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15 pages, 1202 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of a Tracking System for Patients and Mixed Intravenous Medication Based on RFID Technology

by María Martínez Pérez, Guillermo Vázquez González and Carlos Dafonte

Sensors 2016, 16(12), 2031; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16122031 - 30 Nov 2016

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 6546

Abstract

At present, one of the primary concerns of healthcare professionals is how to increase the safety and quality of the care that patients receive during their stay in hospital. This is particularly important in the administration of expensive and high-risk medicines with which [...] Read more.

At present, one of the primary concerns of healthcare professionals is how to increase the safety and quality of the care that patients receive during their stay in hospital. This is particularly important in the administration of expensive and high-risk medicines with which it is fundamental to minimize the possibility of adverse events in the process of prescription-validation-preparation/dosage-dispensation-administration of intravenous mixes. This work is a detailed analysis of the evaluation, carried out by the health personnel involved in the Radiofrequency Identification (RFID) system developed in the Day Hospital and Pharmacy services of the Complejo Hospitalario Universitario A Coruña (CHUAC). The RFID system is evaluated by analyzing surveys completed by said health personnel, since their questions represent the key indicators of the patient care process (safety, cost, adequacy with the clinical practice). This work allows us to conclude, among other things, that the system tracks the patients satisfactorily and that its cost, though high, is justified in the context of the project context (use of dangerous and costly medication). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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17 pages, 4992 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Cellular Automata-Based Application for Driver Assistance in Indoor Parking Areas

by Cándido Caballero-Gil, Pino Caballero-Gil and Jezabel Molina-Gil

Sensors 2016, 16(11), 1921; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16111921 - 15 Nov 2016

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 6471

Abstract

This work proposes an adaptive recommendation mechanism for smart parking that takes advantage of the popularity of smartphones and the rise of the Internet of Things. The proposal includes a centralized system to forecast available indoor parking spaces, and a low-cost mobile application [...] Read more.

This work proposes an adaptive recommendation mechanism for smart parking that takes advantage of the popularity of smartphones and the rise of the Internet of Things. The proposal includes a centralized system to forecast available indoor parking spaces, and a low-cost mobile application to obtain data of actual and predicted parking occupancy. The described scheme uses data from both sources bidirectionally so that the centralized forecast system is fed with data obtained with the distributed system based on smartphones, and vice versa. The mobile application uses different wireless technologies to provide the forecast system with actual parking data and receive from the system useful recommendations about where to park. Thus, the proposal can be used by any driver to easily find available parking spaces in indoor facilities. The client software developed for smartphones is a lightweight Android application that supplies precise indoor positioning systems based on Quick Response codes or Near Field Communication tags, and semi-precise indoor positioning systems based on Bluetooth Low Energy beacons. The performance of the proposed approach has been evaluated by conducting computer simulations and real experimentation with a preliminary implementation. The results have shown the strengths of the proposal in the reduction of the time and energy costs to find available parking spaces. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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16 pages, 1902 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optimal Parameter Exploration for Online Change-Point Detection in Activity Monitoring Using Genetic Algorithms

by Naveed Khan, Sally McClean, Shuai Zhang and Chris Nugent

Sensors 2016, 16(11), 1784; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16111784 - 26 Oct 2016

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 6403

Abstract

In recent years, smart phones with inbuilt sensors have become popular devices to facilitate activity recognition. The sensors capture a large amount of data, containing meaningful events, in a short period of time. The change points in this data are used to specify [...] Read more.

In recent years, smart phones with inbuilt sensors have become popular devices to facilitate activity recognition. The sensors capture a large amount of data, containing meaningful events, in a short period of time. The change points in this data are used to specify transitions to distinct events and can be used in various scenarios such as identifying change in a patient’s vital signs in the medical domain or requesting activity labels for generating real-world labeled activity datasets. Our work focuses on change-point detection to identify a transition from one activity to another. Within this paper, we extend our previous work on multivariate exponentially weighted moving average (MEWMA) algorithm by using a genetic algorithm (GA) to identify the optimal set of parameters for online change-point detection. The proposed technique finds the maximum accuracy and F_measure by optimizing the different parameters of the MEWMA, which subsequently identifies the exact location of the change point from an existing activity to a new one. Optimal parameter selection facilitates an algorithm to detect accurate change points and minimize false alarms. Results have been evaluated based on two real datasets of accelerometer data collected from a set of different activities from two users, with a high degree of accuracy from 99.4% to 99.8% and F_measure of up to 66.7%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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20 pages, 4594 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Integrating Virtual Worlds with Tangible User Interfaces for Teaching Mathematics: A Pilot Study

