· international journal: interactive mobile technologies jim 5.2017 guest editorial special...

International Journal:Interactive Mobile Technologies

JIM

5.2017

Guest EditorialSpecial Focus: The Use of Emerging Technologies on the Internet of Every-thing

Special Focus PapersSustainability, Social Impact, Learning and Training Innovation in Online Experimentation

A Virtual PLC Environment for Assisting Automation Teaching and Learning

NSensor – Wireless Sensor Network for Environmental Monitoring

Sharing Online Experiments – An Excellent Opportunity for Networking of Higher Education Institutions

Enhancing a 3D Printer with Online Access

Technology and Innovation in Agricul-ture: The Azores Case Study

Development of a Tool to Perform Vehicle Road Tests

Industry 4.0 Concept: Background and Overview

Approach to Adapt a Legacy Manufac-turing System Into the IoT Paradigm

An Augmented Reality U-Academy Module: From Basic Principles to Connected Subjects

A Distance-learning Course on Indoor Environmental Comfort in Buildings

Regular PapersNon-Prescription Medicine Mobile Healthcare Application: Smartphone-based Software Design and Testing

Mobile Road Tra�c Management System Using Weighted Sensor

OmniColor – A Smart Glasses App to Support Colorblind People

The E�ect of Privacy Concerns on Smartphone App Purchase in Malaysia: Extending the Theory of Planned Behavior

Short PaperStudents' Attitudes Towards the Use of Mobile Technologies in e-Evaluation

Table of Contents—iJIM, Vol. 11, No. 5, 2017

Table of Contents Guest Editorial Special Focus: The Use of Emerging Technologies on the Internet of Everything ...................... 4 (Alberto Cardoso, Maria Teresa Restivo, Hélia Guerra, Luís Brito Palma)

Special Focus Papers Sustainability, Social Impact, Learning and Training Innovation in Online Experimentation ..... 6 (Mario A. Bochicchio, Lucia Vaira) A Virtual PLC Environment for Assisting Automation Teaching and Learning ........................ 12 (Luis Brito Palma, V. Brito, João Rosas, Paulo Gil) NSensor – Wireless Sensor Network for Environmental Monitoring ......................................... 25 (P. J. Sousa, R. Tavares, P. Abreu, M. Teresa Restivo) Sharing Online Experiments – An Excellent Opportunity for Networking of Higher Education Institutions .................................................................................................................. 37 (Radojka Krneta) Enhancing a 3D Printer with Online Access ............................................................................... 44 (T. F. Andrade, P. Abreu, M. T. Restivo, M. F. Chouzal, B. F. Santos, J. Rodrigues) Technology and Innovation in Agriculture: The Azores Case Study .......................................... 56 (E. L.D.G.S. Silva, C. M.M. Oliveira, A. B. Mendes, H. M.G.F.O. Guerra) Development of a Tool to Perform Vehicle Road Tests ............................................................. 67 (Manuel Gameiro Silva, Ahmet Gültekin, Eren Ünlütürk) Industry 4.0 Concept: Background and Overview ...................................................................... 77 (Andreja Rojko) Approach to Adapt a Legacy Manufacturing System Into the IoT Paradigm ............................. 91 (João Rosas, Vasco Brito, Luis Brito Palma, Jose Barata) An Augmented Reality U-Academy Module: From Basic Principles to Connected Subjects .. 105 (Paulo Menezes) A distance-learning Course on Indoor Environmental Comfort in Buildings ........................... 118 (Manuel Gameiro Silva, Luísa Dias Pereira, João A. Dias Carrilho, Joana Neto, Maria José Marcelino, Mário Mateus, Nelson Silva Brito, Sandra Pedrosa)

Regular Papers Non-Prescription Medicine Mobile Healthcare Application: Smartphone-based Software Design and Testing .................................................................................................................... 130 (Orawit Thinnukool, Pattaraporn Khuwuthyakorn, Purida Wientong) Mobile Road Traffic Management System Using Weighted Sensor ........................................ 147 (Solomon Adegbenro Akinboro, Johnson A Adeyiga, Adebayo Omotosho, Akinwale O Akinwumi) OmniColor – A Smart Glasses App to Support Colorblind People .......................................... 161 (Georg Lausegger, Michael Spitzer, Martin Ebner) The Effect of Privacy Concerns on Smartphone App Purchase in Malaysia: Extending the Theory of Planned Behavior .............................................................................. 178 (Zakariya Belkhamza, Mohd. Adzwin Faris Niasin)

Short Paper Students' Attitudes Towards the Use of Mobile Technologies in e-Evaluation ........................ 195 (Mostafa Al-Emran, Said A. Salloum)

iJIM ‒ Vol. 11, No. 5, 2017 3

Guest Editorial—The Use of Emerging Technologies on the Internet of Everything

Guest Editorial

The Use of Emerging Technologies on the Internet of Everything

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v11i5.7368

Alberto Cardoso CISUC, Dep. of Informatics Engineering, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

[email protected]

Maria Teresa Restivo LAETA-INEGI, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

[email protected]

Hélia Guerra NIDeS, Dep. of Informatics, FST, University of the Azores, Ponta Delgada, Portugal

[email protected]

Luís Brito Palma Dep. of Electrical Engineering, FCT, NOVA University of Lisbon, Caparica, Portugal

[email protected]

This Special Issue of iJIM aims to contribute with a diversified set of articles based on the works presented in the Experiment@ International Workshop 2016 “The Emerging Technologies on the Internet of Everything” – ETIoE’16 (http://expat.org.pt/other-events/workshop16/), held at University of the Azores (Pon-ta Delgada, Azores, Portugal).

In the era where the Internet of Things (IoT) has been experienced globally in dif-ferent contexts, the Internet of Everything (IoE) can be seen as the next paradigm in the evolution of smart objects, in which the boundary between the physical object and digital information about the object is blurred [1].

The Internet of Everything is a concept that involves technologies, applications, processes, things, data and people in an interdisciplinary framework where emerging and interactive mobile technologies and applications can give a relevant contribute.

Given the current trends in technology – the significant increase of technology use and the reduced cost of processing power, storage, and bandwidth; the rapid growth of cloud, social media, and mobile computing; the capacity to analyze Big Data and turn it into useful information and knowledge that can create new competences, richer experiences, and unprecedented economic opportunities for businesses, individuals, and countries; and an improved ability to combine technologies (both hardware and software) in powerful ways – it is possible to reach a large percentage of physical objects connected and to achieve more value of connectedness [2].

Emerging technologies are being used in many different contexts and with several approaches for societal benefit. Therefore, they can give an important contribute to strengthening the use of IoE in different areas, from education to global economy, including industry, agriculture, livestock, fisheries and sea, medicine and research [3].

4 http://www.i-jim.org

Guest Editorial—The Use of Emerging Technologies on the Internet of Everything

In this perspective, the Workshop “The Emerging Technologies on the Internet of Everything” – ETIoE’16 offered the opportunity to disseminate and share scientific works and projects on online experimentation and to develop collaborative work in emerging technologies on the context of the Internet of Everything (IoE), bringing together engineers and researchers from different areas.

ETIoE’16 offered a debating forum on the use of emergent technologies on IoE seeking, for example, to remote monitoring and data processing and analysis of to the discussion and evaluation of online resources for all, promoting the sharing perspec-tive and the collaborative use of meaningful online experimental contents either in learning and training contexts or in real life environments.

As a result of the two-day discussion forum, this Special Issue comprise 11 articles in different topics on the use of emerging technologies on IoE.

These contributions can be divided into two main groups, one in subjects related to education and another with examples of applications in different areas.

The former includes articles that show the importance of sharing online experi-ments, including remote and virtual labs, as an excellent opportunity for networking of higher education institutions and for demonstrating their social impact and sustain-ability.

The latter group comprises works of research and development in different applica-tion areas as agriculture, environment, industry, automobile, manufacturing systems and cyber-physical systems. The background and overview of industry 4.0 concept are also the goal of one of those works.

This work was partially supported by Government of the Azores through the Re-

gional Secretariat for the Sea, Science and Technology [Project M3.3.c/Edições/008/2016] and by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation under U-Academy project [Project 2015/2016 FCG-138259].

A word of gratitude is due to the reviewers - Alexander Kist, Alexander Zimin, Andreas Pester, Anna Friesel, Darko Hercog, Horácio Fernandes, Ignacio Angulo, Igor Titov, Javier Garcia-Zubia, José Sanchez Moreno, Juarez Bento da Silva, Katari-na Zakova, Luis de La Torre, Luís Gomes, Michael Callaghan, Mikulas Huba, Roder-val Marcelino, Ruben Heradio, Vilson Gruber and Zorica Nedic - and to José Couto Marques for the English language revision.

References

[1] Ashton, K (2009). That “Internet of Things” Thing: In the Real World Things Matter More than Ideas. RFID Journal, http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?4986.

[2] Selinger, M., Sepulveda, A., and Buchan, J. (2013). Education and the Internet of Every-thing - How Ubiquitous Connectedness Can Help Transform Pedagogy, CISCO Education IoE Whitepaper.

[3] ICC Commission on the Digital Economy (2016). ICC Policy Primer on The Internet of Everything, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

iJIM ‒ Vol. 11, No. 5, 2017 5

Special Focus Paper—Sustainability, Social Impact, Learning and Training Innovation in Online Exp…

Sustainability, Social Impact, Learning and Training Innovation in Online Experimentation


Mario A. Bochicchio!"!#, Lucia Vaira University of Salento, Lecce, Italy

mario.bochicchiounisalento.it

Abstract—Experimentation is an essential ingredient in any learning strate-gy about Sciences and Technologies (SciTech in the following). That is why the research on online experimentation is paramount to help confront the skill shortage in SciTech disciplines, by stimulating the development of more effec-tive online learning and training approaches. Nonetheless, in this sector "func-tional" aspects are often overrated by researchers and no specific attention is paid to the sustainability of their proposals or to the possibility to analyze and improve the achieved social impact. A better integration among these aspects is then essential to move online experimentation research out of its infancy, to improve its perceived value and to increase its diffusion.

