This book is about the role of knowledge in information systems. Knowledge is usually articulated and exchanged through human language(s). In this sense, language can be seen as the most natural vehicle to convey our concepts, whose meanings are usually intermingled, grouped and organized according to shared criteria, from simple perceptions ( every tree has a stem ) and common sense ( unsupported objects fall ) to complex social conventions ( a tax is a fee charged by a government on a product, income, or activity ). But what is natural for a human being turns out to be extremely difficult for machines: machines need to be instilled with knowledge and suitably equipped with logical and statistical algorithms to reason over it. Computers can t represent the external world and communicate their representations as effectively as humans do: ontologies and NLP have been invented to face this problem: in particular, integrating ontologies with (possibly multi-lingual) computational lexical resources is an essential requirement to make human meanings understandable by machines. This book explores the advancements in this integration, from the most recent steps in building the necessary infrastructure, i.e. the Semantic Web, to the different knowledge contents that can be analyzed, encoded and transferred (multimedia, emotions, events, etc.) through it. The work aims at presenting the progress in the field of integrating ontologies and lexicons: together, they constitute the essential technology for adequately represent, elicit and exchange knowledge contents in information systems, web services, text processing and several other domains of application.

This book presents the development of a new multimodal human-robot interface for testing and validating control strategies applied to robotic walkers for assisting human mobility and gait rehabilitation. The aim is to achieve a closer interaction between the robotic device and the individual, empowering the rehabilitation potential of such devices in clinical applications. A new multimodal human-robot interface for testing and validating control strategies applied to robotic walkers for assisting human mobility and gait rehabilitation is presented. Trends and opportunities for future advances in the field of assistive locomotion via the development of hybrid solutions based on the combination of smart walkers and biomechatronic exoskeletons are also discussed.

The last decade has witnessed a rapid surge of interest in new sensing and monitoring devices for wellbeing and healthcare. One key development in this area is wireless, wearable and implantable "in vivo" monitoring and intervention. A myriad of platforms are now available from both academic institutions and commercial organisations. They permit the management of patients with both acute and chronic symptoms, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, treatment of epilepsy and other debilitating neurological disorders. Despite extensive developments in sensing technologies, there are significant research issues related to system integration, sensor miniaturisation, low-power sensor interface, wireless telemetry and signal processing.

In the 2nd edition of this popular and authoritative reference on Body Sensor Networks (BSN), major topics related to the latest technological developments and potential clinical applications are discussed, with contents covering.

Biosensor Design, Interfacing and Nanotechnology

Wireless Communication and Network Topologies

Communication Protocols and Standards

Energy Harvesting and Power Delivery

Ultra-low Power Bio-inspired Processing

Multi-sensor Fusion and Context Aware Sensing

Autonomic Sensing

Wearable, Ingestible Sensor Integration and Exemplar Applications

System Integration and Wireless Sensor Microsystems

The book also provides a comprehensive review of the current wireless sensor development platforms and a step-by-step guide to developing your own BSN applications through the use of BSN development kit.

This book features selected papers presented at the International Conference on Information Management and Machine Intelligence (ICIMMI 2019), held at the Poornima Institute of Engineering & Technology, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, on December 14-15, 2019. It covers a range of topics, including data analytics; AI; machine and deep learning; information management, security, processing techniques and interpretation; applications of artificial intelligence in soft computing and pattern recognition; cloud-based applications for machine learning; application of IoT in power distribution systems; as well as wireless sensor networks and adaptive wireless communication.

This book deals with the topic of biomechanical biofeedback systems and applications that are primarily aimed at motor learning in sports and rehabilitation. It gives a comprehensive tutorial of the concepts, architectures, operation, and exemplary applications of biomechanical biofeedback systems. A special section is dedicated to various constraints in designing biomechanical biofeedback systems. The book also describes the technologies needed for the adequate operation of biofeedback systems, such as motion tracking, communication, processing, and sensor technologies. In regard to technologies, the emphasis is on the assurance of the requirements of the real-time system operation. The application focus is on the usage in sport and rehabilitation, particularly in the field of accelerated motor learning and injury prevention. We include several examples of operational (real-time) biofeedback applications in golf, skiing, and swimming. The book is in the first place intended for the professional audience, researchers, and scientists in the fields connected to the topics of this book.