by Graciela Guerrero, Andrés Ayala, Juan Mateu, Laura Casades and Xavier Alamán

Sensors 2016, 16(11), 1775; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16111775 - 25 Oct 2016

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 8550

Abstract

This article presents a pilot study of the use of two new tangible interfaces and virtual worlds for teaching geometry in a secondary school. The first tangible device allows the user to control a virtual object in six degrees of freedom. The second [...] Read more.

This article presents a pilot study of the use of two new tangible interfaces and virtual worlds for teaching geometry in a secondary school. The first tangible device allows the user to control a virtual object in six degrees of freedom. The second tangible device is used to modify virtual objects, changing attributes such as position, size, rotation and color. A pilot study on using these devices was carried out at the “Florida Secundaria” high school. A virtual world was built where students used the tangible interfaces to manipulate geometrical figures in order to learn different geometrical concepts. The pilot experiment results suggest that the use of tangible interfaces and virtual worlds allowed a more meaningful learning (concepts learnt were more durable). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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25 pages, 4449 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Bio-Inspired Model-Based Approach for Context-Aware Post-WIMP Tele-Rehabilitation

by Víctor López-Jaquero, Arturo C. Rodríguez, Miguel A. Teruel, Francisco Montero, Elena Navarro and Pascual Gonzalez

Sensors 2016, 16(10), 1689; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16101689 - 13 Oct 2016

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 5246

Abstract

Tele-rehabilitation is one of the main domains where Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been proven useful to move healthcare from care centers to patients’ home. Moreover, patients, especially those carrying out a physical therapy, cannot use a traditional Window, Icon, Menu, Pointer [...] Read more.

Tele-rehabilitation is one of the main domains where Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been proven useful to move healthcare from care centers to patients’ home. Moreover, patients, especially those carrying out a physical therapy, cannot use a traditional Window, Icon, Menu, Pointer (WIMP) system, but they need to interact in a natural way, that is, there is a need to move from WIMP systems to Post-WIMP ones. Moreover, tele-rehabilitation systems should be developed following the context-aware approach, so that they are able to adapt to the patients’ context to provide them with usable and effective therapies. In this work a model-based approach is presented to assist stakeholders in the development of context-aware Post-WIMP tele-rehabilitation systems. It entails three different models: (i) a task model for designing the rehabilitation tasks; (ii) a context model to facilitate the adaptation of these tasks to the context; and (iii) a bio-inspired presentation model to specify thoroughly how such tasks should be performed by the patients. Our proposal overcomes one of the limitations of the model-based approach for the development of context-aware systems supporting the specification of non-functional requirements. Finally, a case study is used to illustrate how this proposal can be put into practice to design a real world rehabilitation task. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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26 pages, 885 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Ontology-Based High-Level Context Inference for Human Behavior Identification

by Claudia Villalonga, Muhammad Asif Razzaq, Wajahat Ali Khan, Hector Pomares, Ignacio Rojas, Sungyoung Lee and Oresti Banos

Sensors 2016, 16(10), 1617; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16101617 - 29 Sep 2016

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 7573

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed a huge progress in the automatic identification of individual primitives of human behavior, such as activities or locations. However, the complex nature of human behavior demands more abstract contextual information for its analysis. This work presents an ontology-based method [...] Read more.

