Mohamad Eid

Classification of the state-of-the-art dynamic web services composition techniques

Dynamic web service composition can serve applications or users on an on-demand basis. With dynamic composition, the applications capabilities can be extended at runtime so that theoretically an unlimited number of new services can be created from a limited set of service components, thus making applications no longer restricted to the original set of operations specified and envisioned at design and/or compile time. Moreover, dynamic composition is the only means to adapt the behaviour of running components in highly available applications such as, banking and telecommunication systems where services cannot be brought offline to upgrade or remove obsolete services. In this paper, we present a novel classification of the current state-of-the-art dynamic web services composition techniques with attention to the capabilities and limitations of the underlying approaches. The proposed taxonomy of these techniques is derived based on a comprehensive survey of what has been done so far in dynamic web service composition. Finally, we summarise our findings and present a vision for future research work in this area.

A Universal Ontology for Sensor Networks Data

In this paper, we present our work towards the development and evaluation of an ontology for searching distributed and heterogeneous sensor networks data. In particular, we propose a two layer prototype ontology that utilizes the IEEE Suggested Upper Merged Ontology (SUMO) as a root definition of general concepts and associations and two sub- ontologies: the sensor data sub-ontology and the sensor hierarchy sub-ontology. The proposed ontology was implemented using Protege 2000 and eventually evaluated using the RDQL language (RDF Data Query Language). The performance analysis demonstrated the ability of the ontology-based search to improve both the precision and recall rates and enhance the interoperability between different sensor networks domains through the use of the universal SUMO ontology.

A guided tour in haptic audio visual environments and applications

The science of haptics has received enormous attention in the last decade. Activities in different disciplines such as robotics, computer graphics, and psychophysics have been the foundation of haptic science. Nowadays, haptic research comprises four interdisciplinary research branches: human haptics, machine haptics, computer haptics, and the newly introduced multimedia haptics. This paper traces the evolution of haptics technology from the introductory concepts and haptic system architecture, to current technology in the four haptics research branches and applications. Finally, we summarise our findings and present a vision for overcoming challenges and our direction for future research in this area.

Haptic Virtual Rehabilitation Exercises for Poststroke Diagnosis

Nowadays, stroke is one of the most frequent causes of severe adult disability in the world. Virtual reality and haptic technologies have emerged as promising assistive tools for effective diagnosis and rehabilitation intervention. The objective of this paper is to develop and test a set of five virtual exercises on top of a framework, which is designed for the diagnosis and rehabilitation of patients with hand impairments. We have implemented task-oriented exercises based on well-established and common exercises, namely the Jebsen Test of Hand Function and the Box and Block Test. These include moving a cup, arranging blocks, navigating a maze, training with a dumbbell, and grasping a rubber ball. Furthermore, key performance measures (metrics) are proposed for each exercise to quantitatively evaluate and judge the performance of stroke patients. Our evaluation of these exercises shows promising potential to define ldquogoldenrdquo reference metrics for healthy subjects, against which the performance of a patient is compared. This will facilitate the ability of occupational therapists to assess the patients progress.

A reference model for dynamic web service composition systems

Web services have become an emerging and promising technology to design and build complex business applications out of atomic web-based software components. To enforce extensive software reuse and dynamic adaptation, dynamic service composition has experienced an increasing interest in research efforts. Together, the lack of a general conceptual reference model for dynamic web service composition systems and the widespread use of these systems in service-enabled applications constitute a problem of management for these systems. To capture the requirements and challenges of these composition systems, a survey of a representative set of these systems is presented. In this paper, we develop a reference model for describing the functional structure and evaluating the performance of dynamic web service composition systems based on existing dynamic web service composition platforms and prototypes. To the best of our knowledge there has been no such model in the literature.

A haptic multimedia handwriting learning system

In this paper, we describe a multimedia system for learning handwriting and pronunciation of alphabet letters or characters in different languages. This system provides haptic, audio and visual information according to the desired letter or character chosen by a user. Letters or characters from the Arabic, English, French, Japanese, and Spanish languages have been considered, although the system utilizes an XML-based schema to easily introduce new characters from another language. Three different modes of learning can be chosen in terms of haptic information: full guidance, partial guidance and a no guidance mode (no haptic feedback). The full guidance guides the user to follow a pre-recorded letter trajectory; whereas in partial guidance, a user can freely follow a letter-drawing path, but if the user deviates significantly, the system automatically brings him/her back to the optimal displayed path. The no guidance mode allows users to perform letter handwriting with only visual information. This system guides users to write a character, in a similar way as a teacher holds a student.s hand. Moreover, the character trajectory is displayed as the user is performing it. The results of this system evaluation show its potential as a virtual tool for learning handwriting.