Keywords—online experimentation, sustainability, social impact, online learn-ing, online training.

1 Requirements for Online Experimentations

In systems engineering, functional requirements define how systems react to a set of inputs to produce the desired outputs. However, functional correctness is necessary but not sufficient to define effective and successful systems, or even suitable ones. Horses, for example, are functionally perfect for transportation services, but not suita-ble and not effective in modern urban environments.

This concept applies well to the current status of online experimentation research [1] (OER from now on), which is able to exhibit the functional correctness and feasi-bility of a large number of valuable online experiments. However, nothing or little is said about their suitability, effectiveness or successfulness.

Several concepts and tools, borrowed from the business sector, can be usefully ex-ploited to find which non-functional aspects must be considered to transform "func-tioning" online experiments into effective and sustainable ones. For example, refer-ring to the suitability of the (possibly emerging) technologies adopted for a specific online experimentation, very useful conclusions can be drawn from the Hype Cycle [2]. Gartner's Group introduced it for providing a graphical representation of the ma-turity level, adoption degree and social application of the most relevant technologies at a given time. From the analysis of Figure 1, for example, we can see that "4D printers" are less mature and widespread than "volumetric displays" to represent some



phenomena, and that both of them are in a much less mature phase with respect to virtual reality, which is almost ready for large scale adoption and diffusion in 2016.

Fig. 1. Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies. Gartner. July 2016

It should be observed that Figure 1 represents a simplified view of the whole 2016's report [3], which includes more than 2000 technologies.

A detailed explanation about how to use such business report in innovation initia-tives, is out of the scope of this introductive paper but, in the opinion of the authors, this kind of considerations must become an essential part in any successful OER pro-posal. In this sense, referring to the specific topic of the "Experiment@ International Workshop 2016", which was "The Emerging Technologies on the Internet of Every-thing" [4] (IoE in the following), a second relevant source of information about non-functional requirements for online experimentation research is provided by the: "Nav-igating the IoE Roadmap of Challenges" report [5], published by "TM Forum" in 2016, which is a global association for digital business.

As we can easily deduct from the table of contents shown in Figure 2, this report is oriented to managers and not to researchers, but in order to produce effective and sustainable IoE experiments, the latter cannot overlook the main concerns (monetiza-tion, brand management, trust, vision, etc.) typically expressed by managers working in the IoE field. Not considering these concerns, researchers could produce solutions which turn out to be not suitable/acceptable for the common user, not compatible with the most widespread IoE devices or simply not available out of their lab.

iJIM ‒ Vol. 11, No. 5, 2017 7


Fig. 2. TM Forum Report on Internet of Everything 2016. Table of Contents

2 The Relevance of Business Models

As stated in the same TM Forum report, a third specific aspect to be considered for evaluating the sustainability of an OER solution, is the "business model" or, at least, a rough version of it. In research scenarios, this concept is not to be interpreted literally, i.e. by including earnings, profits, etc. Rather, it can be useful to define and describe the main involved stakeholders; the scenario (e.g. school, home, etc.) in which the solution should be considered; the main cost drivers (e.g. connectivity, maintenance cost, consumables, etc.) needed to deploy/operate it in a real context; the main goals to achieve; some ideas about competitors (if any) or alternative approaches to achieve the same goals. Particular attention should be focused also on how to build up a capa-ble and motivated partnership that is interested in the proposed solution.

It is worth to mention that even great OER solutions can fail, or remain socially ir-relevant, if these aspects are not taken into account.

Again, a complete description of how to design and implement a successful busi-ness model for OER solutions is out of the scope of this paper but it is worth to men-tion two methodologies, among others, named "business model canvas" [6] and "E3Value" [7], because of the quantity and quality of good literature and case descrip-tions available online in the field of technology innovation. The former methodology, initially proposed by Alexander Osterwalder [6] and based on his earlier work on Business Model Ontology, can be defined as a strategic management and lean startup template for developing or documenting business models. It is based on a visual chart with elements describing the firm's or product's value proposition, its infrastructure, customers and finances. An example is given in Figure 3, where a simplified version of the Google business model is represented.



Fig. 3. Business model canvas: simplified version of the Google business model

The latter methodology [7] stems from the conceptual modeling research field and it has been designed to help defining how value is created and exchanged within a network of actors, which can be very helpful for researchers working with online experimentation.

3 The Role of Social Innovation

As shown in Figure 4, around 40% of employers in Europe have experienced diffi-culties finding employees with the required skills [8]. The problem is even more pro-nounced in Japan and in India, where the need for technical skills is stringent. This lack of professional profiles with technical skills is commonly referred to as "skill shortage": it has a strong negative impact on our Society and requires to be confront-ed. For these and other relevant reasons, public funding programs are often adopted by advanced countries to stimulate the development of innovative learning and train-ing approaches, including online experimentation. On the other hand, these approach-es are likely to fail without synergic activities of social innovation [9]. As stated by Phills, Deiglmeier and Miller in their article for the Stanford Social Innovation Re-view, social innovation is: “a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals”. NESTA [10] defines social innovation as: “innovation that is explicitly for the social and public good. It is innovation inspired by the desire to meet social needs which can be ne-glected by traditional forms of private market provision and which have often been poorly served or unresolved by services organized by the state”.

iJIM ‒ Vol. 11, No. 5, 2017 9


Fig. 4. Skill Shortage in 2014

In this sense, online experimentation researchers should consider social innovation as an opportunity to design not only new learning/training activities, but also new social contexts in which such activities can be effectively carried out and can produce positive outcomes. The Social Innovation Learning Model, adopted by the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, gives useful hints and examples in this direction but, obviously, it should be noted that a research project integrating social innovation and new learning/training approaches can be really challenging to define and deploy, even for strong research groups.

Charter schools, in US, represent a real-life example in this sense, but there is a strong debate about their effectiveness and their overall results.

4 Conclusion

Online experimentation represents a stimulating and increasingly interesting re-search field, with several opportunities, even for small research groups.

A non-negligible risk is to produce good research results with irrelevant social im-pact.

To overcome this problem, a suitable set of non-functional elements should be considered to integrate the functional characteristics of online experiments and to support their adoption in real-life contexts.

Combining social innovation with online experimentation research, in this scenar-io, can be challenging, but results can be worth the effort.



5 References

[1] M.T.Restivo and A.Cardoso. Exploring Online Experimentation. International Journal of Online Engineering iJOE, Vol 9 (2013), pp. 4-6.

[2] F. Jackie and H.LeHong. "Hype cycle for emerging technologies, 2011" Gartner, July (2011).

[3] http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3412017. [4] http://expat.org.pt/other-events/workshop16/ [5] https://www.tmforum.org, "Navigating the IoE Roadmap of Challenges", May 2016 Edi-

tion. [6] A.Osterwalder,“The Business Model Ontology - A Proposition in a Design Science Ap-

proach”. PhD thesis University of Lausanne, (2004). [7] J. Gordijn and H. Akkermans.Value based requirements engineering: Exploring innovative

e-commerce ideas Requirements Engineering Journal, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 114-134, (2003). [8] http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/employment/getting-skills-

right-assessing-and-anticipating-changing-skill-needs_9789264252073-en#page1 [9] "Defining Social Innovation". Stanford Graduate School of Business.

https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/centers-initiatives/csi/defining-social-innovation.

[10] NESTA. Social Innovation: New approaches to transforming public services. January 2008. http://www.nesta.org.uk/sites/default/files/social_innovation.pdf

6 Authors

Mario A. Bochicchio (corresponding author) and Lucia Vaira are with the De-partment of Innovation Engineering, University of Salento, via Monteroni, sn - 73100, Lecce, Italy ([email protected], [email protected]).

Article submitted 27 April 2017. Published as resubmitted by the authors 06 June 2017.

iJIM ‒ Vol. 11, No. 5, 2017 11

Special Focus Paper—A Virtual PLC Environment for Assisting Automation Teaching and Learning

A Virtual PLC Environment for Assisting Automation Teaching and Learning


L. Brito Palma!"!#, V. Brito, J. Rosas and P. Gil Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

[email protected]

Abstract—In this paper, a virtual PLC environment aiming at assisting au-tomation teaching, learning and e-learning is proposed and discussed. The main contributions are a virtual PLC environment propped on a local and remote ap-plications, along with the comparison of two teaching and learning methodolo-gies, one local, while the other offers a remote interaction with the system. The proposed framework fits in the emerging technologies on the Internet of Every-thing, having the potential of promoting the integration and communication of virtual and real systems.

Keywords—Remote laboratory, automation, control, e-learning, programmable logic controller, structured text language.

1 Introduction

The current wave towards full globalization, along with the evolution of the web standards have fostered the development of remote teaching and learning/e-learning methodologies, which are paramount in these days. Remote applications allow stu-dents and researchers to have access from distant locations to essential laboratory environments, without attending practical classes or physical laboratories on-Campus, which is undoubtedly a great advantage to students or even researchers with lack of time or resources [1], [2].

This work presents a remote laboratory framework focused on automation courses, which provides users with a simulation environment for dynamic models (ARX) con-nected to a virtual Programable Logic Controller (PLC) and its programming based on Structured Text (ST).

2 State of the art

2.1 Remote Laboratories

The muddle surrounding remote labs and their definition has been passing on through the years. The nomenclature and concepts are extremely straightened in [3] and defined by Table 1.