This book comprises the proceedings of the second International Conference, AsiaHaptics 2016, held in Kashiwanoha, Japan. The book treats the state of the art of the diverse haptics (touch)-related research, including scientific research of haptics perception and illusion, development of haptics devices, and applications to a wide variety of fields such as education, medicine, telecommunication, navigation, and entertainment. This work helps not only active haptic researchers, but also general readers to understand what is going on in this interdisciplinary area of science and technology.

"User Interface Inspection Methods" succinctly covers five inspection methods: heuristic evaluation, perspective-based user interface inspection, cognitive walkthrough, pluralistic walkthrough, and formal usability inspections.

Heuristic evaluation is perhaps the best-known inspection method, requiring a group of evaluators to review a product against a set of general principles. The perspective-based user interface inspection is based on the principle that different perspectives will find different problems in a user interface. In the related persona-based inspection, colleagues assume the roles of personas and review the product based on the needs, background, tasks, and pain points of the different personas. The cognitive walkthrough focuses on ease of learning.

Most of the inspection methods do not require users; the main exception is the pluralistic walkthrough, in which a user is invited to provide feedback while members of a product team listen, observe the user, and ask questions.

After reading this book, you will be able to use these UI inspection methods with confidence and certainty.

- the author is in the BIMA Hall of Fame and is Chief Technology & Innovation Officer at Ernst & Young - the book explains the current state of AI and how it is governed, as well as detailing five potential futures involving AI and providing a clear Roadmap to manage the future of AI - easy and fun to read

Asynchronous On-Chip Networks and Fault-Tolerant Techniques is the first comprehensive study of fault-tolerance and fault-caused deadlock effects in asynchronous on-chip networks, aiming to overcome these drawbacks and ensure greater reliability of applications. As a promising alternative to the widely used synchronous on-chip networks for multicore processors, asynchronous on-chip networks can be vulnerable to faults even if they can deliver the same performance with much lower energy and area compared with their synchronous counterparts - faults can not only corrupt data transmission but also cause a unique type of deadlock. By adopting a new redundant code along with a dynamic fault detection and recovery scheme, the authors demonstrate that asynchronous on-chip networks can be efficiently hardened to tolerate both transient and permanent faults and overcome fault-caused deadlocks. This book will serve as an essential guide for researchers and students studying interconnection networks, fault-tolerant computing, asynchronous system design, circuit design and on-chip networking, as well as for professionals interested in designing fault-tolerant and high-throughput asynchronous circuits.

This open access book constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of the 9th IFIP WG 5.5 International Precision Assembly Seminar, IPAS 2020, held virtually in December 2020.The 16 revised full papers and 10 revised short papers presented together with 1 keynote paper were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers address topics such as assembly design and planning; assembly operations; assembly cells and systems; human centred assembly; and assistance methods in assembly.

This volume contains the workshopproceedings of the accompanying workshops of the 14th Financial Cryptograpy and Data Security International Conference 2010, held on Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, January 25-28, 2010. FinancialCryptographyandData Securityis a majorinternationalforumfor research, advanced development, education, exploration, and debate regarding information assurance, with a speci?c focus on commercial contexts. The c- ference covers all aspects of securing transactions and systems and especially encourages original work focusing on both fundamental and applied real-world deployments on all aspects surrounding commerce security. Three workshops were co-located with FC 2010: the Workshop on Real-Life CryptographicProtocolsandStandardization(RLCPS),theWorkshoponEthics in Computer Security Research (WECSR), and the Workshop on Lightweight Cryptography for Resource-Constrained Devices (WLC). Intimate and colorful by tradition, the high-quality program was not the only attraction of FC. In the past, FC conferences have been held in highly research-synergistic locations such as Tobago, Anguilla, Dominica, Key West, Guadelupe, Bermuda, the Grand Cayman, and Cozumel Mexico. 2010 was the ?rst year that the conference was held on European soil, in the Spanish Canary Islands, in Atlantic waters, a few miles across Morocco. Over 100 researchers from more than 20 countries were in attendance.

