Search Results (14)

Composite laminates are widely used in aerospace, automotive, construction, and luxury industries, owing to their superior mechanical properties and design flexibility. However, detecting manufacturing defects and in-service damage remains a vital challenge for structural safety. While traditional unsupervised machine learning methods have been used in structural health monitoring (SHM), their high false positive rates limit their reliability in real-world applications. This issue is mostly inherited from their limited ability to capture small temporal variations in Lamb wave signals and their dependence on shallow architectures that suffer with complex signal distributions, causing the misclassification of damaged signals as healthy data. To address this, we suggested an unsupervised anomaly detection framework that integrates a self-attention autoencoder with a Gaussian mixture model (SAE-GMM). The model is solely trained on healthy Lamb wave signals, including high-quality synthetic data generated via a generative adversarial network (GAN). Damages are detected through reconstruction errors and probabilistic clustering in the latent space. The self-attention mechanism enhances feature representation by capturing subtle temporal dependencies, while the GMM enables a solid separation among signals. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed model (SAE-GMM) achieves high detection accuracy, a low false positive rate, and strong generalization under varying noise conditions, outperforming traditional and deep learning baselines. Full article

The integration of intelligent voice-control systems represents a critical pathway for enhancing driver comfort and reducing cognitive distraction in modern vehicles. Currently, voice assistants capable of accessing real-time vehicular data (e.g., engine parameters) or controlling actuators (e.g., door locks) remain exclusive to premium brands. While aftermarket solutions like Amazon’s Echo Auto provide multimedia functionality, they lack access to critical vehicle systems. To address this gap, we develop a novel architecture leveraging the OBD-II port to enable voice-controlled telematics and actuation in mass-production vehicles. Our system interfaces with a Toyota Hilux (2020) and Mazda CX-3 SUV (2021), utilizing an MCP2515 CAN controller for engine control unit (ECU) communication, an Arduino Nano for data processing, and an ESP01 Wi-Fi module for cloud transmission. The Blynk IoT platform orchestrates data flow and provides user interfaces, while a Voiceflow-programmed Alexa skill enables natural language commands (e.g., “unlock doors”) via Alexa Auto. Experimental validation confirms the successful real-time monitoring of engine variables (coolant temperature, air–fuel ratio, ignition timing) and secure door-lock control. This work demonstrates that high-end vehicle capabilities—previously restricted to luxury segments—can be effectively implemented in series-production automobiles through standardized OBD-II protocols and IoT integration, establishing a scalable framework for next-generation in-vehicle assistants. Full article

This study explores the recent emergence of traditional Korean houses and hanoks as markers of cultural capital in Seoul, South Korea. While the ownership of detached houses itself can be a symbol of wealth in Seoul, traditional-style houses have become increasingly associated with luxurious living, particularly after the successful remodeling of hanoks in metropolitan settings such as Bukchon in Seoul. This study employs the critical luxury studies method to analyze the recent rise in hanok construction/remodeling among elites, and illustrates how traditional architectural forms have become status markers. Although the regeneration of traditional houses in cities has been examined from the perspective of gentrification or touristic cultural consumption, less academic attention has been placed on the phenomenon from the perspective of the homeowners’ taste. This study examines how traditional architecture has become a form of acceptable luxury through a media analysis of published articles and interviews with the residents of hanoks. This study argues that protecting endangered traditions and rich sensory experiences function as important moralizing factors in luxury housing, indicating that sociocultural valuation becomes as significant as market valuation. Full article

Traditionally, studies analyzing consumer preferences in real estate have focused on measuring subjective user responses, neglecting associated physiological responses. This study investigates the relationship between visual attention patterns and subjective evaluations of home sales information. Eye-tracking technology was used to record two characteristics of 21 participants’ visual behavior while viewing stimuli containing information about home sales (First Fixation Time and Total Fixation Duration). Additionally, participants evaluated their level of satisfaction with nine dwelling characteristics based on a questionnaire adapted for this research (1, quality and finishes of the dwelling; 2, size of the dwelling; 3, dwelling floor level; 4, bright and outdoor orientation of the dwelling; 5, flexible layout; 6, peaceful atmosphere; 7, smart and secure character; 8, privacy; and 9, original and luxurious character). The results demonstrated significant correlations between fixation time on specific areas of the stimulus and subjective ratings of features such as size, quality, finishes, layout, and orientation of the homes. Furthermore, differences based on gender and participants’ architecture experience level were observed in visual behavior during image observation. These findings underscore the importance of visual design and presentation in home marketing, as visual attention can influence perceptions of home characteristics and, ultimately, purchase decisions. Full article