Table 1. Laboratory environments

Nature of equipment

User access

Local Distant

Physical (Real) Hands-on lab Remote lab Virtual (Modelled) Virtual lab Distributed virtual lab

Experimentation in a physical laboratory is expensive due to the need of a number

of similar equipment items, and in addition it is costly to maintain. Simulators, virtual laboratories and remote laboratories provide a solution to some of these problems, while being available most of the time, and avoiding possible dangerous failure events. The remote lab concept also provides a tool for shifting towards a student-centric teaching approach, as recommended in the Bologna Process [4].

One of the resulting impacts of information and communication technologies has been the establishment of large educational networks, such as the European Schoolnet, MIT OpenCourseWare, iLab, and PROLEARN, along with many other individual and collaborative distance laboratory efforts all over the world [5].

The Internet and the World Wide Web allow an effective support for collaborative work, either on-line or in real-time. Most universities and some other institutions have their own e-learning environments ready to be remotely accessed through the Web, mainly on subject areas of Electronics, Mechanics, Physics, Chemistry and Control [4]-[9].

On the World Wide Web, few Web-Labs are found in the area of Automation, par-ticularly in the field of remote PLC programming. In this section, two different types of solutions are described and referenced, to exemplify, namely one using remote desktop (RDP) services, and others lacking RDP services. Most of the existing labora-tories are based on Remote Desktop Terminal Services using proprietary software from PLC manufacturers, and usually using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) for security reasons. One of the published works, using a graphical desktop with remote access via the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) supported by a Remote Desktop (Terminal Services) client [10], allows a user to remotely work with the Ladder (LD) programming language on a PLC Micrologix 1200. Another work [11], also using RDP services, allows users to remotely program a PLC M340 using five IEC pro-gramming languages (LD, IL, SFC, FBD, ST). Without relying on RDP services, a solution should have the PLC programming software on both sides (client side and server side), along with other software packages such as ".net framework", "vb.net", etc, as mention in [12]. Another solution without RDP services is described in [13], using Java language and LabView.

For years, WebLabs have been developed and maintained by university teach-ers/instructors and researchers, mainly physicists or control/electronic engineers. In the development of WebLabs not only technical issues should be taken into account, but also security, accessibility, usability, remote collaboration and multilingualism; so, the informatics and social aspects are both very important.

iJIM ‒ Vol. 11, No. 5, 2017 13


A comparison of different approaches for remote laboratories, with different soft-ware technologies on the server side and on the client side (HTML, Javascript, AJAX, PHP, Java, Matlab, Labview, Webservices, etc), can be found for instance in [11].

There are significant contributions regarding simulation for Industrial Automation. In the past, many simulators, virtual labs and remote Labs were developed around the world, mainly in universities [5], [14]–[17]. The five PLC programming languages according to IEC 61131-3 are [18]: Ladder (LD), Instruction List (IL), Sequential Function Chart (SFC), Function Block Diagram (FBD) and Structured Text (ST). There are a fair number of modelling and simulation tools for these languages. How-ever, few software programs exist for the generation and simulation of the ST lan-guage. One of them is the Simulink PLC Coder, which generates ST code from Sim-ulink models, state-flow charts and embedded Matlab functions. Others are proprie-tary PLC programming software provided by PLC manufacturers, such as Schneider Electric, Siemens, Omron, Rockwell, just to name a few.

In this paper, the main focus is on the Structured Text Programming language, where two PLC approaches are discussed: one based on a local application (client-side) and the other relying on a remote application (server-side).

3 Proposed Virtual PLC Framework

Two applications compose the proposed virtual PLC framework, namely a local environment and remote application.

The client’s local application high-level architecture consists of the elements shown in Figure 2 within the Application container. The ST Parser is where the code is interpreted and translated into C-code via a Dynamic-Link Library (DLL), the PLC chart allows to plot inputs and outputs from the PLC, and the System Graphical User Interface (GUI) is where the ARX dynamic model is defined.

The Web application takes advantage of the local application running the ST Parser implemented in it. The Web interface will be equipped with an authentication manag-er to allow only one user at a time, since only one local app is available and running on the server. It will save information about the users’ code in order to better under-stand the most common errors among students and also manages the input and output ports.

The Web programming follows the Model View Controller (MVC) architecture. The goal of the MVC design pattern is to isolate the user interface from the original data represented by the user interface.

In MVC the Views display the information to a user, the Controller is where the users’ interactions are processed, and the Model is where the information displayed in the View is contained and the logic that changes that information responding to the user interaction [19], [20]. Figure 1 shows this architecture.

With respect to the client local environment, this application allows simulating dis-crete-time ARX dynamic models, visualizing both analogue and digital input and output signals and simulating a virtual PLC (TSX3721 Schneider Electric) with sup-port to the ST programming language. All the interface is programed in C#.



Fig. 1. MVC architecture.

Fig. 2. High-level architecture.

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The virtual PLC allows the implementation of supervision tasks, enabling as well to record input and output data. The ST language supports the basic identifiers (con-stants, variables, I/O addresses, memories, timers, etc.), expressions (basic operators, logical operators, transitions detection, etc.) and statements (set/reset memories, start/stop timers, output assignments, if-then-else, etc.). The PLC GUI is shown in Figure 3 [21], [22].

As a PLC, the routine of the application is running repeatedly, commonly known as scan cycle. Figure 4 illustrates the scan cycle, where inputs are read into the PLC memory, the logical statements are executed and the results are provided to the out-puts.

The architecture of the simulator is presented in Figure 5 where all the components are connected and interoperable.

Fig. 3. Local virtual PLC framework graphical user interface.

Fig. 4. Application scan cycle [21].



The remote application is based on a Web client/server architecture, and presents similar functionalities to the local application, although it is still in a development stage and some of the functionalities are not ready yet, the System GUI and the login routine. This virtual PLC environment is an appropriate tool not only for local/remote teaching, but also for local/remote self-learning. Its main advantages are the ability to save feedback information collected from remote users' simulations and experiments, and can also be used as an interface with real remote processes and systems.

The implementation of the Web interface calls upon a MVC structure mentioned ealier and uses Html, Css and Bootstrap for the GUI, and its functionalities are im-plemented using JavaScript, JQuery and AJAX. Figure 6 shows the web interface with the PLC code input and the I/O ports.

Fig. 5. Local PLC application architecture.

Fig. 6. Virtual PLC web interface framework.

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The implemented virtual PLC environment not only allows users to learn Automa-tion concepts and ST programming, but also intuitively enables users to better under-stand dynamic systems and control theory/algorithms in open or closed loop modus operandi. For instance, Figure 7 illustrates a supervision/control architecture, which can be implemented in the virtual PLC [22].

The next section presents these concepts subsequently implemented and tested, where the virtual PLC environment and a control structure are simulated on a dynam-ic system.

Fig. 7. Example of supervision/control architecture of the PLC simulator.

Fig. 8. Web PLC application simulation.



4 Simulation Results

4.1 Local Application Simulation Results

The simulations carried out on the local application consisted in designing a simple ST code with a relay controller to control an ARX(2,2,1) model. The sampling time is 100ms.

Error! Reference source not found.Fig. 10Fig. 11show the simulation of the vir-tual PLC, as well as its components, namely the PLC chart and the system simulation. In the virtual PLC GUI running, one can observe the analogue ports changing accord-ing to the relay controller, which was implemented, as well as the number of read statements and the scan cycle loop time. The PLC chart (Fig. 10) allows the user to plot selected I/O ports of the virtual PLC. The system simulation (Fig. 11) contains the generic ARX(Na, Nb, Nk) parameters (following equation 1) with a maximum architecture size of (3, 2, 1) and the I/O ports of the system. The interface also allows a user to start and stop the simulation.

! ! ! !!! ! ! ! !!!!

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(1)

Fig. 9. PLC in Run mode.

iJIM ‒ Vol. 11, No. 5, 2017 19


Fig. 10. PLC chart showing the output and input of the system.

Fig. 11. PLC system representing the ARX(2,2,1) and the I/O.

4.2 Web Application Simulation Results

The web application was also simulated using the same relay controller pro-grammed in the local simulation, and applied to the same system. A remote user can have access to a similar GUI (Figure 8) with start/stop buttons to manipulate the vir-tual PLC state, the upload/download code, in order to send or receive code from the



local application running in the server, and can observe the I/O ports being manipulat-ed. A user can also observe the system’s I/O chart represented in Fig. 12, similarly to the graph presented in the PLC system GUI, by pressing the corresponding button.

The Web interface also incorporates a scan cycle timer, allowing the user to check whether the local application in the server is running the downloaded code.

Fig. 12. PLC chart regarding the system simulation.

5 Conclusions

A virtual PLC environment for assisting automation teaching and learning consid-ering discrete-event systems and ARX models, HMI panels, in a multitasking para-digm, was proposed and discussed. Architectures of the remote PLC Simulator (ver-sion w2.3) were described, emphasizing the parser for the ST language, and the PLC behaviour model, as well as the e-learning capabilities. The environment allows a user to implement open-loop or closed-loop controllers, while types of controllers can be programmed and tested. Performed simulations show that the PLC simulator works well with different kinds of systems, and has a great potential to be a relevant tool in learning/e-learning/teaching environments, as well as in industry. It is also intended to develop the tool up to a level in which it can be used in professional contexts. Addi-tionally, this tool could be further used for research purposes in the areas of Dynamic Systems, Control and Automation.

Although the work is far from complete, the client-side local application is already in tests, and being included in a lecture program. The Web interface is currently in a test phase and will, in a near future, be available to the scientific and industrial com-munity.

iJIM ‒ Vol. 11, No. 5, 2017 21


6 Acknowledgment

This work has been supported by Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Univer-sidade Nova de Lisboa, by Uninova-CTS research unit, by U-Academy project and by national funds through FCT Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia within the re-search unit CTS - Centro de Tecnologia e Sistemas (project UID/EEA/00066/2013). The authors would like to thank all the institutions.

