Mak Sharma

Smart care spaces: needs for intelligent at-home care

Pressures on the availability of healthcare spaces, the high costs of institutional care, and the desires of those being cared for, cause a current move toward care either at home or within low-supervision environments. This brings about an important question: how can smart care spaces be created that intelligently link the home care environment to the needs of the cared-for? To a significant degree this involves development of sensored spaces connected to intelligent computer-systems. However, that intelligence requires an understanding of how sensors can provide more than just environmental variables, instead making systems aware of symptoms, comfort and potential needs for intervention. Therefore, this paper discusses the current need for development of smart care spaces, provides an introduction to some of the cost-effective sensors available, and reviews links between sensor data and medical conditions. It will conclude that there is a growing need for smart care spaces that allow effective monitorin...

Cloud Computing: Adoption Considerations for Business and Education

Cloud computing is gathering significant momentum in business and academia through the rich benefits it offers. It is apparent from the literature that both businesses and academic institutions would benefit greatly from the adoption of cloud technology, providing the challenges presented are overcome. This paper aims to review prevalent literature on cloud computing, presenting an initial comprehensive insight into how cloud technology is transforming businesses and the wider Information Technology (IT) industry in general, the service deployment models of Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and a discussion of perceived benefits and challenges of cloud adoption. The papers core focus addresses the domain of Education as an area of cloud application with a cloud based e-learning system developed to demonstrate the capabilities and effectiveness of cloud technology. The last section of the paper offers a conclusion, discussing how cloud computing will evolve hereafter along with recommendations for furthering our research work.

Flow Based Security for IoT Devices Using an SDN Gateway

With near exponential growth predicted in the number of Internet of Things (IoT) based devices within networked systems there is need of a means of providing their flexible and secure integration. Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a concept that allows for the centralised control and configuration of network devices, and also provides opportunities for the dynamic control of network traffic. This paper proposes the use of an SDN gateway as a distributed means of monitoring the traffic originating from and directed to IoT based devices. This gateway can then both detect anomalous behaviour and perform an appropriate response (blocking, forwarding, or applying Quality of Service). Initial results demonstrate that, while the addition of the attack detection functionality has an impact on the number of flow installations possible per second, it can successfully detect and block TCP and ICMP flood based attacks.

Pre-emptive Flow Installation for Internet of Things Devices within Software Defined Networks

The predicted prevalence of both Internet of Things (IoT) based devices and the concept of Software Defined Networking (SDN) as a new paradigm in networking, means that consideration is required for how they will interact. Current SDN implementations operate on the principle that on receiving an unrecognised packet, a switch will query a centralised controller for a corresponding rule. Memory limitations within current switch devices dictate that this rule can only be stored for a short period of time before being removed, thus making it likely that the relatively infrequent data samples sent from IoT devices will have a transmission interval longer than this timeout. This paper proposes a Pre-emptive Flow Installation Mechanism (PFIM) that dynamically learns the transmission intervals of periodic network flows and installs the corresponding rules within a switch, prior to the arrival of a packet. A proof-of-concept implementation shows this to have a significant effect on reducing the delay experienced by these flows.

Situated Computing and Virtual Learning Environments: e-Learning and the Benefits to the Students Learning

There has been much discussion and speculation over recent years around the benefits of Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) in Higher Education. The 2009 Ofsted Report considered VLEs and raised a number of concerns, concluding that VLEs were least effective when they had little content or were merely a dumping ground for rarely used files. A review and investigation into virtual learning environments and the reported benefits has been undertaken to understand the value these pedagogic systems provide to the students, and how this has an impact on their learning journey within the programme of study. Distance learning and engagement is addresses. Situated computing is introduced. The paper concludes that the use of a VLE, when correctly implemented, improves student performance in terms of results with a perceived correlation in terms of engagement.

Emotive Sensors for Intelligent Care Systems: A Heuristic Discussion of Autonomic Wireless Sensing Systems

There is a growing need to facilitate at-home care through development of smart care spaces. Such systems require significant use of sensors, often potentially in very-low-power wireless nodes. In contrast to the logical and numerical nature of sensor data, care is emotional and hence symbolic in nature, and interfaces to care-systems need to respect the need to understand emotions and appropriately respond to them. Considering emotions and symbols from the ground up can help ensure that emotional intelligence is integrated throughout smart care-space development. Therefore, this paper provides a heuristic discussion around the potential for developing pseudo-emotions into low-power wireless sensor nodes, as an illustration of the concept.

Models for an Intelligent Context-Aware Blended m-Learning System

System requirements for an intelligent, mobile blended learning environment (m-Learning) have been elicited. Theories of ontology modelling are developed. A context-aware adaption engine using explicit and implicit knowledge of the student profile model are proposed. The context in which learning occurs is shown to be represented by a set of functions that are contextually dependent on learning modelled as a multi connected ontology. The evaluated prototype implementation is a partially context aware m-Learning presentation system. It is concluded that the m-learning environment is beneficial to programme outcomes, mainly for students who learn according to the heutagogical model. Further work is underway to capture m-Learning requirements better suited to students employing the pedagogic learning model.

Text Mining Terms and Condition to Provide a Confidence Factor for the Use of Cloud Services

In this paper we look at proposals to enable machine analysis of terms and conditions of cloud service providers. We begin with the investigation of cloud usage and the extent to which consumers are aware of the content of terms and conditions. We propose a terms and conditions analyzer that identifies keywords and sentences. We show how a confidence factor can be constructed to help consumers make an informed decision whether a particular cloud service should be adopted or not.