Ibiza is internationally known for its beaches and coves, but especially for its nightlife. In addition, at the beginning of the 21st century, there was an increase in luxury tourism. However, other types of tourism have a testimonial or null presence, although the administrations make efforts to promote them. This article describes the main assets that make up the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of Ibiza, its singularities, and the successes and errors in its management, using the case study methodology. The island’s heritage is made up of monuments, some of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites and others of great originality and archaism, rural settings, and elements of the local culture. Specifically, the cultural heritage of Ibiza can be divided into the following four assets: the old city of Ibiza; the rural architecture; the cultural landscapes; and the traditional folklore. The restoration of some assets such as the walls or the rural churches are successes in management, and the administrative obstacles to the owners of the preserved assets are considered errors. In conclusion, it should be noted that cultural heritage is not sufficiently well preserved and is a tourist offer that has not been adequately promoted. Full article

Existing product anti-counterfeiting and traceability solutions across today’s internationally spanning supply chain networks are indeed developed and implemented with centralized system architecture relying on centralized authorities or intermediaries. Vulnerabilities of centralized product anti-counterfeiting solutions could possibly lead to system failure or susceptibility of malicious modifications performed on product records or various potential attacks to the system components by dishonest participant nodes traversing along the supply chain. Blockchain technology has progressed from simply being a use case of immutable ledger for cryptocurrency transactions, to a programmable interactive environment of developing decentralized and reliable applications addressing different use cases globally. Key areas of decentralization, fundamental system requirements, and feasible mechanisms of developing decentralized product anti-counterfeiting and traceability ecosystems utilizing blockchain technology are identified in this research, via a series of security analyses performed against solutions currently implemented in supply chain industry with centralized architecture. The decentralized solution will be a secure and immutable scientific data provenance tracking and management platform where provenance records, providing compelling properties on data integrity of luxurious goods, are recorded and verified automatically across the supply chain. Full article

An interesting research problem in the supply chain industry is evaluating and determining the provenance of physical goods—demonstrating the authenticity of luxury goods such as bottled wine. However, many supply chain systems and networks have been built and implemented with centralized system architecture, relying on centralized authorities or any form of intermediary, and leading to issues such as single-point processing, storage and failure, which could be susceptible to malicious modifications to product records or various potential attacks to system components by dishonest participant nodes traversing along the supply chain. Blockchain technology has evolved from merely being a decentralized, distributed and immutable ledger of cryptocurrency transactions to a programmable interactive environment for building decentralized and reliable applications addressing different use-cases and existing problems in the world. In this research, with a chosen research method of proof-by-demonstration, the Decentralized NFC-Enabled Anti-Counterfeiting System (dNAS) is proposed and developed, decentralizing a legacy anti-counterfeiting system of the supply-chain industry using Blockchain technology to facilitate trustworthy data provenance retrieval, verification and management, as well as strengthening the capability of the product’s anti-counterfeiting and traceability qualities in the wine industry, with the capacity to further extend this to the supply chain industry as a whole. The proposed dNAS utilizes a decentralized blockchain network with a consensus protocol compatible with the concept of enterprise blockchain, programmable smart contracts and a distributed file storage system to develop a secure and immutable scientific-data provenance tracking and management platform on which provenance records, providing compelling properties of the data integrity of luxurious goods, are recorded, verified and validated automatically. Full article

The coastline of Western Pomerania has natural and cultural assets that have promoted the development of tourism, but also require additional measures to ensure the traditional features and characteristics are protected. This is to ensure that new developments conform to a more uniform set of spatial structures which are in line with the original culture. Today, seaside resorts are characterized by a rapid increase in development with a clear trend towards non-physiognomic architectural forms which continually expand and encroach on land closer to the coastline. This results in a blurring of the original concepts that characterized the founding seaside resort. This study evaluates 11 development projects (including a range of hotels, luxury residential buildings and hotel suites) built in 2009–2020 in the coastal area of Western Pomerania. An assessment of architecture-and-landscape integration for each development project was made, using four groups of evaluation criteria: aesthetic, socio-cultural, functional and locational factors. The study methodology included a historical and interpretative study (iconology, iconography, historiography) and an examination of architecture-and-landscape integration using a pre-prepared evaluation form. Each criterion was first assessed using both field surveys and desk research (including the analysis of construction plans and developer materials), and then compared with the original, traditional qualities of the town. This study demonstrates that it is possible to clearly identify the potential negative impact of tourism development on the cultural landscape of seaside resorts, and provides recommendations for future shaping, management and conservation of the landscape. Full article