Recent years have witnessed a huge progress in the automatic identification of individual primitives of human behavior, such as activities or locations. However, the complex nature of human behavior demands more abstract contextual information for its analysis. This work presents an ontology-based method that combines low-level primitives of behavior, namely activity, locations and emotions, unprecedented to date, to intelligently derive more meaningful high-level context information. The paper contributes with a new open ontology describing both low-level and high-level context information, as well as their relationships. Furthermore, a framework building on the developed ontology and reasoning models is presented and evaluated. The proposed method proves to be robust while identifying high-level contexts even in the event of erroneously-detected low-level contexts. Despite reasonable inference times being obtained for a relevant set of users and instances, additional work is required to scale to long-term scenarios with a large number of users. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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14 pages, 1720 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Virtual Control Policy for Binary Ordered Resources Petri Net Class

by Carlos A. Rovetto, Tomás J. Concepción and Elia Esther Cano

Sensors 2016, 16(8), 1307; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16081307 - 18 Aug 2016

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4865

Abstract

Prevention and avoidance of deadlocks in sensor networks that use the wormhole routing algorithm is an active research domain. There are diverse control policies that will address this problem being our approach a new method. In this paper we present a virtual control [...] Read more.

Prevention and avoidance of deadlocks in sensor networks that use the wormhole routing algorithm is an active research domain. There are diverse control policies that will address this problem being our approach a new method. In this paper we present a virtual control policy for the new specialized Petri net subclass called Binary Ordered Resources Petri Net (BORPN). Essentially, it is an ordinary class constructed from various state machines that share unitary resources in a complex form, which allows branching and joining of processes. The reduced structure of this new class gives advantages that allow analysis of the entire system’s behavior, which is a prohibitive task for large systems because of the complexity and routing algorithms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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19 pages, 1982 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Human Behavior Analysis by Means of Multimodal Context Mining

by Oresti Banos, Claudia Villalonga, Jaehun Bang, Taeho Hur, Donguk Kang, Sangbeom Park, Thien Huynh-The, Vui Le-Ba, Muhammad Bilal Amin, Muhammad Asif Razzaq, Wahajat Ali Khan, Choong Seon Hong and Sungyoung Lee

Sensors 2016, 16(8), 1264; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16081264 - 10 Aug 2016

Cited by 32 | Viewed by 8237

Abstract

There is sufficient evidence proving the impact that negative lifestyle choices have on people’s health and wellness. Changing unhealthy behaviours requires raising people’s self-awareness and also providing healthcare experts with a thorough and continuous description of the user’s conduct. Several monitoring techniques have [...] Read more.

There is sufficient evidence proving the impact that negative lifestyle choices have on people’s health and wellness. Changing unhealthy behaviours requires raising people’s self-awareness and also providing healthcare experts with a thorough and continuous description of the user’s conduct. Several monitoring techniques have been proposed in the past to track users’ behaviour; however, these approaches are either subjective and prone to misreporting, such as questionnaires, or only focus on a specific component of context, such as activity counters. This work presents an innovative multimodal context mining framework to inspect and infer human behaviour in a more holistic fashion. The proposed approach extends beyond the state-of-the-art, since it not only explores a sole type of context, but also combines diverse levels of context in an integral manner. Namely, low-level contexts, including activities, emotions and locations, are identified from heterogeneous sensory data through machine learning techniques. Low-level contexts are combined using ontological mechanisms to derive a more abstract representation of the user’s context, here referred to as high-level context. An initial implementation of the proposed framework supporting real-time context identification is also presented. The developed system is evaluated for various realistic scenarios making use of a novel multimodal context open dataset and data on-the-go, demonstrating prominent context-aware capabilities at both low and high levels. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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23 pages, 5287 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Safety and Traceability in Patient Healthcare through the Integration of RFID Technology for Intravenous Mixtures in the Prescription-Validation-Elaboration-Dispensation-Administration Circuit to Day Hospital Patients

by María Martínez Pérez, Guillermo Vázquez González and Carlos Dafonte

Sensors 2016, 16(8), 1188; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16081188 - 28 Jul 2016

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 11531

Abstract

This work presents the integration of the RFID technology with the aim of ensuring the traceability of patients and minimization of adverse events during the process of prescription-validation-elaboration-dispensation-administration of medication by means of the implementation of various passive and active WIFI RFID systems [...] Read more.