7 References

[1] M. Latorre, A. Robles-Gómez, L. Rodríguez, P. Orduña, E. San Cristóbal, A. C. Caminero, L. Tobarra, I. Lequerica, S. Ros, R. Hernández, M. Castro, D. Lopez-de-Ipiña, and J. Gar-cía-Zubia, “A review of webapp authoring tools for e-learning,” IEEE Glob. Eng. Educ. Conf. EDUCON, April 2014, pp. 770–777, 2014.

[2] F. Lerro and S. Marchisio, “Preferences and uses of a remote lab from the students’ view-point,” Proc. 2015 Int. Conf. Interact. Collab. Learn. ICL 2015, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 854–857, 2015.

[3] D. Muller and H.-H. Erbe, “Collaborative Remote Laboratories in Engineering Education: Challenges and Visions,” Adv. Remote Lab. e-learning Exp., 2007.

[4] C. Samoila, S.G. Cosh and D. Ursutiu, “Competences, Remote Labs and Bologna Pro-cess,” in Advances on remote laboratories and e-learning experiences, 2007, pp. 63–96.

[5] L. F. D. S. Gomes and J. García Zubía, Advances on remote laboratories and e-learning experiences, vol. 6, 2007.

[6] J. Garcia-Zubia, D. López-de-Ipiña, and P. Orduña, “Mobile devices and remote labs in engineering education,” in Proceedings - The 8th IEEE International Conference on Ad-vanced Learning Technologies, ICALT 2008, 2008, pp. 620–622.

[7] M. T. Restivo and M.G. Silva, “Portuguese Universities Sharing Remote Laboratories,” Int. J. Online Eng., vol. 5, 16-19, 2009. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijoe.v5s2.1090

[8] C. Ferrater-Simon, L. Molas-Balada, O. Gomis-Bellmunt, N. Lorenzo-Martinez, O. Bayo-Puxan, and R. Villafafila-Robles, “A Remote Laboratory Platform for Electrical Drive Control Using Programmable Logic Controllers,” IEEE Trans. Educ., vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 425–435, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.2008.930095

[9] M. T. Restivo and A. Cardoso, “Online Experimentation in Education and Training,” Int. J. Eng. Pedagog., vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 52–56, 2014. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v4i2.3481

[10] K. C. V. Lasky, D. Liu, S. Murray, “A Remote PLC system for e-Learning,” Proc. ASEE / AAEE 4th Glob. Colloq. Eng. Educ. Aust., 2005.

[11] L. F. F. Brito Palma, F. Vieira Coito, A. Gomes Borracha, and J. Francisco Martins, “A Platform to Support Remote Automation and Control Laboratories,” 1st Exp. Int. Conf., pp. 17–18, 2011.

[12] I. Colak and A. Efe, “Design and implementation of a remote access PLC training set,” in International Aegean Conference on Electrical Machines and Power Electronics and Elec-tromotion, Joint Conference, 2011, pp. 425–429. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACEMP.2011. 6490636

[13] A. Safavi, A. A. Safavi, and P. Veisi, “A remote and virtual PLC laboratory via smartphones,” in 4th International Conference on e-Learning and e-Teaching (ICELET 2013), 2013, pp. 63–68. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICELET.2013.6681647



[14] L. Gomes and S. Bogosyan, “Current Trends in Remote Laboratories,” Ind. Electron. IEEE Trans., vol. 56, no. 12, pp. 4744–4756, 2009.

[15] J. Garcia-Zubia and G. Alves, Using Remote Labs in Education. 2011. [16] J. García-Zubía and O. Dziabenko, IT Innovative Practices in Secondary Schools: Remote

Experiments. 2013. [17] R. Langmann, “E-Learning & Doing in Training for Automation Engineers,” 2011. [18] J. Martins, C. Lima, H. Martinez, and A. Grau, “PLC Control and Matlab/Simulink Simu-

lations – A Translation Approach,” Matlab - Model. Program. Simulations, 2010. [19] A. Leff and J. Rayfield, “Web-application development using the model/view/controller

design pattern,” 2001. EDOC’01, Proc. 5th IEEE, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1109/EDOC. 2001.950428

[20] G. Krasner and S. Pope, “A description of the model-view-controller user interface para-digm in the smalltalk-80 system,” J. object oriented, 1988.

[21] L. B. Palma, J. A. Rosas, J. Pecorelli, and P. S. Gil, “Simulation of structured text lan-guage for PLC programming,” exp.at 2015 - 3rd Exp. Int. Conf. Online Exp., pp. 296–301, 2015.

[22] L. F. F. Brito Palma, J. A. Rosas, J. Pecorelli, and P. Sousa Gil, “Structured Text Simulator for PLC in Learning Environment,” 2015.

8 Authors

L. Brito Palma (corresponding author) received his PhD in Electrical Engineer-ing in 2007 from NOVA University of Lisbon (UNL) - Faculty of Sciences and Tech-nology (FCT), where is currently Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineer-ing, and Researcher at Uninova-CTS Research Institute, Caparica-Lisboa, Portugal. He worked at INETI Institute in the optoelectronics and laser areas, at INESC Insti-tute in the electronics and image processing areas, and in the Physics Department at UNL-FCT in the electronics area. Nowadays, his research interests are in automation, fault detection / diagnosis, intelligent fault tolerant control systems, industrial process control, aeronautical control systems and distributed systems. He has more than 100 publications, in international journals, conference proceedings and book chapters. (e-mail: [email protected]).

V. Brito received the MSc degree in electrical and computers engineering from NOVA University of Lisbon (UNL) - Faculty of Sciences and Technology (FCT), Portugal in 2016. In 2013 he has worked in the electronics area, for instance the de-velopment of audio tube power amplifiers. In 2014 he developed and implemented PID industrial controllers embedded in microcontrollers. In 2015 he participated in a national Siemens contest with a project entitled "Hybrid System of Distributed Auto-mation", regarding distributed automation and fault tolerant control systems, reaching the final stage. He is currently a Researcher at Uninova-CTS Research Institute, Capa-rica - Lisboa, Portugal, in the areas of dynamical signals and systems, intelligent fault tolerant control systems, aeronautical systems, multi-rotors drones and more recently Internet of Things. ([email protected]).

J. Rosas received his PhD in Electrical Engineering in 2010 from NOVA Universi-ty of Lisbon, Portugal, where is currently Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering. His research interests are in Real-time Systems, Robotics, Internet of

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Things, and Simulation of Distributed Manufacturing systems. He has several publi-cations in international journals, conference proceedings and book chapters. He has been participating as team member in several European Commission funded research projects. ([email protected]).

P. Gil received his PhD in Electrical Engineering in 2004 from NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal, where is currently Professor at the Department of Electrical En-gineering. His research interests are in distributed systems, intelligent control systems, fault tolerant control and resilient networked control systems over heterogeneous networks. He has more than 120 publications, in international journals, conference proceedings and book chapters, and is active on program committees of many of the well-established conferences and workshops. Additionally, he is a Fellow of the IEEE Control Systems Society. ([email protected]).



Special Focus Paper—NSensor – Wireless Sensor Network for Environmental Monitoring

NSensor – Wireless Sensor Network for Environmental Monitoring


P. J. Sousa!"!#, R. Tavares, P. Abreu and M. T. Restivo University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

[email protected]

Abstract—This paper reports the development and integration of a wireless sensor network for environmental monitoring. The main goals of this system include modularity, low power consumption and ease of expansion. The system includes three main elements: sensor nodes, gateways and a server. Each sensor node can only connect to a gateway, resulting in a star network layout. Data collected from the different sensor nodes is stored in a database within the serv-er. A web-based user interface for this system was developed and made availa-ble online.

Keywords— environmental monitoring, instrumentation, internet of things, wireless sensor network.

1 Introduction

In recent years, there has been an increase in the variety of usages for sensor sys-tems, from industrial control and environmental monitoring to agriculture and medi-cine.

These sensors have increased precision and resolution as well as featuring smaller sizes and lower power consumption. This makes their use in intelligent systems more interesting.

Sensors with processing and communication capabilities are one of the key ele-ments of the Internet of Things and are commonly known as smart sensors.

Smart sensors are usually integrated in wireless sensor networks (WSN), based on the combination of multiple sensors in different locations with wireless communica-tion infrastructure and software data processing. In this way, the system can monitor and record the evolution of several parameters. Commonly monitored parameters include temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, illuminance, sound level, power consumption, chemical concentration and body health signals.

Wireless sensor networks are used in various fields, such as environmental moni-toring [1, 2], health [3, 4], sports [5, 6], surveillance [7], acoustics [8], industrial equipment monitoring [9, 10] and in engineering education [11]. A WSN usually involves three main components: sensor nodes, gateways and a main server. The latter is responsible for the storage of the acquired data, as well as for making the data available to the users. Gateways receive the data measured by the sensor nodes

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through wireless communication and route it to the main server. Alternatively, the nodes may also connect to each other, creating a multi-hop network. In this type of solution, the data will go through several nodes before reaching a gateway, increasing the network’s range but also the power consumption in the middle nodes.

This work comes as the result of teaching and research activities in the instrumen-tation for measurement field and its integration in mechatronic systems. This created the need to have a monitoring system that allows the integration of different sensor types, both sensors with digital interfaces and purely analog sensors, and that can be easily expanded, integrating new sensors and new features.

