Daniel Rosner

Guidelines for Discovering and Improving Application Security

This paper analyzes current threats in computer security for web-based applications with a SQL database. We conduct a penetration test in a real-case scenario of multiple attacks against the network, the web application and the SQL database. The test infrastructure includes two servers, a firewall and one machine that acts as an attackers computer. Based on our empirical analysis we diagnose specific vulnerabilities and we formulate best practices to improve security against common attack. The article contributes to the discussion of state-of-the art security techniques and illustrates the value of penetration testing for diagnosing attacks against specific technologies.

Applied electronics curriculum for Computer Science students

Having solid knowledge of electronics is of major importance for a Computer Science (CS) student. The means for achieving a good level of understanding, especially of the practical aspects, is an ongoing issue (in the short time frame that is generally allocated for it in a CS program). Due to the applied nature of the subject, the authors consider that a pragmatic practice-based approach is an appropriate solution to complete the technical preparation of the students. Following the general lines of this idea, the authors implemented a series of laboratory works that are designed to ensure that students would get hands-on experience with electronic circuits. The paper will present how these will introduce basic key concepts, bridge the gap between theory and practice and lay down a solid foundation for hardware courses that follow in the CS curriculum.

Text line processing for high-confidence skew detection in image documents

Skew detection and correction is an important step in automated content conversion systems, on which overall system performance is dependent. Although there are many working solutions at the present time, the search for an algorithm that can achieve good error rates in a fast running time and on different layout types is still open, so new solutions for skew detection are needed. The paper at hand presents a neighbor clustering based approach that has the classical advantages of this class of algorithms - the speed, but delivers better accuracy, comparable with that of Hough based solutions.

DyGo -- Household Object Interaction Tracking for Smart Home Environments

The past decades brought substantial improvements in quality of life, average life expectancy, and medical solutions to previously incurable illness. However, little progress has been made in healing or improving quality of life for cognitively impaired patients (Alzheimer, Lewy body dementia, vascular dementia, front temporal dementia, Parkinsons disease or corticobasal degeneration). The past years have brought forth numerous AmI solutions for monitoring daily activities of cognitive impaired patients, but their real world application is generally limited by privacy, price and deployment constrains. The current paper proposes a household object interaction system that uses a novel algorithm to provide information for behavioral monitoring while preserving intimacy and keeping real world implementation effort at acceptable levels.

Autonomous Flexible Low Power Industrial IoT Controller for Solar Panels Cleaning Systems

Clean energy production increment is being led by advancements in photovoltaic plants, both for on-grid power generation, and for local usage (farms, industrial plants, etc.). The main challenge faced by PV plants is the dreadful reduction of power production caused by the accumulation of dirt and dust on the panels. This effect has a higher magnitude in areas where dust storms or dusty environments are present (such as deserts, urban areas). In order for the PV plants to remain operational at nominal installed power, periodical cleaning of the solar panels is required. For larger PV plants (with power north to 1MW) human manual cleaning of the panels is not feasible, especially in harsh and torrid environments or in cold weather conditions. In this paper, we present an architecture for a custom built low power autonomous Industrial IoT Controller dedicated for PV solar panel cleaning solutions. The controller, apart from controlling the operation of the mechanical device, is also designed to be connected to the internet, to be remotely monitored and to be capable of running VPN, iptables, and other security features that current devices cannot implement.

Industrial WSN node extension and measurement systems for air, water and environmental monitoring: IoT enabled environment monitoring using NI WSN nodes

Air and Water are the most important resources of the planet that we use daily for sustaining life. Air quality affects all living creatures, from trees and plants to animals and people. Air quality, especially in the trend of more industrialized cities and with a rapid growing population of cars, is degrading. Continuous monitoring allows the national administrations to take measures in order to reduce pollution and toxic compounds in the air and prevent further degrading of the air quality. From drinking and producing electricity in hydroelectric power plants to cooling nuclear reactors, water is one of the most common substances that we must manage. In flood management applications, hydroelectric dams, city water infrastructure, and other environmental monitoring applications the high distance between measurement points determine engineers and scientists to use autonomous low power wireless data acquisition systems that are independent on a permanent power supply. In this paper the authors present a flexible low power extension board designed around NI WSN analog input nodes that allows connection of different output type sensors (even digital sensors) to be monitored with one WSN node.

UNCHAIN - Ubiquitous Wireless Network Communication Architecture for Ambient Intelligence and Health Scenarios

Ambient intelligence techniques and smart Internet of Things objects are empowering healthcare professionals to provide better services based on improved vital signs data enriched with contextual information. In this paper, we provide an overview of current solutions and propose a new taxonomy for ambient and health sensor data, based on three selected metrics. The proposed UNCHAIN architecture provides a ubiquitous communication system designed to grant seamless integration of current sensor solutions, and to maximize two identified limitations: range and autonomy. Finally, the proposed architecture is validated through a hardware implementation, with impressive results in terms of energy efficiency.

Efficient Location Tracking System for Patient Monitoring

The constant increase of life expectancy in the last decades is constantly prompting for new and better solutions to support the overstressed medical system. Solutions for tele monitoring of elder patients in their own homes are seen as one of the key solutions in reducing the financial and human resources demand on a medical system that needs to address a constantly growing number of elder patients with fewer resources. This paper presents an efficient location tracking system design for monitoring elder patients in home environments. This system is designed to be integrated in complex context aware systems, which can provide valuable information and alerts to responsible care takers.