This work presents the integration of the RFID technology with the aim of ensuring the traceability of patients and minimization of adverse events during the process of prescription-validation-elaboration-dispensation-administration of medication by means of the implementation of various passive and active WIFI RFID systems in the Pharmacy and Day Hospital services of the Complejo Hospitalario Universitario A Coruña. Obtaining patient traceability and using the patient/drug binomial during this process allows us to minimize the occurrence of adverse events. The key points in this work are the unmistakably unique identification and accurate real time location of the controlled items (patients and medication). RFID technology has proved to be invaluable in assisting with the everyday clinical practice of a hospital, and has been successfully implemented in this environment and others. In services such as the day hospital, the implementation of said technology is further justified by the high costs of the service and the high risk to the patient. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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15 pages, 2278 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design and Field Experimentation of a Cooperative ITS Architecture Based on Distributed RSUs

by Asier Moreno, Eneko Osaba, Enrique Onieva, Asier Perallos, Giovanni Iovino and Pablo Fernández

Sensors 2016, 16(7), 1147; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16071147 - 22 Jul 2016

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 7094 | Correction

Abstract

This paper describes a new cooperative Intelligent Transportation System architecture that aims to enable collaborative sensing services. The main goal of this architecture is to improve transportation efficiency and performance. The system, which has been proven within the participation in the ICSI (Intelligent [...] Read more.

This paper describes a new cooperative Intelligent Transportation System architecture that aims to enable collaborative sensing services. The main goal of this architecture is to improve transportation efficiency and performance. The system, which has been proven within the participation in the ICSI (Intelligent Cooperative Sensing for Improved traffic efficiency) European project, encompasses the entire process of capture and management of available road data. For this purpose, it applies a combination of cooperative services and methods for data sensing, acquisition, processing and communication amongst road users, vehicles, infrastructures and related stakeholders. Additionally, the advantages of using the proposed system are exposed. The most important of these advantages is the use of a distributed architecture, moving the system intelligence from the control centre to the peripheral devices. The global architecture of the system is presented, as well as the software design and the interaction between its main components. Finally, functional and operational results observed through the experimentation are described. This experimentation has been carried out in two real scenarios, in Lisbon (Portugal) and Pisa (Italy). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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20 pages, 8791 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Developing Ubiquitous Sensor Network Platform Using Internet of Things: Application in Precision Agriculture

by Francisco Javier Ferrández-Pastor, Juan Manuel García-Chamizo, Mario Nieto-Hidalgo, Jerónimo Mora-Pascual and José Mora-Martínez

Sensors 2016, 16(7), 1141; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16071141 - 22 Jul 2016

Cited by 213 | Viewed by 20273

Abstract

The application of Information Technologies into Precision Agriculture methods has clear benefits. Precision Agriculture optimises production efficiency, increases quality, minimises environmental impact and reduces the use of resources (energy, water); however, there are different barriers that have delayed its wide development. Some of [...] Read more.

The application of Information Technologies into Precision Agriculture methods has clear benefits. Precision Agriculture optimises production efficiency, increases quality, minimises environmental impact and reduces the use of resources (energy, water); however, there are different barriers that have delayed its wide development. Some of these main barriers are expensive equipment, the difficulty to operate and maintain and the standard for sensor networks are still under development. Nowadays, new technological development in embedded devices (hardware and communication protocols), the evolution of Internet technologies (Internet of Things) and ubiquitous computing (Ubiquitous Sensor Networks) allow developing less expensive systems, easier to control, install and maintain, using standard protocols with low-power consumption. This work develops and test a low-cost sensor/actuator network platform, based in Internet of Things, integrating machine-to-machine and human-machine-interface protocols. Edge computing uses this multi-protocol approach to develop control processes on Precision Agriculture scenarios. A greenhouse with hydroponic crop production was developed and tested using Ubiquitous Sensor Network monitoring and edge control on Internet of Things paradigm. The experimental results showed that the Internet technologies and Smart Object Communication Patterns can be combined to encourage development of Precision Agriculture. They demonstrated added benefits (cost, energy, smart developing, acceptance by agricultural specialists) when a project is launched. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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23 pages, 3381 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Systematic Development of Intelligent Systems for Public Road Transport

by Carmelo R. García, Alexis Quesada-Arencibia, Teresa Cristóbal, Gabino Padrón and Francisco Alayón

Sensors 2016, 16(7), 1104; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16071104 - 16 Jul 2016

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 6832

Abstract

This paper presents an architecture model for the development of intelligent systems for public passenger transport by road. The main objective of our proposal is to provide a framework for the systematic development and deployment of telematics systems to improve various aspects of [...] Read more.

