Jorge Luis Victória Barbosa

SWTRACK: An intelligent model for cargo tracking based on off-the-shelf mobile devices

Abstract Logistics represent the biggest cost for transportation companies. Companies are investing in monitoring and tracking systems aiming at improving services, reducing costs and ensuring the safety in cargos transports. This article presents an intelligent model to obtain the position of vehicles, using off-the-shelf mobile devices named SWTRACK. The proposal allows distributors companies to track loads and to have real-time information about their whereabouts during a travel. SWTRACK presents an automatic travel management to initialize and finish travels without user interaction. Furthermore, it provides a mechanism to monitor detours in planned routes and to send alarms notification through mobile devices. To build that mechanism, we studied the Geofence concept and existing techniques to prepare two solutions based on continuous monitoring. Those solutions were compared and discussed. We also conducted a model evaluation using off-the-shelf mobile devices. Moreover, we provide an impact analysis regarding GPS precision and battery power consumption. In the end, we show that the proposed model generates a reliable system for tracking vehicles.

MUCS: A model for ubiquitous commerce support

The evolution of computing technology and the emergence of wireless networks have contributed to the miniaturization of mobile devices and their increase in power, providing services anywhere and anytime. In this context, new opportunities for technology support have arisen in different areas, for example, education, games and entertainment, automobile, and commerce. We propose a model for ubiquitous commerce support (MUCS). This model uses ubiquitous computing concepts to look for deal opportunities for users who act either as buyers or sellers. This paper also describes two everyday scenarios, in which the MUCS model could be applied, and explains the implemented prototype to be used in them. Finally, we present the results obtained from a practical experiment, which was performed with the participation of users who filled out an evaluation questionnaire.

A model for ubiquitous care of noncommunicable diseases.

The ubiquitous computing, or ubicomp, is a promising technology to help chronic diseases patients managing activities, offering support to them anytime, anywhere. Hence, ubicomp can aid community and health organizations to continuously communicate with patients and to offer useful resources for their self-management activities. Communication is prioritized in works of ubiquitous health for noncommunicable diseases care, but the management of resources is not commonly employed. We propose the UDuctor, a model for ubiquitous care of noncommunicable diseases. UDuctor focuses the resources offering, without losing self-management and communication supports. We implemented a system and applied it in two practical experiments. First, ten chronic patients tried the system and filled out a questionnaire based on the technology acceptance model. After this initial evaluation, an alpha test was done. The system was used daily for one month and a half by a chronic patient. The results were encouraging and show potential for implementing UDuctor in real-life situations.

ORACON: An adaptive model for context prediction

Abstract Context prediction has been receiving considerable attention in the last years. This research area seems to be the next logical step in context-aware computing, which, until a few years ago, had been concerned more with the present and the past temporal dimensions. Most of research works related to context prediction employ the same algorithm for all cases. We did not find any approach that automatically decides the best prediction method according to the situation. Therefore, we propose the ORACON model. ORACON adapts itself in order to apply the best algorithm to the case. This adaptive behavior is the main contribution of this work and differentiates the proposed model of other related works. Furthermore, ORACON supports other important aspects of ubiquitous computing, such as, context formal representation and privacy. We have built a functional prototype that allowed us to conduct two experiments. The first experiment successfully tested the main functionalities provided by ORACON to support context prediction and privacy aspects. The test used context histories generated with a location database that contains 22 millions chekins across 220,000 users in the location sharing services Foursquare and Twitter. The second experiment assessed the adaptive feature of the ORACON. The test simulated the behavior of 30 users for a period of 30 days, using context histories generated through the Siafu simulator. This tool generates data for the evaluation and the comparison of machine learning methods in mobile context-aware settings. We concluded that ORACON chose the most accurate prediction algorithm in the simulated scenario, proving that the model reached the main contribution sought by this research.