Academic monitoring solutions often involve the use of Arduino, Raspberry Pi and other development boards [12-16]. However, the adopted solution is based on embed-ded custom electronics in order to maximize its integration potential in industrial-oriented solutions with mass market aims, while allowing the ease of expansion not found in commercial solutions. The developed system can be easily customized to integrate custom-built sensors for different purposes, being also a building platform for the development of other remote monitoring solutions [17].

These systems may be used for various teaching activities in distinct areas, such as instrumentation for measurement, control, mechatronics, civil engineering and ther-modynamics fields. The system may also be used as a tool for data mining, the inter-disciplinary field of computer science. They enable the study of the variations that environmental parameters experience depending on external conditions, allowing, for example, the evaluation of buildings’ conditions, highlighting the influence of the building materials, design approaches and predicting seasonal or periodic disturb-ances.

2 Development of a Wireless Sensor Network

The NSensor wireless sensor network adopts a star network layout and includes the typical three main elements of a WSN (Figure 1):

• Sensor Node: acquires sensor data and routes it to the server through the gateway; • Gateway: routes the data from the wireless sensor nodes to the server using a phys-

ical Ethernet connection. It is also capable of routing packets in the opposite direc-tion;

• Server: gathers the data from each sensor node, storing it in a database. It is also capable of sending commands to the sensor nodes through the gateway.

The developed system uses embedded electronics based on microcontrollers from Microchip Technologies and implements standard communication protocols, namely MiWi as the wireless protocol between the sensor nodes and the gateway and Ether-net/HTTP as the wired protocol used between the gateways and the server. The main reason for choosing this technology is its low power consumption, as well as the au-thors’ familiarity with the solutions provided by Microchip Technologies.



Fig. 1. Architecture of the NSensor wireless sensor network

2.1 Sensor node

The sensor nodes are, as previously stated, the system components responsible for data acquisition. Different sensors can be integrated within the same sensor node in order to measure different environment parameters, leading to customized sensor nodes. They acquire the data from the multiple sensors and transmit it to the server through the gateways. The nodes will attempt a limited number of retries to send information in case there are communication problems. If unsuccessful, the node will try to communicate once again one second later.

The sampling period of each sensor node can be defined by the user through the server’s interface. The period is maintained using the microcontroller’s Real-Time Clock and Calendar (RTCC) module and allows periods ranging from one second to one day.

The developed firmware is capable of automatically detecting the presence of the different sensors on boot and adjusting its behaviour accordingly. For example, if the node concludes that a particular sensor is not present, it will not attempt to communi-cate with it anymore and will not power up any related circuitry.

Currently, five different sensors have already been implemented in the NSensor system, allowing the measurement of seven parameters. These implemented sensors and measured parameters are listed in Table 1.

Each sensor readings are treated as individual parameters. So, since both the AM2320 and the BMP180 are capable of supplying temperature information, the system reports two different temperature values, one for each sensor, instead of aver-aging the readings.

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Table 1. Sensors already implemented in the NSensor system

Sensor Manufacturer Measured parameters Output type

AM2320 Aosong Electronics Temperature, Relative Humidity I2C

BMP180 Bosch Sensortec Temperature, Atmospheric Pressure I2C

VT935G Excelitas Technologies Illuminance Analog ML8511 Lapis Semiconductor UV intensity Analog iAQ-core ams AG CO2 and VOC (equivalents) I2C

The communication between the sensor node and the gateway can use up to 60

bytes of data, including tags for each measured parameter. The system also records other parameters, namely the battery level and the last communication’s link quality (LQI, Link Quality Indicator) and signal strength (RSSI, Received Signal Strength Indicator). These last two parameters and the source node MAC address are added to every frame sent by the gateways to the server.

As such, a single node can currently monitor up to 8 parameters:

• Temperature; • Relative Humidity; • Atmospheric Pressure; • Illuminance; • UV light intensity; • Carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalents; • Volatile organic components (VOC) equivalents; • Battery level.

The enclosure of the sensor node was designed to resemble clouds. Two major ver-sions of this enclosure were developed. The first one, Figure 2 (a), is only operable using batteries and does not feature support for the iAQ-core sensor. The other enclo-sure, Figure 2 (b), can be operated using either batteries or a mini-USB connection and features support for this sensor.

The user interacts with these nodes through a tactile switch placed on its back, and receives feedback through a blue LED that will turn on when the device is active (during the startup procedure and sensor sampling) and off when the device is inactive (powered off or sleeping).

2.2 Gateway

The gateways are responsible for routing the data acquired by the sensor nodes to the main server. Their main task involves receiving packets though the MiWi wireless protocol and sending them to the main server through its Ethernet interface using HTTP. Furthermore, they are also capable of routing information from the server to a specific node, which can be used, for example, to define the sensor node sampling period.



A gateway will use DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) by default to configure the network, but can fallback to static IP configurations, as well as being reconfigurable by the user. If the need arises, there is a reset button that can be pressed for four seconds on boot to reset the network configuration of the module.

Even though the use of WiFi could remove the need for gateways, the MiWi wire-less protocol was the chosen option, mainly due to its lower power consumption. This wireless protocol is based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard that was developed for low-data-rate, low-power and low-complexity radio frequency transmissions [18]. As such, protocols based on this standard are the most interesting for this particular ap-plication.

MiWi can operate in multiple radio frequencies, the most common being 2.4 GHz. This protocol “offers a significantly smaller foot-print relative to the open standard based ZigBee® compliant protocol stack” [19].

This, allied with its integration into Microchip’s products, such as the selected an-tenna IC (MRF24J40) made MiWi the chosen wireless protocol for this system.

The enclosure of the gateways feature a similar design to the sensor nodes, Figure 3. The main distinguishable design feature of this enclosure are the openings on the front that resemble the typical wireless symbol, included to improve air circulation in this module. The gateways need an external power adapter.

(a) (b)

Fig. 2. (a) First version of the sensor node enclosure (b) Latest version of the sensor node enclosure (powered by its USB connection)

Fig. 3. Gateway enclosure

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2.3 Server

The last major component of the NSensor system is the Server. The current imple-mentation makes use of an open-source solution using a Linux-based Apache HTTP Server with a MySQL database management system.

The server-side scripting language is PHP. The system was tested with several ver-sions, namely 5.4, 5.6 and 7.0.

3 User Interface

The user interface is made available through a collection of web pages developed for this specific purpose.

Fig. 4. Main page of the NSensor website on 7 October 2016 [21]



The main page, Figure 4, includes a graph of the data acquired in the last 24 hours by a particular node, as well as the values and timestamp from the latest sample. The device’s name and location are also featured and support HTML code, enabling the use of hyperlinks.

The user can change devices using the combo-box in the upper right corner of the content panel. This page will continuously check for updated data, in order to display the latest values available.

The graphs are powered by Highcharts [20] and allow enabling and disabling par-ticular series of data with automatic rescaling of the remaining data. This allows the usage of a single Y axis without losing usability due to differences in scale between parameters.

In the main page’s case, some parameters are hidden by default, such as the battery level, UV radiation intensity and atmospheric pressure. This framework also enables the user to export the graph as an image.

Additional functionality is limited to registered users, through the login page, even though registration is open to anyone. Every user is capable of accessing and export-ing the nodes’ data. However, only administrators can edit devices.

Upon login, the users are returned to the main page, enabling access to the list of sensor nodes that are present in the system, as well as their most important details, such as sampling interval, alarm status, MAC address and the respective gateway’s IP address.

For each sensor node, there is a details page, Figure 5, where users are presented additional information about the sensors.

On the top right, there is a graphical representation of the node battery level and signal strength. This information is updated after each successful communication from the node. For administrators, there is an additional button, enabling access to the device edit popup, Figure 6, where it is possible to edit the name, location, sampling interval and alarms.

Any changes made to the sampling interval are only made effective after the node’s next communication. That is, if the sampling interval is currently set to 10 minutes and the user changes it to 30 seconds, the new sampling interval will only be applied when the current 10 minute period ends.

The alarms allow the user to set a maximum value, a minimum value or both, with hysteresis for each measured parameter. If the measured parameters exceed the alarm ranges defined by the user, an alarm entry will be added into the Alarm Status on the device details page. These alarms are currently website-only, but can be easily ex-panded, enabling email and other types of warning system activation.

The details page also includes a list of the parameters monitored by this particular node. Each parameter has a related popup page, Figure 7, listing the main characteris-tics of the sensor, as well as any datasheet available for it.

Another important feature of this page is the log view setup, where the user can se-lect which sensor data to analyze and the time interval to consider. This loads a new webpage, Figure 8, which presents the selected information as a graph and enables the download of a file in csv format containing this data.

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Fig. 5. Device details page for the NSensor node 2 [21]

Fig. 6. Example of the device edit popup [21]



Fig. 7. Example of a sensor details popup for the temperature parameter of the BMP180 sensor

[21]

Fig. 8. Log results page for node 2’s temperature and relative humidity from 15 August 2016

to 21 August 2016 [21]

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4 Conclusion

A Wireless Sensor Network for environmental monitoring was developed, proto-typed and integrated in an information system. It has been fully operational since May 2016.

Multiple nodes with different sensors were developed, being capable of currently monitoring up to eight parameters each.

The sensor node operated with four AAA batteries has an estimated autonomy of up to twenty months if the sensors are sampled every ten minutes and the iAQ-core is not included. So far, one of the modules has been in continuous operation for five months. The power consumption of each sensor node in sleep mode is typically 50 µA.

Regarding communication distance, two tests were performed in order to verify the working range of the system. In open field, the working range was tested up to 35 meters without packet loss. Theoretically, the communication in this conditions should be stable up to 100 meters. Another test, currently under way, involves one sensor node located around twenty five meters away from the gateway with two con-crete walls in between. It is fully functional, even though it has occasional dropped packets. Tests are still under way to identify the performance of the communication. Preliminary results show that in a period of 48 hours the server received all planned samples (one sample each 10 minutes), although it was verified that the sensor node had to resend the information in four occasions. The system has now been working for 7 months straight.