This paper presents an architecture model for the development of intelligent systems for public passenger transport by road. The main objective of our proposal is to provide a framework for the systematic development and deployment of telematics systems to improve various aspects of this type of transport, such as efficiency, accessibility and safety. The architecture model presented herein is based on international standards on intelligent transport system architectures, ubiquitous computing and service-oriented architecture for distributed systems. To illustrate the utility of the model, we also present a use case of a monitoring system for stops on a public passenger road transport network. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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25 pages, 4514 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sensing Urban Patterns with Antenna Mappings: The Case of Santiago, Chile

by Eduardo Graells-Garrido, Oscar Peredo and José García

Sensors 2016, 16(7), 1098; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16071098 - 15 Jul 2016

Cited by 54 | Viewed by 7672

Abstract

Mobile data has allowed us to sense urban dynamics at scales and granularities not known before, helping urban planners to cope with urban growth. A frequently used kind of dataset are Call Detail Records (CDR), used by telecommunication operators for billing purposes. Being [...] Read more.

Mobile data has allowed us to sense urban dynamics at scales and granularities not known before, helping urban planners to cope with urban growth. A frequently used kind of dataset are Call Detail Records (CDR), used by telecommunication operators for billing purposes. Being an already extracted and processed dataset, it is inexpensive and reliable. A common assumption with respect to geography when working with CDR data is that the position of a device is the same as the Base Transceiver Station (BTS) it is connected to. Because the city is divided into a square grid, or by coverage zones approximated by Voronoi tessellations, CDR network events are assigned to corresponding areas according to BTS position. This geolocation may suffer from non negligible error in almost all cases. In this paper we propose “Antenna Virtual Placement” (AVP), a method to geolocate mobile devices according to their connections to BTS, based on decoupling antennas from its corresponding BTS according to its physical configuration (height, downtilt, and azimuth). We use AVP applied to CDR data as input for two different tasks: first, from an individual perspective, what places are meaningful for them? And second, from a global perspective, how to cluster city areas to understand land use using floating population flows? For both tasks we propose methods that complement or improve prior work in the literature. Our proposed methods are simple, yet not trivial, and work with daily CDR data from the biggest telecommunication operator in Chile. We evaluate them in Santiago, the capital of Chile, with data from working days from June 2015. We find that: (1) AVP improves city coverage of CDR data by geolocating devices to more city areas than using standard methods; (2) we find important places (home and work) for a 10% of the sample using just daily information, and recreate the population distribution as well as commuting trips; (3) the daily rhythms of floating population allow to cluster areas of the city, and explain them from a land use perspective by finding signature points of interest from crowdsourced geographical information. These results have implications for the design of applications based on CDR data like recommendation of places and routes, retail store placement, and estimation of transport effects from pollution alerts. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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27 pages, 4792 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Mobile Autonomous Sensing Unit (MASU): A Framework That Supports Distributed Pervasive Data Sensing

by Esunly Medina, David Lopez, Roc Meseguer, Sergio F. Ochoa, Dolors Royo and Rodrigo Santos

Sensors 2016, 16(7), 1062; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16071062 - 9 Jul 2016

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5965

Abstract

Pervasive data sensing is a major issue that transverses various research areas and application domains. It allows identifying people’s behaviour and patterns without overwhelming the monitored persons. Although there are many pervasive data sensing applications, they are typically focused on addressing specific problems [...] Read more.

