Michalis Foukarakis

DiMAPI: An Application Programming Interface for Distributed Network Monitoring

Network monitoring and measurement is commonly regarded as an essential function for understanding, managing and improving the performance and security of network infrastructures. Traditional passive network monitoring approaches are not adequate for fine-grained performance measurements nor for security applications. In addition, many applications would benefit from monitoring data gathered at multiple vantage points within a network infrastructure. This paper presents the design and implementation of DiMAPI, an application programming interface for distributed passive network monitoring. DiMAPI extends the notion of the network flow with the scope attribute, which enables flow creation and manipulation over a set of local and remote monitoring sensors. Experiments with a number of applications on top of DiMAPI show that it has reasonable performance, while the response latency is very close to the actual round trip time between the monitoring application and the monitoring sensors. A broad range of monitoring applications can benefit from DiMAPI to efficiently perform advanced monitoring tasks over a potentially large number of passive monitoring sensors

Flexible and high-performance anonymization of NetFlow records using anontool

Netflow is a protocol widely adopted by the security and performance measurements community. Nowadays, many distributed applications and architectures base their functionality on Netflow data collected at diverse environments. However, communities and administrators are reluctant to share exported Netflow data for privacy reasons. As a consequence, the effectiveness of distributed approaches is limited due to lack of input data. To overcome this limitation, anonymization on Netflow data is proposed for sharing. However, the available tools are either proprietary or of very limited functionality. Towards this direction, we propose and implement anontool, that allow administrators to anonymize Netflow data in a highly customizable way. A comparison of anontool with existing solutions is provided along two dimensions: functionality and performance. Anontool can anonymize traffic even at high bandwidth rates, outperforming most of the tools and having same performance with specialized - but very limited in functionality - approaches.

A novel design approach for multi-device adaptable user interfaces: concepts, methods and examples

User interface designers and engineers are faced today with unprecedented challenges. Applications are progressively required to run on multiple computing platforms and accommodate the capabilities of different devices. Users and context are significantly characterized by diversity, leading to a very broad range of accessibility and interaction requirements and preferences that need to be adequately addressed. The current approach of designing separate user interfaces, one for each target use, is time consuming, error prone, and does not adequately addresses the challenges of cross-platform consistency, universal access and integration. To this end, this paper proposes a new integrative approach to multi-device user interface development for achieving deviceindependence by-design and further pursuing improved levels user experience for all through adaptive presentational models for various devices and contexts of use. Explanatory examples that were implemented in the context of the REMOTE R&D project are also presented.

Hobbit: Providing Fall Detection and Prevention for the Elderly in the Real World

We present the robot developed within the Hobbit project, a socially assistive service robot aiming at the challenge of enabling prolonged independent living of elderly people in their own homes. We present the second prototype (Hobbit PT2) in terms of hardware and functionality improvements following first user studies. Our main contribution lies within the description of all components developed within the Hobbit project, leading to autonomous operation of 371 days during field trials in Austria, Greece, and Sweden. In these field trials, we studied how 18 elderly users (aged 75 years and older) lived with the autonomously interacting service robot over multiple weeks. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a multifunctional, low-cost service robot equipped with a manipulator was studied and evaluated for several weeks under real-world conditions. We show that Hobbit’s adaptive approach towards the user increasingly eased the interaction between the users and Hobbit. We provide lessons learned regarding the need for adaptive behavior coordination, support during emergency situations, and clear communication of robotic actions and their consequences for fellow researchers who are developing an autonomous, low-cost service robot designed to interact with their users in domestic contexts. Our trials show the necessity to move out into actual user homes, as only there can we encounter issues such as misinterpretation of actions during unscripted human-robot interaction.

Applying a Multimodal User Interface Development Framework on a Domestic Service Robot

Quality of life and active aging of an ever-increasing number of elderly people is becoming an essential objective for todays societies. To this end, the domain of assistive robotics is continuously researching and developing new robotic solutions for assisted living. One of the research challenges in this scope is the design of appropriate user interfaces for the elderly. This paper discusses the use of a multimodal user interface (UI) development framework for developing elderly-friendly robotic applications in the scope of the EU funded project RAMCIP. The project aims to develop a novel home robotic assistant system for older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and at early stages of Alzheimer Disease (AD). The paper describes the UI framework, its application in RAMCIP and the initial experiences regarding the use of the framework gathered from the preliminary pilot trials of the project with actual patients.

A Robot-based Application for Physical Exercise Training

According to studies, performing physical exercise is beneficial for reducing the risk of falling in the elderly and prolonging their stay at home. In addition, regular exercising helps cognitive function and increases positive behaviour for seniors with cognitive impairment and dementia. In this paper, a fitness application integrated into a service robot is presented. Its aim is to motivate the users to perform physical training by providing relevant exercises and useful feedback on their progress. The application utilizes the robot vision system to track and recognize user movements and activities and supports multimodal interaction with the user. The paper describes the design challenges, the system architecture, the user interface and the human motion capturing module. Additionally, it discusses some results from user testing in laboratory and home-based trials.

Usability Evaluation Plan for Advanced Technology Services for Prevention and Management of Chronic Conditions for the Elderly

This paper analyzes the methodology and preliminary results of the usability evaluation of large scale technology services for the prevention and management of chronic conditions of elderly people. REMOTE, a three years European project in the Ambient Assisted Living domain, aims to define and establish a multidisciplinary and integrated approach to research and development of advanced technology services for addressing real needs of elderly people. The target population included citizens at risk due to geographic and social isolation in combination with specific chronic conditions and the coexistence of lifestyle risk factors, such as obesity, blood pressure, poor eating/drinking habits, stress and others. Technology services provided by the project include wearables and sensors for detecting body temperature, heart rate, human posture, as well as sensors and actuators to be installed in premises for providing context information, such as air temperature, human location and motion. The article presents the usability evaluation plan that was developed for the purposes of the project, as well as some preliminary results from the usability evaluation.