models for the success of ELES. Practical implications The new framework potentially improves system design process in the fields of education technology, enterprise systems, etc. Originality/value Concept functionality dimension can offer more insights to understand ELES effectiveness and further improve system design process in a variety of domains including enterprise systems, process modelling and education technology.

Internet of Everything (Ioe): Analysing the Individual Concerns Over Privacy Enhancing Technologies (Pets)

This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of the provision of privacy of individuals through privacy enhancing technologies (PETs). The successful evolution and emergence of cyberspace with the real world through “Internet of Everything (IoE)” has led to the speedy progress in research and development of predictive analysis of big data. The individual’s privacy has gained a considerable momentum in both industry and academia since privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) constitute a technical means to protect information. Privacy regulations and state of law deemed this as an integral part in order to protect the individual’s private sphere when the infrastructure of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) is laid out. Modern organisations use consent forms to gather individual’s sensitive personal information for a specific purpose. The law prohibits using the person’s information for purposes other than that of when the consent was initially established. The infrastructure of ICT should be developed in alliance with the privacy laws and made compliant as well intelligent which learn by itself from the environment. This extra layer embedded in the system would educate the ICT structure and help system to authenticate as well as communicate with the perspective users. The existing literature on protecting individuals’ privacy through privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) is still embryonic and does conclude that the individual’s concerns about privacy are not fully considered in the technological sense. Among other contributions, this research paper will devise a conceptual model to improve individual’s privacy.

Devising a Secure Architecture of Internet of Everything (IoE) to Avoid the Data Exploitation in Cross Culture Communications

The communication infrastructure among various interconnected devices has revolutionized the process of collecting and sharing information. This evolutionary paradigm of collecting, storing and analyzing data streams is called the Internet of Everything (IoE). The information exchange through IoE is fast and accurate but leaves security issues. The emergence of IoE has seen a drift from a single novel technology to several technological developments. Managing various technologies under one infrastructure is complex especially when a network is openly allowing nodes to access it. Access transition of infrastructures from closed networked environments to the public internets has raised security issues. The consistent growth in IoE technology is recognized as a bridge between physical, virtual and cross-cultural worlds. Modern enterprises are becoming reliant on interconnected wireless intelligent devices and this has put billions of user’s data in risk. The interference and intrusion in any infrastructure have opened the door of public safety concerns because this interception could compromise the user’s personal data as well as personal privacy. This research aims to adopt a holistic approach to devising a secure IoE architecture for cross-culture communication organizations, with attention paid to the various technological wearable devices, their security policies, communication protocols, data format and data encryption features to avoid the data exploitation. A systems methodology will be adopted with a view to developing a secure IoE model which provides for a generic implementation after analyzing the critical security features to minimize the risk of data exploitations. This would combine the ability of IoE to connect, communicate, and remotely manage an incalculable number of networked, automated devices with the security properties of authentication, availability, integrity and confidentiality on a configurable basis. This will help clarify issues currently present and narrow down security threats planning considerably.

Global Triumph or Exploitation of Security and Privacy Concerns in E-Learning Systems

This paper identifies the causes of privacy concerns which emerged when an educational institution launched an automated proctoring technology to examine E-Learners. In the modern era of information, privacy is an integral concern due to its fluid, dynamic and complex nature. In certain situations where it is very difficult to understand the privacy concerns, privacy is often misunderstood by the interactive systems designers. The qualitative data in this research was collected using content analysis approach from 120 online bloggers and useful insights were found; those that pertained to the privacy concerns for E-Learners. The findings revealed both practical and theoretical implications for both the institutions offering online courses and organization designing tools for proctoring.

Technology Diffusion in Educational Institutions for Innovative Learning

The recent advancements and replete improvements within data technology, along with the availability of computers to all individuals, have escalated technology diffusion as a part of education. Several advancements, for example, intelligent tutoring system, and computer-based learning and learning through web courses have envisaged the concept of learning through virtual applications. Various scholars have presented their alternate points of view about learning through virtual reality applications. Media of communication keeps central importance when web learning is mentioned. The students could collaborate, learn and devise through virtual learning environments using online media which is extremely proficient and comprehensive. Consequently, authoritative productivity increments are a normal outcome by enhancing the educational environment and devices through inventive frameworks, other than such advancements that are actualised to expand just the individual proficiency. The obstructions existing against expanding the effectiveness of the technology diffusion in educational institutions have been recognised, recorded by various conceivable studies evaluating these snags assessing the proficiency of the diffusion of technology in educational institutions. Lecturers oppose to the use of inventive technological frameworks in educational institutions by questioning the framework reliability and in alliance to their own technical skills. This research paper describes the effectiveness in utilising the technology diffusion within the educational institutions for innovative learning.

Technology Adoption and Diffusion in the Gulf: Some Challenges

In todays technologically advanced world, it is crucial that instructors continuously stay up to date with the ever changing uses of technology in the classroom. Technologies transform the way instructors conduct their lectures and present course material, thereby fundamentally altering the way students learn. It is essential that some challenges such as training needs, funding, and dealing with perceptions are addressed and aligned with one another in order to facilitate technology adoption in institutions of higher education. These challenges are discussed in this paper in the context of gulf countries.

Living Labs (LILA): An Innovative Paradigm for Community Development—Project of “XploR” Cane for the Blind

The community development in different domains (business, education, welfare, etc.) has been the prime focus over the last decade due to the evolution of digital technologies and the shift in working patterns. However, many public and private investments have failed to produce sustaining and real value from them. The observed deficiencies which are causing the failure of community development projects ranged from initiation within the artificial and closed laboratory to open learning environments. The community development is entailed without understanding the real community needs, community’s value chain, and potential problems with limited interactions. These shortcomings have resulted in failure to develop effective, prosperous, and world class communities, leveraging the new innovative and powerful approaches. An approach to developing collaborative systems, called Living Lab (LILA), is discussed in this paper and this approach has empowered and engaged the communities (students, lecturers, computer scientists, electronics engineers, visually impaired and blind people) to experiment and learn the innovative solutions of their real-world problems. The theme of this innovation-led approach is to embed community-driven solution within the communities.

Understanding Privacy Concerns in Online Courses: A Case Study of Proctortrack

This study aims to investigate underlying causes of privacy concerns of online learners which emerged as a consequence from the launch of an automated proctoring technology by an educational institution. The privacy has become a vital issue in the modern age of information due to the complex, dynamic and fluid nature of privacy it is far from easy to define and understand what privacy means in certain situations. Consequently, designers of interactive systems often misunderstand privacy and even often ignore it, thus causing concerns for users. Using content analysis approach [1], qualitative data was collected and analysed from 130 online bloggers during the deployment phase of Proctortrack tool. The results and findings provide useful new insights into the nature and form of privacy concerns of online learners. Findings have theoretical as well as practical implications for the successful adoption of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and similar systems.