Pervasive data sensing is a major issue that transverses various research areas and application domains. It allows identifying people’s behaviour and patterns without overwhelming the monitored persons. Although there are many pervasive data sensing applications, they are typically focused on addressing specific problems in a single application domain, making them difficult to generalize or reuse. On the other hand, the platforms for supporting pervasive data sensing impose restrictions to the devices and operational environments that make them unsuitable for monitoring loosely-coupled or fully distributed work. In order to help address this challenge this paper present a framework that supports distributed pervasive data sensing in a generic way. Developers can use this framework to facilitate the implementations of their applications, thus reducing complexity and effort in such an activity. The framework was evaluated using simulations and also through an empirical test, and the obtained results indicate that it is useful to support such a sensing activity in loosely-coupled or fully distributed work scenarios. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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26 pages, 3581 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Framework for the Development of Context-Adaptable User Interfaces for Ubiquitous Computing Systems

by Gervasio Varela, Alejandro Paz-Lopez, Jose A. Becerra and Richard Duro

Sensors 2016, 16(7), 1049; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16071049 - 7 Jul 2016

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 7367

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of developing user interfaces for Ubiquitous Computing (UC) and Ambient Intelligence (AmI) systems. These kind of systems are expected to provide a natural user experience, considering interaction modalities adapted to the user abilities and preferences and using whatever [...] Read more.

This paper addresses the problem of developing user interfaces for Ubiquitous Computing (UC) and Ambient Intelligence (AmI) systems. These kind of systems are expected to provide a natural user experience, considering interaction modalities adapted to the user abilities and preferences and using whatever interaction devices are present in the environment. These interaction devices are not necessarily known at design time. The task is quite complicated due to the variety of devices and technologies, and the diversity of scenarios, and it usually burdens the developer with the need to create many different UIs in order to consider the foreseeable user-environment combinations. Here, we propose an UI abstraction framework for UC and AmI systems that effectively improves the portability of those systems between different environments and for different users. It allows developers to design and implement a single UI capable of being deployed with different devices and modalities regardless the physical location. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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15 pages, 7091 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Rule-Based vs. Behavior-Based Self-Deployment for Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks

by Cristina Urdiales, Francisco Aguilera, Eva González-Parada, Jose Cano-García and Francisco Sandoval

Sensors 2016, 16(7), 1047; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16071047 - 7 Jul 2016

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4608

Abstract

In mobile wireless sensor networks (MWSN), nodes are allowed to move autonomously for deployment. This process is meant: (i) to achieve good coverage; and (ii) to distribute the communication load as homogeneously as possible. Rather than optimizing deployment, reactive algorithms are based on [...] Read more.

In mobile wireless sensor networks (MWSN), nodes are allowed to move autonomously for deployment. This process is meant: (i) to achieve good coverage; and (ii) to distribute the communication load as homogeneously as possible. Rather than optimizing deployment, reactive algorithms are based on a set of rules or behaviors, so nodes can determine when to move. This paper presents an experimental evaluation of both reactive deployment approaches: rule-based and behavior-based ones. Specifically, we compare a backbone dispersion algorithm with a social potential fields algorithm. Most tests are done under simulation for a large number of nodes in environments with and without obstacles. Results are validated using a small robot network in the real world. Our results show that behavior-based deployment tends to provide better coverage and communication balance, especially for a large number of nodes in areas with obstacles. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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28 pages, 658 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Novel Wearable Sensor-Based Human Activity Recognition Approach Using Artificial Hydrocarbon Networks

by Hiram Ponce, María De Lourdes Martínez-Villaseñor and Luis Miralles-Pechuán

Sensors 2016, 16(7), 1033; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16071033 - 5 Jul 2016

Cited by 57 | Viewed by 8156

Abstract

Human activity recognition has gained more interest in several research communities given that understanding user activities and behavior helps to deliver proactive and personalized services. There are many examples of health systems improved by human activity recognition. Nevertheless, the human activity recognition classification [...] Read more.

Human activity recognition has gained more interest in several research communities given that understanding user activities and behavior helps to deliver proactive and personalized services. There are many examples of health systems improved by human activity recognition. Nevertheless, the human activity recognition classification process is not an easy task. Different types of noise in wearable sensors data frequently hamper the human activity recognition classification process. In order to develop a successful activity recognition system, it is necessary to use stable and robust machine learning techniques capable of dealing with noisy data. In this paper, we presented the artificial hydrocarbon networks (AHN) technique to the human activity recognition community. Our artificial hydrocarbon networks novel approach is suitable for physical activity recognition, noise tolerance of corrupted data sensors and robust in terms of different issues on data sensors. We proved that the AHN classifier is very competitive for physical activity recognition and is very robust in comparison with other well-known machine learning methods. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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25 pages, 5035 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Collaboration-Centred Cities through Urban Apps Based on Open and User-Generated Data

by Unai Aguilera, Diego López-de-Ipiña and Jorge Pérez

Sensors 2016, 16(7), 1022; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16071022 - 1 Jul 2016