Holoparadigm: a multiparadigm model oriented to development of distributed systems

The multiparadigm approach integrates programming language paradigms. We have proposed the Holoparadigm (Holo) as a multiparadigm model oriented to the development of distributed systems. Holo uses a logic blackboard (called history) to implement a coordination mechanism. The programs are organized in levels using abstract entities called beings. First, we describe the principal concepts of the Holoparadigm. After, we propose the Distributed Holo (DHolo), a model to support the distributed execution of programs developed in Holo. DHolo is based on object mobility and blackboards. This distributed model can be fully implemented on the Java platform. Experiments were done using Voyager and Horb to implement mobility. Blackboards were implemented using Java and JavaSpaces.

A Multi-Temporal Context-aware System for Competences Management

The evolution of computing technology and wireless networks has contributed to the miniaturization of mobile devices and their increase in power, providing services anywhere and anytime. In this scenario, applications have considered the user’s contexts to make decisions (Context Awareness). Context-aware applications have enabled new opportunities in different areas, for example, education, games and entertainment, commerce, and competence management. In this article, we present MultCComp, a multi-temporal context-aware system for competences management. The main system contribution is to take advantage of the workers’ present and past contexts to help them to develop their competences. We define as multi-temporal context awareness the joint use of workers’ present and past contexts to assist them in the development of their competences. We developed a prototype and conducted two experiments with it in an evaluation environment. The first experiment aimed to demonstrate the system functionalities. It consisted of two evaluation scenarios that were followed by two users. The second experiment focused on evaluating the acceptance of the system. It comprised a scenario that was followed by 21 users, who filled out a questionnaire at the end of the test.

Hefestos: a model for ubiquitous accessibility support

This paper presents the Hefestos Model, designed to provide ubiquitous accessibility. The project aims at supporting accessibility for People With Disability (PWD) and elderly in various situations of their everyday life. Offering context awareness, user profiles and trails management, the model is a base for applying assistive technologies that fulfills accessibility needs. Moreover, in the proposed model, we devised an ontology. Besides the benefits of intrinsic semantic representation, the use of an ontology fosters future integration with others solutions. We also present a case study based on a prototype, which was developed to evaluate the model. This assessment used a smart wheelchair, operated by a paraplegic person, which is under development at University of the Sinos Valley (Unisinos).

Towards a programming model for context-aware applications

In mobile computing scenarios, users move in different environments and applications can automatically explore their surroundings. This type of context-aware application is an emerging trend, so far not widely disseminated. We believe that the proposal of a programming model specifically designed for the specification of context-aware applications, using general abstractions, will foster a rapidly widespread of such kind of software. In this article, we propose the use of the Holoparadigm (in short Holo) to fill this gap. We created a programming language based on Holo (called HoloL) to demonstrate the strengths of Holoparadigm to develop context-aware applications. The article uses a sample scenario to show the Holos practical aspects related to implementation of context-aware applications. We also present a platform to HoloL (called HoloEnv), composed of a compiler, a virtual machine, and a distributed execution environment. Finally, different performance aspects of the HoloEnvs components were evaluated through experimental results.

A framework for exploiting adaptation in high heterogeneous distributed processing

ISAM is a proposal directed to resource management in heterogeneous networks, supporting physical and logical mobility, dynamic adaptation and the execution of distributed applications based on components. In order to achieve its goals, ISAM uses, as strategy, an integrated environment that: (a) provides a programming paradigm and its execution environment; (b) handles the adaptation process through a multilevel collaborative model, in which both the system and the application contribute. In this paper we discuss the main mechanisms used to implement the ISAM features, and we also present a parallel application that explores some of this features.

In the Pursuit of Hygge Software

Hygge is Danish and Norwegian for well-being related to conviviality. Health and social relations are tightly bound, so how can we integrate today’s technologies to provide hygge? Two healthcare scenarios show ways to achieve hygge by integrating software and distributed technologies, using elements of the U’Ductor model. This model ubiquitously supports noncommunicable-disease care, providing a way for applications to communicate, automatically receive health status updates, and search for nearby resources and people. The ChronicDuctor and ChronicPrediction apps use U’Ductor to improve patient care.