Much of the work of user-centered design practitioners involves some type of interviewing. While interviewing is an important skill, many colleagues have little or no formal training in interviewing methods and often learn on the job with limited feedback on the quality of their interviews.

This book teaches readers about the three basic interview methods: structured interviews, semi-structured interviews, and unstructured interviews. The author discusses the various strengths, weaknesses, issues with each type of interview, and includes best practices and procedures for conducing effective and efficient interviews. The book dives into the detailed information about interviews that haven t been discussed before - readers learn how and when to ask the "how" and "why" questions to get a deeper understanding of problems, concepts, and processes, as well as discussions on laddering and critical incident techniques.

Because so much of what UX practitioners do involves good interviewing skills, this is your one-stop resource with the definitions, processes, procedures and best practices on the basic approaches. "

This book reflects the tremendous changes in the telecommunications industry in the course of the past few decades - shorter innovation cycles, stiffer competition and new communication products. It analyzes the transformation of processes, applications and network technologies that are now expected to take place under enormous time pressure. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the TM Forum have provided reference solutions that are broadly recognized and used throughout the value chain of the telecommunications industry, and which can be considered the de facto standard. The book describes how these reference solutions can be used in a practical context: it presents the latest insights into their development, highlights lessons learned from numerous international projects and combines them with well-founded research results in enterprise architecture management and reference modeling. The complete architectural transformation is explained, from the planning and set-up stage to the implementation. Featuring a wealth of examples and illustrations, the book offers a valuable resource for telecommunication professionals, enterprise architects and project managers alike.

This book describes the physics of phase change memory devices, starting from basic operation to reliability issues. The book gives a comprehensive overlook of PCM with particular attention to the electrical transport and the phase transition physics between the two states. The book also contains design engineering details on PCM cell architecture, PCM cell arrays (including electrical circuit management), as well as the full spectrum of possible future applications.

This book introduces human factors engineering (HFE) principles, guidelines, and design methods for medical device design. It starts with an overview of physical, perceptual, and cognitive abilities and limitations, and their implications for design. This analysis produces a set of human factors principles that can be applied across many design challenges, which are then applied to guidelines for designing input controls, visual displays, auditory displays (alerts, alarms, warnings), and human-computer interaction. Specific challenges and solutions for various medical device domains, such as robotic surgery, laparoscopic surgery, artificial organs, wearables, continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps, and reprocessing, are discussed. Human factors research and design methods are provided and integrated into a human factors design lifecycle, and a discussion of regulatory requirements and procedures is provided, including guidance on what human factors activities should be conducted when and how they should be documented.This hands-on professional reference is an essential introduction and resource for students and practitioners in HFE, biomedical engineering, industrial design, graphic design, user-experience design, quality engineering, product management, and regulatory affairs. Teaches readers to design medical devices that are safer, more effective, and less error prone; Explains the role and responsibilities of regulatory agencies in medical device design; Introduces analysis and research methods such as UFMEA, task analysis, heuristic evaluation, and usability testing.

There are rhythms of action and response to all human-computer interactions. As we click, swipe, tap and sway to their beats, these rhythms intersect with the rhythms of our everyday lives. Perhaps they synchronize, perhaps they disrupt each other or maybe they dance together. Whatever their impact our experience of these rhythms will colour our experience of an interaction design. In playful interactive applications, rhythm is especially crucial because of the role it performs in building and maintaining the precarious spirit of play. Play involves movement and this movement has a rhythm that drives the experience. But what is the character of these rhythms of play and how can they be used in the design of interactive applications? These questions are the focus of this book. Drawing on traditions of rhythmic design practice in dance, performance, music and architecture, this book reveals key insights into practical strategies for designing playful rhythmic experience. With playful experiences now being incorporated into almost every type of computer application, interaction design practitioners and researchers need to develop a deeper understanding of the specific character of rhythms within play. Written from a designer's perspective, with interviews from leading creative artists and interaction design practitioners, Rhythm, Play and Interaction Design will help practitioners, researchers and students understand, evaluate and create rhythmic experiences.

