Gian Ricardo Berkenbrock

Visualization and filtering awareness information in mobile groupware: An action research approach

This paper presents a cycle of action research conducted to investigate techniques for visualization and filtering of awareness information in a mobile collaborative game titled Warming Up The Brain. This study aims to identify the awareness information that should be presented to the users as well as how to arrange the awareness information in the mobile devices, considering its small screen size. In order to avoid problems such as information overload and information intrusiveness, the awareness information were filtered based on the group data. The game was used by 30 players, divided in 7 rounds. The usability evaluation show that the awareness information were well absorbed by users.

The need of software development process for wireless sensor networks with cooperative nodes

Wireless sensor network (WSN) is a technology used to collect data from different sources. The development of WSNs offer complex challenges. Developers of WSN systems should be aware of issues such as energy-efficient network management and cooperation among nodes. The advancement in sensor nodes have created new opportunities for cooperation. This paper addresses the lack of software development process for WSN systems. In addition to that, we consider that cooperation among nodes could be successfully applied in wireless sensor networks. Nodes can cooperate to perform tasks such as verification of operation condition, improve the management of energy consumption and efficiency of data capture. However, we argue and propose cooperative considerations that should be investigated during the software development process.

Automatic Execution of Test Cases on UML Models of Embedded Systems

During the design of an embedded system, fixing errors discovered only in later stages is a very expensive activity. In order to decrease such costs, the engineers have to identify and fix the introduced errors as soon as possible. Therefore, it makes sense to facilitate the errors detection during the whole the design cycle, including the initial specification stages. This work proposed a test-based approach to aid the early verification of embedded and real-time systems. The proposed approach applies test cases on the system behavior described in the high-level specifications. A tool to automate the execution of the test cases upon UML models has been created. Its initial goal is to improve the errors detection on the system behavior before the implementation phase, since test cases are based on the system requirements. Test cases are platform independent and describe: runtime scenarios; the behaviors to be tested along with their input; and the expected results. The tool executes automatically each test case, in which the specified behavior is simulated Thereafter, the obtained results are compared with the expected ones, indicating the success or failure of the test case. A case study was performed to validate the proposed approach. The achieved results demonstrate that it is feasible to test the system behavior even though when the implementation is still not available.

A Simulation Discipline in OpenUP to Satisfy Wireless Sensor Networks Requirements

Embedded software for networked devices is becoming popular. One example is wireless sensor networks (WSN). WSN are a technology used to collect data from different sources and they can be applied in monitoring and instrumentation area. The development of WSN offers complex challenges. Developers should be aware of restrictions such as limited storage, battery consumption, low accuracy sensor, and short transmission range. WSN are highly dependent on application requirements mainly due to the above restrictions. So, one application is hardly equal to another. In general, application requirements of WSN include fault-tolerance, load-balance, scalability, customized hardware, and deployment area coverage. There is not a specific process to address the development os WSN applications. Open Unified Process is an iterative software development process that is intended to be minimal, complete, and extensible, and because of these features it is a good candidate for WSN application development. However, OpenUP does not support the challenges and requirements of WSN systems, because it does not have specific tasks that consider such requirements. Then in order to address this lack of support, this paper proposes a simulation discipline in OpenUP to satisfy the WSN application requirements. An example of use of the proposed process is shown.

Applying Semantic Web Services and Wireless Sensor Networks for System Integration

In environments like factories, buildings, and homes automation services tend to often change during their lifetime. Changes are concerned to business rules, process optimization, cost reduction, and so on. It is important to provide a smooth and straightforward way to deal with these changes so that could be handled in a faster and low cost manner. Some prominent solutions use the flexibility of Wireless Sensor Networks and the meaningful description of Semantic Web Services to provide service integration. In this work, we give an overview of current solutions for machinery integration that combine both technologies as well as a discussion about some perspectives and open issues when applying Wireless Sensor Networks and Semantic Web Services for automation services integration.