Jacques Fayolle

Towards the loose coupling between LMS and Remote Laboratories in online engineering education

In this paper, we are providing a study on the issue of interoperating Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Remote Laboratories, in a seamless integration. This study emphasizes the need to make Remote Laboratories seen as a pedagogical material within the LMS. We are presenting a novel and original approach to make these two types of platforms communicate (LMS and Remote Laboratory) under a loose coupling relationship. The main purpose of this work is to bring a better follow-up of students to the tutor and the students themselves, and therefore to lead to an enhanced learning experience.

Putting Reusability first: a paradigm switch in Remote Laboratories Engineering

In this paper, we present a new devices brought online thanks to our Collaborative Remote Laboratories framework. Whereas previous devices integrated in our remote laboratory belongs to the domain of electronics, such as Vector Network Analyzers, the devices at the concern in this paper are, on one hand, an antenna workbench, and on the other, an homemade switching device, which embeds several electronic components. Because the middleware and framework for our environment were designed to be reusable, we wanted to put it to the test by integrating new and different devices in our Online Engineering catalog. After presenting the devices to be put online, we will expose the software development efforts required in regards to the reusability of the solution. As a consequence, the expose work and results tend to make the Online Engineering software architects to think reusability first, breaking with the current trends to implement Remote Labs one after the other, without much reusability, apart the capitalized experience. In this, we defend a paradigm switch in our current engineering approaches for Remote Laboratories implementations: Reusability should be thought first.

Remote lab in virtual world for remote control of industrial processes

This paper addresses ways users can remotely control industrial hardware devices over the Internet. We employ a J2EE-based Remote Lab platform to describe the interface of the remote devices and to relay commands and results between users and devices. Collaboration is accomplished by embedding the remote lab platform in an Open Wonderland virtual world.

Remote laboratories framework : focus on reusability and security in m-Learning situations

Remote laboratories is a spreading concept which allows the remote use of devices through Internet connexion. The paper deals with the providing of a framework which is reusable for many devices, from different end-user media such as phone, computer or TV and acceptable in industry, therefore taking into account multi information systems securities. The problem is addressed through the point of view of m-learning situations which involves the lack of rich user interactions and the fact that the user belongs to external information systems when he interacts with the remote device. The modelisation of the remote device with ontologies, the use of a central application server, message oriented middleware and standard web services (database, authentication) are the keys allowing the independence of the framework to the device. The adaptation of the GUI to the end-user device is made through a proxy which refactor the requests and responses according to the capabilities of the end-user device (size of screen, interactions tools). The use of a user-centric model of identities federation allows us to provide an efficient way to reach the goal of transparency to security constraints

SWRL-based context awareness for application servers hosting digital services

As the number of context-aware applications increases in the real world, it can be quite difficult to deploy such applications in traditional application servers, which are context-agnostics systems. To address this challenge, we propose a novel approach for easing the deployment of context-aware applications into application serversContext is encoded within an OWL-driven knowledge base. We couple this knowledge base with SWRL rules to encode context-awareness thresholds. SWRL rules are not predefined in the application server. They are instead embedded inside the application bundle built by the developer, next to the business logic of the application. At the application deployment time, SWRL rules are extracted to the knowledge base in order to monitor the relevant context for the application to be deployed. At runtime, the context of each session of the application is monitored in the knowledge base. When a rule is triggered (a context-awareness threshold is reached), a broker inside the application server notifies the application so that it adapts its behavior by switching to a more relevant modality. We show how our approach eases the work of developers for building context-aware application by using our context-aware framework.

Advances on Adaptive Systems in NGN

This paper provides the state of art and hints on how to lay the foundations of an adaptive QoS approach in Next Generation Networks NGN. The key idea is to provide a model, which would offer one application version or another, depending on the Quality of Service QoS negotiated at the session establishment in a NGN. The stake of this research is a better-balanced usage of the network, for maximizing the service offered to the user given his or her network capacities. It encompasses the model for such an implementation in a NGN as IP Multimedia Subsystem IMS.

Reusable Framework for Remote Monitoring and Maintenance of Manufacturing Systems

The aim of this paper is to address the problem of remote control of manufacturing systems for maintenance, object conception and production purposes. We present a global approach of this problem according to two research axis: the genericity of the platform according to the underlying device, and the security of the data and information systems. The primary goal of this paper is to describe the framework that allows the remote control, and especially its independence to the devices. We propose a special study on the security issues in such architecture by explaining why we have made the choice of adopting identity federation technologies as a mean to reach remote devices hosted in different Information Systems. We also describe how this kind of systems can be used in a collaborative way in order to build a real extended entreprise for e-manufacturing systems.

Whispering interactions to the end user using rules

The issue of e-Maintenance, i.e. the remote maintenance of devices, is more and more important as the loose-coupling between center of competencies and productions sites is increasing. Maintenance operators have to know procedures for all devices they are in charge of. Whispering possible interactions to operators when they operate could ease their task and increase their productivity. In this paper, we propose to model maintenance procedures (therefore sequences of actions of human operators) using the Semantic Web standards. The system can infer the possible next actions from the human operator, and assist him by suggesting the next operation steps. An analysis of the uses trace is also proposed in order to hint operators on improvements in his processes.

Towards a unified device characteristics retrieval and propagation: Context proxy presentation

Pervasive computing had brought the “anytime / anywhere” paradigm for information consumption. Moreover, given the tremendous amount of information and services available on the Web among the evolution of the social Web, more and more display units are being brought to the market (latest being the tablets family: iPad, kindle, etc.). Nevertheless, the Web contents were not designed to be properly displayed on interactive IPTVs (high resolution but poor interactive element: no mouse/keyboard, but a remote controler). A solution has been brought with dynamic adaptation of web content. The main drawback of researchs in this domain is the default assumption that the SetTop Box capabilities are already known prior to the adaptation. In this paper, we propose an architecture not only to retrieve the display unit characteristics, but also a mean to propagate them in the browsing session. Consequently the Web content can be adapted by parts according to the device constraints, and each adaptation may depend on the previous adaptation (handling multi-part adaptation of Web pages for the interactive IPTV).

DOM tree estimation and computation: overview of a new web content adaptation system

In our ubiquitous and pervasive society, Web contents are accessible from a wide range of devices : PCs, smartphones, PDAs, but also TV set through a SetTopBox. The main issue with the arrival of these new browsing devices is the gap between their capabilities and the ones of a PC that most Web pages have as a design reference. Web content adaptation is a scientific field that aims at filling this gap by transforming Web content in order to fit the device capabilities. In this paper, a novel architecture, DTEC (for DOM Tree Estimation and Computation), is proposed for the automatic adaptation of Web pages.