This book explores various e-Services related to health, learning, culture, media and the news, and the influences the Web and related technologies have had and continue to have in each of these areas, both on service providers and service users. It provides insights into the main technological and human issues regarding healthcare, aging population, recent challenges in the educational environment, the impact of digital technologies on culture and heritage, cultural diversity, freedom of expression, intellectual property, fake news and, last but not least, public opinion manipulation and ethical issues. Its main aim is to bridge the gap between technological solutions, their successful implementation, and the fruitful utilization of the main set of e-Services mostly delivered by private or public companies. Today, various parameters actively influence e-Services' success or failure: cultural aspects, organisational and privacy issues, bureaucracy and workflows, infrastructure and technology in general, user habits, literacy, capacity or merely interaction design. This includes having a significant population of citizens who are willing and able to adopt and use online services; as well as developing the managerial and technical capability to implement applications that meet citizens' needs. This book helps readers understand the mutual dependencies involved; further, a selection of success stories and failures, duly commented on, enables readers to identify the right approach to innovation in areas that offer the opportunity to reach a wide audience with minimal effort. With its balanced humanistic and technological approach, the book mainly targets public authorities, decision-makers, stakeholders, solution developers, and graduate students.

Old age is currently the greatest risk factor for developing dementia. Since older people make up a larger portion of the population than ever before, the resulting increase in the incidence of dementia presents a major challenge for society. Dementia is complex and multifaceted and impacts not only the person with the diagnosis but also those caring for them and society as a whole. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) design and development are pivotal in enabling people with dementia to live well and be supported in the communities around them. HCI is increasingly addressing the need for inclusivity and accessibility in the design and development of new technologies, interfaces, systems, services, and tools. Using interdisciplinary approaches HCI engages with the complexities and 'messiness' of real-world design spaces to provide novel perspectives and new ways of addressing the challenge of dementia and multi-stakeholder needs. HCI and Design in the Context of Dementia brings together the work of international experts, designers and researchers working across disciplines. It provides methodologies, methods and frameworks, approaches to participatory engagement and case studies showing how technology can impact the lives of people living with dementia and those around them. It includes examples of how to conduct dementia research and design in-context in the field of HCI, ethically and effectively and how these issues transcend the design space of dementia to inform HCI design and technology development more broadly. The book is valuable for and aimed at designers, researchers, scholars and caregivers that work with vulnerable groups like people with dementia, and those directly impacted.

This book provides an insight on the importance that Internet of Things (IoT) and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions can have in taking care of people's health. Key features of this book present the recent and emerging developments in various specializations in curing health problems and finding their solutions by incorporating IoT and ICT. This book presents useful IoT and ICT applications and architectures that cater to their improved healthcare requirements. Topics include in-home healthcare services based on the Internet-of-Things; RFID technology for IoT based personal healthcare; Real-time reporting and monitoring; Interfacing devices to IoT; Smart medical services; Embedded gateway configuration (EGC); Health monitoring infrastructure; and more. Features a number of practical solutions and applications of IoT and ICT on healthcare; Includes application domains such as communication technology and electronic materials and devices; Applies to researchers, academics, students, and practitioners around the world.

This concise volume presents for the first time a coherent and detailed account of why we experience feelings of being present in the physical world and in computer-mediated environments, why we often don't, and why it matters - for design, psychotherapy, tool use and social creativity amongst other practical applications.

This volume explores how context has been and can be used in computing to model human behaviors, actions and communications as well as to manage data and knowledge. It addresses context management and exploitation of context for sharing experience across domains. The book serves as a user-centric guide for readers wishing to develop context-based applications, as well as an intellectual reference on the concept of context. It provides a broad yet deep treatment of context in computing and related areas that depend heavily on computing. The coverage is broad because of its cross-disciplinary nature but treats topics at a sufficient depth to permit a reader to implement context in his/her computational endeavors. The volume addresses how context can be integrated in software and systems and how it can be used in a computing environment. Furthermore, the use of context to represent the human dimension, individually as well as collectively is explained. Contributions also include descriptions of how context has been represented in formal as well as non-formal, structured approaches. The last section describes several human behavior representation paradigms based on the concept of context as its central representational element. The depth and breadth of this content is certain to provide useful as well as intellectually enriching information to readers of diverse backgrounds who have an interest in or are intrigued by using context to assist in their representation of the real world.