The developed system is based on custom embedded electronics with low power consumption and ease of expansion in order to facilitate its potential usage in indus-trial applications.

The first custom-built sensor for this platform, a thermistor-based thermo-anemometer for low air velocities in indoor environment, was developed and is cur-rently under evaluation.

The user interface for this system was also developed and uses open-source server solutions to allow remote access to the information and an alarm management system through a web server.

This system allows the remote measurement of environmental parameters, enabling the remote study of related phenomena, such as the influence of either seasonal or periodic disturbances on the measured environmental parameters. One prototype is currently under use for the environment study of rooms in Mediterranean buildings within ADAI, University of Coimbra, and a few others will integrate small scale building prototypes in a European project in the civil engineering area.

5 Acknowledgment

Authors gratefully acknowledge the funding of Project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000022 - SciTech - Science and Technology for Competitive and Sustainable Indus-tries, cofinanced by Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (NORTE2020),



through Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER). This work was also funded by Project LAETA - UID/EMS/50022/2013 and project U-Academy from Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

6 References

[1] E. Kanagaraj, L. M. Kamarudin, A. Zakaria, R. Gunasagaran, and A. Y. M. Shakaff, "Cloud-based remote environmental monitoring system with distributed WSN weather sta-tions," in SENSORS, 2015 IEEE, 2015, pp. 1-4.

[2] L.-w. Chen, "Network Service Method under Cloud Environment of Wireless Sensor Net-works in Disaster Situation," Int. Journal of Online Engineering (iJOE), vol. 12, no.11, pp. 16-21, 2016. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijoe.v12i11.6231

[3] R. Gnanavel, P. Anjan[a, K. S. Nappinnai, and N. P. Sahari, "Smart home system using a Wireless Sensor Network for elderly care," in 2016 Second International Conference on Science Technology Engineering and Management (ICONSTEM), 2016, pp. 51-55. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICONSTEM.2016.7560922

[4] K. Young Hwan, J. Kuk-Jin, L. Seung-chul, P. Chang Won, and Y. Hee Yong, "A robust wearable health monitoring system based on WSN," in 2013 IEEE 10th Consumer Com-munications and Networking Conference (CCNC), 2013, pp. 288-293. https://doi.org/10.1109/CCNC.2013.6488460

[5] S. Haw-Yun, I. H. Chen, and O. Chung-Ming, "A WSN-based health and tracking system for green cyclist community," in Heterogeneous Networking for Quality, Reliability, Secu-rity and Robustness (QSHINE), 2015 11th International Conference on, 2015, pp. 416-421.

[6] J. Waldo, "Embedded computing and Formula One racing," IEEE Pervasive Computing, vol. 4, pp. 18-21, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1109/MPRV.2005.56

[7] R. Bellazreg, N. Boudriga, and S. An, "Border surveillance using sensor based thick-lines," in The International Conference on Information Networking 2013 (ICOIN), 2013, pp. 221-226. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICOIN.2013.6496380

[8] M. Zappatore, A. Longo, M. A. Bochicchio, D. Zappatore, A. A. Morrone, and G. D. Mi-tri, "Mobile Crowd Sensing-based noise monitoring as a way to improve learning quality on acoustics," in 2015 International Conference on Interactive Mobile Communication Technologies and Learning (IMCL), 2015, pp. 96-100. https://doi.org/10.1109/IMCTL. 2015.7359563

[9] E. Sisinni, A. Depari, and A. Flammini, "Design and implementation of a wireless sensor network for temperature sensing in hostile environments," Sensors & Actuators: A. Physi-cal, vol. 237, pp. 47-55, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2015.11.012

[10] L. Hua, X. Da, Z. Jian, and Z. Fuquan, "Design of a State Monitoring System for Equip-ment based on the Zigbee Wireless Sensor Network," International Journal of Online En-gineering, Vol 12, No 06, pp. 20-23, 2016. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijoe.v12i06.5516

[11] M. A. Bochicchio and A. Longo, "Delivering collaborative web labs as a service for engi-neering education," International Journal of Online Engineering (iJOE), Vol 8, No 2, pp. 4-10, 2012.

[12] Y. Zhang and F. Han, "Embedded Spectrum Sensor Network Architecture and Transmis-sion Medium Test Based on TCP/IP," International Journal of Online Engineering, Vol 12, No05, pp. 38-42 2016. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijoe.v12i05.5734

[13] D. I. S!c!leanu, L. A. Peri"oar!, L. #ucu, and R. Stoian, "Practical implementation of a Wireless Sensor Network for a Virtual-MIMO transmission scenario," in 2016 Interna-

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tional Conference on Communications (COMM), 2016, pp. 481-484. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICComm.2016.7528281

[14] M. S. Kumar, T. R. Chandra, D. P. Kumar, and M. S. Manikandan, "Monitoring moisture of soil using low cost homemade Soil moisture sensor and Arduino UNO," in 2016 3rd In-ternational Conference on Advanced Computing and Communication Systems (ICACCS), 2016, pp. 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICACCS.2016.7586312

[15] M. A. Miah, K. Mir Hussain, M. S. R. Tanveer, and M. A. H. Akhand, "Continuous heart rate and body temperature monitoring system using Arduino UNO and Android device," in Electrical Information and Communication Technology (EICT), 2015 2nd International Conference on, 2015, pp. 183-188.

[16] M. Ibrahim, A. Elgamri, S. Babiker, and A. Mohamed, "Internet of things based smart en-vironmental monitoring using the Raspberry-Pi computer," in Digital Information Pro-cessing and Communications (ICDIPC), 2015 Fifth International Conference on, 2015, pp. 159-164.

[17] M. T. Restivo et al. (2016). Remotelab - Online Experimentation @ FEUP. Available: https://remotelab.fe.up.pt/

[18] "IEEE Standard for Local and metropolitan area networks--Part 15.4: Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPANs)," IEEE Std 802.15.4-2011 (Revision of IEEE Std 802.15.4-2006), pp. 1-314, 2011.

[19] Microchip Technology Inc. (2016, 29 Nov. 2016). MiWi Protocol. Available: http://www.microchip.com/design-centers/wireless-connectivity/embedded-wireless/miwi-protocol

[20] Highsoft AS. (2016, 7 Oct. 2016). Highcharts. [21] P. Sousa, J. Rodrigues, P. Abreu, and M. T. Restivo. (2016). NSensor - WSN for environ-

ment monitoring. Available: https://remotelab.fe.up.pt/nsensor/nsensor.php

7 Authors

P. J. Sousa (corresponding author), R. Tavares, P. Abreu and M. T. Restivo are with the LAETA/INEGI research center and with Faculty of Engineering of Uni-versity of Porto, Porto, Portugal ([email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]).

Article submitted 31 October 2016. Published as resubmitted by the authors on 05 December 2016.


Special Focus Paper—Sharing Online Experiments – An Excellent Opportunity for Networking of High…

Sharing Online Experiments – An Excellent Opportunity for Networking of Higher Education Institutions


Radojka Krneta University of Kragujevac, Cacak, Serbia [email protected]

Abstract—The opportunity for networking of higher education institutions (HEIs) by networking of their remote laboratories (RLs) is considered in this paper. Several important issues regarding successful HEIs networking by net-working of their RLs are highlighted and resulted from a round table discussion during Experiment@ International Workshop 2016 “The Emerging Technolo-gies on the Internet of Everything “ -ETIoE’16.

Keywords—networking of higher education institutions, network of remote la-boratories, sharing online resources

1 Introduction

In today’s age of global knowledge and technology, networking and global aware-ness are increasingly viewed as major and sought-after assets. Internationalisation of a higher education institution (HEI) is a driver for change and improvement – it should help generate the skills of graduates required in the 21st century. One of the main goals of internationalising HEIs is to provide the most relevant education to students, who will be the citizens, entrepreneurs and scientists of tomorrow [1]. HEI by its internationalisation may gain own a worldwide reputation, as well as a foothold in the international higher education community, and rise to meet the challenges associated with globalization. Additionally, internationalisation enables HEIs to increase national and international visibility, leverage institutional strengths through strategic partner-ships, enlarge the academic community within which to benchmark their activities, mobilize internal intellectual resources, add important, contemporary learning out-comes to student experience and develop stronger research groups.

Today higher education is becoming more internationalised and increasingly in-volves intensive networking among HEIs, scientists, students and with other actors such as industry. Networking in higher education offers an excellent opportunity for promoting innovation and international collaborations, sharing experiences, highlight-ing the challenges, lessons learned, good practice and facilitation of cross-cultural and multidisciplinary dialogue. Thematic networks, like EIE- Surveyor [2] could enhance the attractiveness of the European Research Area, the links with industry, and partici-pate in the continuous evolution of higher education in Europe.

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Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can be instrumental in better articulating the internationalisation process by networking and can actually contribute towards a qualitative change in it. ICT may offer new educational and research oppor-tunities at a lower cost and with more flexibility, irrespective of physical location of HEIs. ICT enables virtual internationalisation, which can increase access and choice, as well as help mitigate brain drain, a critical concern for less developed countries [1].

Remote Laboratories (RLs) represent an excellent opportunity for one HEI to net-work and collaborate with other HEIs. By networking of their RLs, educational insti-tutions will be able to afford better facilities for the education they provide, access the best lab facilities in other institutions, and substantially broaden the number of lab study items in their curriculum. RLs represent new opportunities for distance learning, in particular within the engineering and science disciplines, where hands-on experi-ence is regarded as essential to acquire practical knowledge and skills.