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 5758

Abstract

This paper describes the IES Cities platform conceived to streamline the development of urban apps that combine heterogeneous datasets provided by diverse entities, namely, government, citizens, sensor infrastructure and other information data sources. This work pursues the challenge of achieving effective citizen collaboration [...] Read more.

This paper describes the IES Cities platform conceived to streamline the development of urban apps that combine heterogeneous datasets provided by diverse entities, namely, government, citizens, sensor infrastructure and other information data sources. This work pursues the challenge of achieving effective citizen collaboration by empowering them to prosume urban data across time. Particularly, this paper focuses on the query mapper; a key component of the IES Cities platform devised to democratize the development of open data-based mobile urban apps. This component allows developers not only to use available data, but also to contribute to existing datasets with the execution of SQL sentences. In addition, the component allows developers to create ad hoc storages for their applications, publishable as new datasets accessible by other consumers. As multiple users could be contributing and using a dataset, our solution also provides a data level permission mechanism to control how the platform manages the access to its datasets. We have evaluated the advantages brought forward by IES Cities from the developers’ perspective by describing an exemplary urban app created on top of it. In addition, we include an evaluation of the main functionalities of the query mapper. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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26 pages, 814 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Bandwidth-Efficient Dissemination Scheme of Non-Safety Information in Urban VANETs

by Estrella Garcia-Lozano, Celeste Campo, Carlos Garcia-Rubio and Alicia Rodriguez-Carrion

Sensors 2016, 16(7), 988; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16070988 - 27 Jun 2016

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5775

Abstract

The recent release of standards for vehicular communications will hasten the development of smart cities in the following years. Many applications for vehicular networks, such as blocked road warnings or advertising, will require multi-hop dissemination of information to all vehicles in a region [...] Read more.

The recent release of standards for vehicular communications will hasten the development of smart cities in the following years. Many applications for vehicular networks, such as blocked road warnings or advertising, will require multi-hop dissemination of information to all vehicles in a region of interest. However, these networks present special features and difficulties that may require special measures. The dissemination of information may cause broadcast storms. Urban scenarios are especially sensitive to broadcast storms because of the high density of vehicles in downtown areas. They also present numerous crossroads and signal blocking due to buildings, which make dissemination more difficult than in open, almost straight interurban roadways. In this article, we discuss several options to avoid the broadcast storm problem while trying to achieve the maximum coverage of the region of interest. Specifically, we evaluate through simulations different ways to detect and take advantage of intersections and a strategy based on store-carry-forward to overcome short disconnections between groups of vehicles. Our conclusions are varied, and we propose two different solutions, depending on the requirements of the application. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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19 pages, 1011 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A MAC Protocol to Support Monitoring of Underwater Spaces

by Rodrigo Santos, Javier Orozco, Sergio F. Ochoa, Roc Meseguer, Gabriel Eggly and Marcelo F. Pistonesi

Sensors 2016, 16(7), 984; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16070984 - 27 Jun 2016

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5396

Abstract

Underwater sensor networks are becoming an important field of research, because of their everyday increasing application scope. Examples of their application areas are environmental and pollution monitoring (mainly oil spills), oceanographic data collection, support for submarine geolocalization, ocean sampling and early tsunamis alert. [...] Read more.