Human computer interaction (HCI) plays a vital role in bridging the 'Digital Divide', bringing people closer to consumer electronics control in the 'lounge'. Keyboards and mouse or remotes do alienate old and new generations alike from control interfaces. Hand Gesture Recognition systems bring hope of connecting people with machines in a natural way. This will lead to consumers being able to use their hands naturally to communicate with any electronic equipment in their 'lounge.' This monograph will include the state of the art hand gesture recognition approaches and how they evolved from their inception. The author would also detail his research in this area for the past 8 years and how the future might turn out to be using HCI. This monograph will serve as a valuable guide for researchers (who would endeavour into) in the world of HCI.

Introducing mobile humanoid robots into human environments requires the systems to physically interact and execute multiple concurrent tasks. The monograph at hand presents a whole-body torque controller for dexterous and safe robotic manipulation. This control approach enables a mobile humanoid robot to simultaneously meet several control objectives with different pre-defined levels of priority, while providing the skills for compliant physical contacts with humans and the environment. After a general introduction into the topic of whole-body control, several essential reactive tasks are developed to extend the repertoire of robotic control objectives. Additionally, the classical Cartesian impedance is extended to the case of mobile robots. All of these tasks are then combined and integrated into an overall, priority-based control law. Besides the experimental validation of the approach, the formal proof of asymptotic stability for this hierarchical controller is presented. By interconnecting the whole-body controller with an artificial intelligence, the immense potential of the integrated approach for complex real-world applications is shown. Several typical household chores, such as autonomously wiping a window or sweeping the floor with a broom, are successfully performed on the mobile humanoid robot Rollin' Justin of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The results suggest the presented controller for a large variety of fields of application such as service robotics, human-robot cooperation in industry, telepresence in medical applications, space robotics scenarios, and the operation of mobile robots in dangerous and hazardous environments.

- Unlike other AI titles, this book takes a step further towards the real applicability and transferability of AI, through detailed examples in a very important region of Spain - Includes chapters on health and social welfare, transportation, digital economy, energy efficiency and sustainability, agro-industry and tourism - Great diversity of authors, expert in the varied sectors and problems addressed, belonging to powerful research groups from the University of Seville with proven experience in the transfer of knowledge to the productive sector and agents attached to the Andalucia TECH Campus

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the field of software processes, covering in particular the following essential topics: software process modelling, software process and lifecycle models, software process management, deployment and governance, and software process improvement (including assessment and measurement). It does not propose any new processes or methods; rather, it introduces students and software engineers to software processes and life cycle models, covering the different types ranging from "classical", plan-driven via hybrid to agile approaches. The book is structured as follows: In chapter 1, the fundamentals of the topic are introduced: the basic concepts, a historical overview, and the terminology used. Next, chapter 2 covers the various approaches to modelling software processes and lifecycle models, before chapter 3 discusses the contents of these models, addressing plan-driven, agile and hybrid approaches. The following three chapters address various aspects of using software processes and lifecycle models within organisations, and consider the management of these processes, their assessment and improvement, and the measurement of both software and software processes. Working with software processes normally involves various tools, which are the focus of chapter 7, before a look at current trends in software processes in chapter 8 rounds out the book. This book is mainly intended for graduate students and practicing professionals. It can be used as a textbook for courses and lectures, for self-study, and as a reference guide. When used as a textbook, it may support courses and lectures on software processes, or be used as complementary literature for more basic courses, such as introductory courses on software engineering or project management. To this end, it includes a wealth of examples and case studies, and each chapter is complemented by exercises that help readers gain a better command of the concepts discussed.