An overview of serious games

Serious games are growing rapidly as a gaming industry as well as a field of academic research. There are many surveys in the field of digital serious games; however, most surveys are specific to a particular area such as education or health. So far, there has been little work done to survey digital serious games in general, which is the main goal of this paper. Hence, we discuss relevant work on serious games in different application areas including education, well-being, advertisement, cultural heritage, interpersonal communication, and health care. We also propose a taxonomy for digital serious games, and we suggest a classification of reviewed serious games applications from the literature against the defined taxonomy. Finally, the paper provides guidelines, drawn from the literature, for the design and development of successful serious games, as well as discussing research perspectives in this domain.

Touchable 3D video system

Multimedia technologies are reaching the limits of providing audio-visual media that viewers consume passively. An important factor, which will ultimately enhance the users experience in terms of impressiveness and immersion, is interaction. Among daily life interactions, haptic interaction plays a prominent role in enhancing the quality of experience of users, and in promoting physical and emotional development. Therefore, a critical step in multimedia research is expected to bring the sense of touch, or haptics, into multimedia systems and applications. This article proposes a touchable 3D video system where viewers can actively touch a video scene through a force-feedback device, and presents the underlying technologies in three functional components: (1) contents generation, (2) contents transmission, and (3) viewing and interaction. First of all, we introduce a depth image-based haptic representation (DIBHR) method that adds haptic and heightmap images, in addition to the traditional depth image-based representation (DIBR), to encode the haptic surface properties of the video media. In this representation, the haptic image contains the stiffness, static friction, and dynamic friction, whereas the heightmap image contains roughness of the video contents. Based on this representation method, we discuss how to generate synthetic and natural (real) video media through a 3D modeling tool and a depth camera, respectively. Next, we introduce a transmission mechanism based on the MPEG-4 framework where new MPEG-4 BIFS nodes are designed to describe the haptic scene. Finally, a haptic rendering algorithm to compute the interaction force between the scene and the viewer is described. As a result, the performance of the haptic rendering algorithm is evaluated in terms of computational time and smooth contact force. It operates marginally within a 1 kHz update rate that is required to provide stable interaction force and provide smoother contact force with the depth image that has high frequency geometrical noise using a median filter.

HugMe: synchronous haptic teleconferencing

Traditional teleconferencing systems have enabled remote communications via audiovisual modalities. However, in real life, human touch such as encouraging pat plays a fundamental role to physical and emotional communication between persons. This paper presents a synchronous haptic teleconferencing system with touch interaction to convey affection and intimacy. We present a preliminary prototype called HugMe. In this system, two remote users could see as well as touch each other.

Admux: An Adaptive Multiplexer for Haptic–Audio–Visual Data Communication

Research trends in multimedia strive to incorporate multiple modalities, such as audio, video, graphics, and haptics, into multimedia applications to enhance the users experience. Researchers have made significant progress in advanced multimedia by incorporating virtual reality environments, haptics, and scent into the human computer interaction paradigm. However, the communication of multimedia data over the Internet (particularly the haptic media) remains a real challenge since each media has varying and sometimes conflicting communication requirements. This paper proposes Admux, an adaptive application layer multiplexing framework (including a communication protocol) for multimedia applications incorporating haptic, visual, auditory, and scent data for nondedicated networks. Being an application layer framework, Admux is highly adaptable to the application requirements, the media type (haptic, audio, video, etc.), and the network conditions. To facilitate the application-Admux communication, we used haptic application metalanguage descriptions. Second, Admux enhances the network throughput by adopting statistical multiplexing. Finally, Admux enables media prioritization based on the application events and QoS requirements. By simulating an interpersonal teleconferencing system (named the HugMe system), our results showed that Admux provides dynamic bandwidth allocation based on the network conditions, media type, and application events.