One such important issue is integrating individual RLs on a network of RLs, which not only increases the pool of shared educational recourses and extends the laboratory base of individual HEIs by experiments aimed at related science fields, but also re-moves distance barriers and provides students and researches in one country with the opportunity to collaborate on laboratory experiments and projects with students and researches in other countries. The emerging importance of this attribute of network of RLs is seamlessly coupled with the emerging need for engineering graduates to be prepared to work within the modern collaborative international industrial environment [3].

RL networking is an integrated solution merging technical and pedagogical frame-works to support remote experimentation [4]. Technically, a RL network should be supported by an effective platform for RLs interconnection and sharing between dif-ferent educational and scientific institutions. [5]. There are several known platforms for remote lab sharing like MIT iLab, ReLAX, LabShare, and WebLab-Deusto, or indexing systems as lab2go or Library of Labs (LiLa), but new ones continuously arise (NeReLa, GOLDi, Labicom, REMLABNET, iSES, LabsLand). Some chalenges and actions taken for interconnecting the NeReLa network with other EU networks of remote engineering labs are highlighted [6].

The NeReLa network has been established among the biggest four state universi-ties in Serbia within the ongoing Tempus project NeRela [7]. Project partners agreed to share remote experiments from their laboratories as joint educational and research resources, enabling exchange of experiences regarding the introduction of innovative teaching methods in engineering education. One of the objectives of the NeReLa project is to include the formed network of remote engineering laboratories into the already established network of remote engineering laboratories in EU, in order to spread European Engineering Community of Practice, as well to boost the interna-tionalisation of Serbian universities.

Beside remote experiments, the internet of everything also includes online virtual experiments, online virtual and augmented reality experimentation and sensorial de-vices [8]. All these kinds of online experimentation open a wide spectrum of possibili-ties to improve the education quality level and could also be networked, making a network of online experiments.



In order for a network of online experiments to be an excellent opportunity for networking of HEIs, the aims and objectives of RLs network have to meet networking mission statements defined by joint agreement of the involved HEIs. Those and other open questions concerning networking RLs as further online labs were discussed during a round table discussion at Experiment@ International Workshop 2016 “The Emerging Technologies on the Internet of Everything“ - ETIoE’16 [9].

2 Sharing Online Experiments as an instrument for Networking of Higher Education Institutions – Important Issues

During the round table discussion at Experiment@ International Workshop 2016 “The Emerging Technologies on the Internet of Everything“ - ETIoE’16, several issues were considered regarding successful HEIs networking by networking of their RLs. Several aspects of RLs network establishment and its sustainable activity were highlighted.

2.1 Joint projects as a way for funding RLs network establishment

There are many examples of funding RLs network through joint projects of net-worked HEIs. During the project lifetime, providing funds for network establishment and work of qualified staff on hardware and software tasks is not a problem. But after the end of the project, the maintenance of RLs network and the provision of new high-quality resources is left without a source of funding. For that reason, the willingness of HEIs to keep established networks active is crucial. Management of HEIs should be aware of the importance of using remote experimentation in innovative teaching and also of the contribution of RLs network for institutional development and the build up of institutional brand.

One good example of HEIs networking by networking of their RLs is the estab-lishment of the NeReLa network within the ongoing Tempus project NeReLa. The rectors of the four biggest state universities in Serbia signed the agreement establish-ing the NeReLa network.

In terms of financial support, HEIs should also be aware of the complexity of RLs operation and therefore should be ready to set aside part of the funds for this purpose after the end of the project. In these terms the project should provide a sustainability strategy for attracting co-funding and other forms of project support for the benefi-ciaries [10].

2.2 Agreement among HEIs on RLs network establishment

The aims and objectives of RLs network should meet HEIs networking mission statements such as exchanges between staff, student exchanges, joint graduate pro-grams (with the use of RLs network resources), exchanging best practices and materi-als.

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The institutional management should be willing to support network establishment and activity. For that reason, before RLs network establishment, it is necessary to introduce the scope, aims and objectives of the network to institutional management, from the point of view of its contribution to institutional development. Moreover, the scope, aims and objectives of the network should be disseminated throughout each HE institution to be included in the RLs network.

Teaching staff of each networked institution should be well aware of what net-works provide and be ready to use and adapt (if necessary) available network re-sources for their teaching purposes [1].

For ensuring the RLs network to be active after the end of project in which it has been established, an agreement among the networked HEIs has to be signed [7]. It will be convenient to provide the protocol with network resource maintenance as a part of the agreement of RLs network establishment.

2.3 Building a joint platform of RLs network

For a more comfortable and secure usage of RLs network resources, a joint plat-form for access to networked remote resources should be used. Designers of this plat-form should decide which kind of solution (purely software solution or software-hardware solution) is more efficient for building the joint platform. They should have in mind who and how many will be users of network resources, and how often they will use the networked remote resources.

Besides solving hardware and software issues [5], other most important issues, such as the pedagogical approach to be adopted and the provision of resources and learning materials, will have to be solved in wide consultation with teachers who will use the remote resources for teaching purposes. All of them should keep in mind dur-ing the design of online experiments what are the differences and additional require-ments in relation to the design of experiments in real laboratories [11], [12].

2.4 Quality assurance of online resources

For the purpose of quality assurance of online experiments and supporting learning materials, their assessment has to be performed continuously by different users (stu-dents, trained teachers) and external experts. The process of remote experimentation assessment is quite delicate having in mind the specific circumstances and mission of this kind of education.

Quality control of remote experiments and supporting learning materials within the Tempus project NeReLa have been performed through assessments by four target groups [13]:

• trained secondary vocational schools teachers; • engineering students from Serbian partner universities who performed remote ex-

periments within their lab exercises;



• students from selected secondary vocational schools who performed lab exercises with remote experiments within their Exemplary classes under the guidance of their teachers;

• experts from EU partner universities.

The main goal of expert assessment was to find and report technical problems that might constitute an obstacle for the users, to point out good practices and to establish a set of general recommendations concerning the design, the implementation and the accompanying learning resources that a remote experiment should have in order to maximize its effectiveness as a tool to teach and to learn. An assessment instrument was developed and items were grouped in four factors (general technical aspects, quality of media feedback, documentation and help and quality of data collection). A report that includes an overall view of strengths, weaknesses, suggestions, comments and recommendations for the assessed online resources has been sent to the authors of these resources.

2.5 Dissemination of RLs network

For ensuring RLs network to be active and successful (of interest to a large number of users and experts), a wide variety of dissemination activities should be continuous-ly performed.

The following activities are favorable for spreading network outputs and accessi-bility of its resources: joint publications, joint projects, conferences, workshops, pro-moting cooperation in the use of resources between different RLs networks, etc.

Most of the above mentioned dissemination activities have been realized within the NeReLa project with the aim of increasing the users of NeReLa resources and of including the NeReLa network into already established networks of remote engineer-ing labs. There are several joint publications of the international NeReLa team ([6], [13], [14] and [15]) and they have become recognized actors in conference series like RE , exp.at, EDUCON, ICL and similar ones.

3 Acknowledgment

This work is a result of a round table discussion at Experiment@ International Workshop 2016 “The Emerging Technologies on the Internet of Everything “ -ETIoE’16 as well as a result of activities within the project 543667-TEMPUS-1-2013-1-RS-TEMPUS-JPHES “Building Network of Remote Labs for strengthening univer-sity-secondary vocational schools collaboration” supported by The Education, Audio-visual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA).

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4 References

[1] F. Henard, L. Diamond, and R. Roseveare, “Approaches to Internationalisation and Their Implications for Strategic Management and Institutional Practice”, A Guide for Higher Educational Institutions, OECD Higher Educational Programme IMHE, 2012.

[2] Maria João M. Martins, New Trends of Electrical and Information Engineering Higher Ed-ucation in Europe, Thematic Network EIE-Surveyor REFERENCE POINT FOR ELECTRICAL AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING IN EUROPE, available on http://www.eie-surveyor.org/cd/index.htm

[3] A. Nafalski, Z. Nedic, J. Machotka, Ö. Göl, A. Scarino, J. Crichton, I. Gustavsson, J. M. Ferreira, D. Lowe and S. Murray, “International Collaboration in Remote Engineering La-boratories: an Approach to Development”, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES, MANUSCRIPT ID, available on http://www.labshare.edu.au/media/ img/international_collaboration_remote_labs.pdf

[4] J. M. Ferreira and D. Mueller, “The MARVEL EU project: A social constructivist ap-proach to remote experimentation”, Proceedings of the 1st Remote Engineering and Virtu-al Instrumentation International Symposium (REV 04), available on http://hdl.handle.net/10216/84634

[5] M. Kaluz, P. Orduna, J. G. Zubia, M. Fikar and L. Cirka, “Sharing Control Laboratories by Remote Laboratory Management System WebLab-Deusto”, Preprints of the 10th IFAC Symposium Advances in Control Education The International Federation of Automatic Control August 28-30, 2013. University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK, pp 345 – 350. https://doi.org/10.3182/20130828-3-UK-2039.00074

[6] R. Krneta, A. Rojko, O. Dziabenko, T. Restivo, “NeReLa project: Building Network of Remote Labs using EU best practice”, Proceedings on XI Congreso de Tecnología, Aprendizaje y Enseñanza de la Electrónica, Bilbao, del 11 al 13 de Junio del 2014, pp 355-362 https://doi.org/10.1109/TAEE.2014.6900182

[7] Tempus project NeRela “Building Network of Remote Labs for strengthening university-secondary vocational schools collaboration”, available on http://nerela.kg.ac.rs/

[8] Xia Ping-Jun, António M. Lopes and Maria Teresa Restivo, “Virtual Reality and Haptics for Product Assembly, Surgical Simulation and Online Experimentation” Book chapter, Online Experimentation: Emerging Technologies and IoT, Editors: Maria Teresa Restivo, Alberto Cardoso and António Mendes Lopes, Publisher: International Frequency Sensor Association (IFSA) Publishing, pp. 315-330, ISBN: 978-84-608-5977-2, e-ISBN: 978-84-608-6128-7, 30 December 2015.