Among the activities planned for the MUSAS Project, the digital reconstruction of the underwater sites constitutes a particular challenge, requiring strong cooperation between archaeologists and technicians. The case of the Villa dei Pisoni in Baiae, one of the richest in the Phlaegrean territory, is particularly interesting: the architectural remains, already documented in the 1980s and now inserted in one of the diving spots of the Underwater Park of Baiae, are disseminated on a huge surface, including quays, thermal complexes, a fishpond, and a large, luxurious viridarium. The effort required for the digital reconstruction of the ancient villa improved the previous knowledge and the lack of documentation even in a well-known site. In this paper, we will retrace the long path from the 3D reconstruction of the archaeological remains to the virtual architectural model of the villa, the numerous challenges, doubts, and uncertainties in the creation of the original spaces, and the support offered by the ancient sources, both literary and iconographic, in solving archaeological problems. Full article

With the advancement of technology, there is a growing need of classifying malware programs that could potentially harm any computer system and/or smaller devices. In this research, an ensemble classification system comprising convolutional and recurrent neural networks is proposed to distinguish malware programs. Microsoft’s Malware Classification Challenge (BIG 2015) dataset with nine distinct classes is utilized for this study. This dataset contains an assembly file and a compiled file for each malware program. Compiled files are visualized as images and are classified using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). Assembly files consist of machine language opcodes that are distinguished among classes using Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks after converting them into sequences. In addition, features are extracted from these architectures (CNNs and LSTM) and are classified using a support vector machine or logistic regression. An accuracy of 97.2% is achieved using LSTM network for distinguishing assembly files, 99.4% using CNN architecture for classifying compiled files and an overall accuracy of 99.8% using the proposed ensemble approach thereby setting a new benchmark. An independent and automated classification system for assembly and/or compiled files provides the luxury to anti-malware industry experts to choose the type of system depending on their available computational resources. Full article

A book review of Robin Schuldenfrei, Luxury and Modernism: Architecture and the Object in Germany 1900–1933 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018). This book challenges the canonical interpretation of two of the most revered institutions in the history of modern architecture—the Werkbund and the Bauhaus—and presents a critical interpretation of the relationship between modern architecture and luxury, which first appeared a generation ago. Full article

Many architects of the modern movement who, in theory, refused luxury nonetheless responded to the demand for it. Richard J. Neutra was one of them: Although he mostly rejected luxury in his writings, he gained fame for his skills in constructing luxurious residences. This paper explores how he handled such discrepancies. For this purpose, it relates his understanding of luxury to the German debates on the luxury of the interwar period and analyzes two of his most important expensive residences: the Lovell Health House (1927–1929) and the Kaufmann Desert House (1946–1947). It comes to the conclusion that Neutra took an intermediate position between socialist opponents and idealist proponents of luxury. While he acknowledged the importance of objectivity and scientific thinking and agreed to give priority to the improvement of the living conditions of the masses, he was nevertheless much interested in comfort, aesthetics, details, and individualization. Moreover, it draws attention to the fact that Neutra’s houses also reflected his clients’ relationship to luxury. The Kaufmanns asked for a luxurious background for leisure; the Lovells’ wanted a place for a disciplined life that lacked certain essential traits of luxury. Full article

This article explores the visual abundance found in a number of early projects by Leinweber, Yamasaki and Hellmuth (LYH) and Minoru Yamasaki and Associates (MYA), which stands in stark contrast to the austere character of architectural form during the interwar period. Although Yamasaki received his architectural training in the 1930s, he was neither a true modernist, nor a fully postmodern architect. His aesthetic, and his firm’s work, lies in the interstices between these two distinct architectural moments, in company with contemporaries Edward Durell Stone and Paul Rudolph, among others. The work of these architects embraced a kind of visual and formal excess but stopped short of approaching the playful linguistic games of postmodern architecture. With themes of visual and material excess in mind, I examine two early commissions from the U.S. federal government that put into play ideas of global exchange, power, and extravagance in architecture as the United States emerged as a major world power in the aftermath of World War II, including the U.S. Consulate in Kobe, Japan (1954–1955) and the Federal Science Pavilion at the Seattle World’s Fair (1962). Full article

Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin synthesized a modern crystallized interior within their Capitol Theatre design (1920–24) in Melbourne. The Capitol’s auditorium, a mine-like cavity, houses a constructed landscape, elucidating the link between architecture and geological references. Ornamented with prefabricated stepped plasterwork, the auditorium is inserted with opal-coloured light technologies. Through the concept of the “constructed landscape”, this article traces the garish luxury elements found within the Griffins’ Capitol auditorium to understand the design associations between Paul Scheerbart’s Expressionist writings on crystal-glass iconography and William Le Baron Jenney’s symbolic crystal cave. The Griffins’ architectural contribution to the Australian entertainment industry conveys both Jugendstil garden effects and Mesoamerican echoes through its elaborative prismatic ridges. Owing to its transcendental opal allusions, the Capitol’s auditorium shows a constructed landscape model and constitutes a form of garish luxury, exemplifying early Australian glamour. Full article