Underwater sensor networks are becoming an important field of research, because of their everyday increasing application scope. Examples of their application areas are environmental and pollution monitoring (mainly oil spills), oceanographic data collection, support for submarine geolocalization, ocean sampling and early tsunamis alert. The challenge of performing underwater communications is well known, provided that radio signals are useless in this medium, and a wired solution is too expensive. Therefore, the sensors in these networks transmit their information using acoustic signals that propagate well under water. This data transmission type not only brings an opportunity, but also several challenges to the implementation of these networks, e.g., in terms of energy consumption, data transmission and signal interference. In order to help advance the knowledge in the design and implementation of these networks for monitoring underwater spaces, this paper proposes a MAC protocol for acoustic communications between the nodes, based on a self-organized time division multiple access mechanism. The proposal was evaluated using simulations of a real monitoring scenario, and the obtained results are highly encouraging. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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16 pages, 769 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Behavioral Modeling Based on Probabilistic Finite Automata: An Empirical Study

by Cristina Tîrnăucă, José L. Montaña, Santiago Ontañón, Avelino J. González and Luis M. Pardo

Sensors 2016, 16(7), 958; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16070958 - 24 Jun 2016

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 5470

Abstract

Imagine an agent that performs tasks according to different strategies. The goal of Behavioral Recognition (BR) is to identify which of the available strategies is the one being used by the agent, by simply observing the agent’s actions and the environmental conditions during [...] Read more.

Imagine an agent that performs tasks according to different strategies. The goal of Behavioral Recognition (BR) is to identify which of the available strategies is the one being used by the agent, by simply observing the agent’s actions and the environmental conditions during a certain period of time. The goal of Behavioral Cloning (BC) is more ambitious. In this last case, the learner must be able to build a model of the behavior of the agent. In both settings, the only assumption is that the learner has access to a training set that contains instances of observed behavioral traces for each available strategy. This paper studies a machine learning approach based on Probabilistic Finite Automata (PFAs), capable of achieving both the recognition and cloning tasks. We evaluate the performance of PFAs in the context of a simulated learning environment (in this case, a virtual Roomba vacuum cleaner robot), and compare it with a collection of other machine learning approaches. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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16 pages, 4585 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Intelligent Parking Management System for Urban Areas

by Juan A. Vera-Gómez, Alexis Quesada-Arencibia, Carmelo R. García, Raúl Suárez Moreno and Fernando Guerra Hernández

Sensors 2016, 16(6), 931; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16060931 - 21 Jun 2016

Cited by 39 | Viewed by 16500

Abstract

In this article we describe a low-cost, minimally-intrusive system for the efficient management of parking spaces on both public roads and controlled zones. This system is based on wireless networks of photoelectric sensors that are deployed on the access roads into and out [...] Read more.

In this article we describe a low-cost, minimally-intrusive system for the efficient management of parking spaces on both public roads and controlled zones. This system is based on wireless networks of photoelectric sensors that are deployed on the access roads into and out of these areas. The sensors detect the passage of vehicles on these roads and communicate this information to a data centre, thus making it possible to know the number of vehicles in the controlled zone and the occupancy levels in real-time. This information may be communicated to drivers to facilitate their search for a parking space and to authorities so that they may take steps to control traffic when congestion is detected. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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20 pages, 325 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Activity Recognition Using Community Data to Complement Small Amounts of Labeled Instances

by Enrique Garcia-Ceja and Ramon F. Brena

Sensors 2016, 16(6), 877; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16060877 - 14 Jun 2016

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 6109

Abstract

Human Activity Recognition (HAR) is an important part of ambient intelligence systems since it can provide user-context information, thus allowing a greater personalization of services. One of the problems with HAR systems is that the labeling process for the training data is costly, [...] Read more.

Human Activity Recognition (HAR) is an important part of ambient intelligence systems since it can provide user-context information, thus allowing a greater personalization of services. One of the problems with HAR systems is that the labeling process for the training data is costly, which has hindered its practical application. A common approach is to train a general model with the aggregated data from all users. The problem is that for a new target user, this model can perform poorly because it is biased towards the majority type of users and does not take into account the particular characteristics of the target user. To overcome this limitation, a user-dependent model can be trained with data only from the target user that will be optimal for this particular user; however, this requires a considerable amount of labeled data, which is cumbersome to obtain. In this work, we propose a method to build a personalized model for a given target user that does not require large amounts of labeled data. Our method uses data already labeled by a community of users to complement the scarce labeled data of the target user. Our results showed that the personalized model outperformed the general and the user-dependent models when labeled data is scarce. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from UCAmI, IWAAL and AmIHEALTH 2015)

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