[9] R. Krneta, “Sharing Online Experiments – An Excellent Opportunity for Networking of Higher Education Institutions”, invited contribution, Experiment@ International Workshop 2016 “The Emerging Technologies on the Internet of Everything” – ETIoE, University of Azores, Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal, 5-6 Set, 2016.

[10] Kathleen Riggs, Strategies for Sustainability of Grant-funded Programs, Families and Communities, Utah State University Cooperative Extension, October 2012, available on http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/FC_Youth_2012-01pr.pdf

[11] Jing Ma and Jeffrey V. Nickerson, Hands-On, Simulated, and Remote Laboratories: A Comparative Literature Review, ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 38, No. 3, Article 7, Pub-lication date: September 2006, available on https://web.stevens.edu/jnickerson/ACM ComputingSurveys2006MaNickerson.pdf

[12] Dieter Muller, Heinz-H. Erbe, Collabortive Laboratories in engineering Education: Chal-lenges and Vision, Chapter in the book of Luís Gomes, Javier Garcia Zubia “Advances on remote laboratories and e-learning experiences”, Universidad de Deusto, 2008



[13] R. Krneta, A. Rojko, M.T. Restivo, D. Urbano, “Evaluation of remote experiments by dif-ferent target groups, NeReLa project case study”, Proceedings on 13th International Con-ference on Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation REV 2016, 24-26 February 2016, UNED, Madrid, Spain, pp 326-331

[14] The book “Online Experimentation: Emerging Technologies and IoT”, Editors: Maria Te-resa Restivo, Alberto Cardoso and António Mendes Lopes, Publisher: International Fre-quency Sensor Association (IFSA) Publishing, pp. 315-330, ISBN: 978-84-608-5977-2, e-ISBN: 978-84-608-6128-7, 30 December 2015

[15] Restivo, M. T., Krneta, R., !e"lija, D., Urbano, D., Zubia, J., “Discussion Table “Network-ing Online Experimentation”, Proceedings of papers, International Conference on Electri-cal, Electronic and Computing Engineering, Zlatibor, Serbia, ISBN 978-86-7466-618-0, pp. AUI1.8.1-2, June 13 – 16, 2016.

5 Author

Radojka Krneta is with University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Technical Sciences Cacak, Cacak, Serbia (e-mail: [email protected]).

Article submitted 27 April 2017. Published as resubmitted by the author 13 June 2017.

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Special Focus Paper—Enhancing a 3D Printer with Online Access

Enhancing a 3D Printer with Online Access https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v11i5.7069

T. F. Andrade!"!#, P. Abreu, M. T. Restivo, M. F. Chouzal, B. F. Santos, J. Rodrigues

University of Porto, Porto, Portugal [email protected]

Abstract—This paper looks at different ways of providing a RepRap 3D printer with online access and remote control to be operated from multiple de-vices including mobile devices. Different technological solutions that can be used with distinct printers are identified and tested. The selected and imple-mented remote access solution is described and examples of printed parts are presented. Reference is made to MSc theses that have been supported by this lab facility.

Keywords—project based learning, engineering education, mechatronics, re-mote control, mobile interfaces.

1 Introduction

According to Kolb’s theory [1], that combines experience, perception, cognition, and behaviour, the experimental learning helps students to gain a deeper understand-ing of scientific concepts. This perspective, in line with the concept of project based learning [2-4], has been followed on our laboratory where extra-curricular activities, student theses and projects development are carried out.

Many of these projects are developed at an exploratory phase by master degree students of the automation area in Mechanical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineer-ing of University of Porto (FEUP). They focus on the design, fabrication and assem-bly of instrumented devices.

Students doing theses in the automation field usually regard hands-on projects with great enthusiasm. Furthermore, the laboratory environment tries to promote peer in-teraction, collaborative learning and the possibility to incubate new ideas that are later explored in new projects. When it is necessary to build a prototype in a thesis project, which is to be completed in approximately six months with a reduced budget, the time and cost involved in traditional manufacturing processes are critical.

Cohen et al. [5] conclude that the adoption of 3D printing technologies will have a high impact on accelerating the product development cycle, implementing new manu-facturing strategies and shifting sources of profit areas. The authors are also in line with this perspective and have had that evidence from last years’ practice. 3D printing has been considered as a disruptive technology since it fulfils the disruption pattern identified by Christensen [6]. As referred by Rayna et al. [7], the use of 3D printers



available on online platforms enables co-creation activities between customers and firms with a positive impact on user innovation.

A study on the use of 3D printers in classrooms based on four workshops conduct-ed for high school science and technology teachers is reported in [8]. In that study some relevant conclusions were taken: the 3D printer can contribute to the student´s understanding of the problem-solving process; the workshop empowered many of the teachers to tackle projects previously perceived as beyond their skill level; the experi-ence, rich in engineering practice, can be imparted to students. In line with these find-ings the authors decided to get hold of a 3D printer to be made available in the labora-tory.

After a market search, a 3D printer was chosen that uses fused filament fabrication (FFF), within the RepRap (replicating rapid prototyper) concept. The reason was its low price and the support both in terms of hardware and software. Considering that it would be used in an educational institution, a printer was selected with an open struc-ture, easy to replicate and with open source software. This open concept allows users to better understand the 3D printer working principle and improve the printer design [9]. The RepRap community and the associated open concept were identified as a suitable option. The software and firmware associated with this type of 3D printer are open source and a permanent effort is being made to improve it. The electronics are mainly based on Arduino hardware and can be adapted to different printers. The idea of learning by making and sharing things is associated to the RepRap concept [10].

With the 3D printer it was possible to speed up the projects and produce parts with complex geometries. The students were fully involved in the process of design and fabrication, having access to the production facilities without incurring in significant risks both in terms of injury and equipment operation [11].

Due to the success of the results obtained with the 3D printer, an increase of print-ing requests was noticed. Professors and students from other laboratories began to request printouts, as well as non-faculty members. Hence, it became difficult to print all the required parts within the work schedule (8-10 hours). Therefore, due to the unexpected workload, it was identified the need to empower the 3D printer with re-mote control and monitoring capabilities with the particular requirement of remote access through mobile devices. The search performed for a solution led to multiple options, the most relevant being: OctoPrint [12], Printtopeer [13], 3D Printer OS [14], Vision Authentise [15] and 3D Print Box [16]. The listed items require a Raspberry Pi for providing internet access to the 3D printer, except for the last one.

This work presents and justifies the solution adopted to make the RepRap 3D printer remotely accessible. Some examples of 3D printed parts that were made taking advantage of remote access are depicted.

2 The 3D Printer

The 3D printer is based on an additive manufacturing process that involves the deposition of material in layers. There are different methods to create the layers, such as stereolitography (SLA), selective laser sintering (SLS) and fused filament fabrica-

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tion (FFF). It is possible to find different materials that satisfy the design require-ments. Examples of additive materials are plastic, metal, rubber, ceramic, and glass. Some of them are compatible with food [17] and human tissues [18]. It is possible to find on the market a wide range of 3D printers, from the hobby market up to the pro-fessional types, with prices ranging from around 200 ! up to 300 k!. The chosen printer is within the RepRap community. These printers use an additive manufactur-ing technology known as fused filament fabrication (FFF) or fused deposition model-ling (FDM), a trademark of Stratasys Inc. In terms of printing materials, thermoplas-tics such as Polylactide (PLA) or Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), composite materials with the combination of thermoplastic with fibres such as carbon fibre or Kevlar and Thermoplastic Elastomer (TPE) with a polyurethane base are used. How-ever, the type of material used by 3D printers is not the most determinant factor in selecting a printer.

To perform a detailed search, a careful understanding of the main 3D printer mod-els, maintenance and subsystems is needed. 3D printers in general comprise the fol-lowing four subsystems: structure configuration, extruder, print bed and electronics.

3D printer models can be divided into four categories [10]: RepRaps, Box Bots, RepStraps and Upstarts. Within these, there is a full range of different models such as Mendel, Huxley, Makerbot, MendelMax, Ultimaker, Prusa, etc. Thanks to the RepRap community more than 100 different models of 3D printers can be found in Europe.

When choosing a 3D printer, the structure configuration is one of the most im-portant subsystems, since it holds all the others together. The chosen configuration has influence on the structural stiffness, the work volume, the motion type of each axis and the printer precision. Typically, they have a cartesian configuration, where the printer head moves along two axes on a plane and the print bed moves along the third axis. The delta and the polar configurations are also used. On the delta configu-ration, the printer head is suspended by 3 arms in a triangular layout and the print bed does not move. The polar configuration uses polar coordinates to define the move-ment of the printer head. The cartesian configuration is the most used due to its ro-bustness, stiffness and precision when compared to the other two.

The extruder is in a continuous and intense development due to its complexity. It has two parts: the filament drive and the hot end. Almost every filament drive uses a stepper motor with internal or external gears to pull the filament out of the spool and push it into the hot end. The motor is used to provide extrusion control and to drive a filament with a typical diameter of 1.75 mm or 3 mm. The hot end is where the fila-ment is heated, melted and extruded through the print nozzle. It is usually an alumini-um block where a resistance heater and a temperature sensor are embedded. This end is isolated from the rest of the printer by a heat sink or an insulated ceramic cartridge. In this way the heat transfer is minimized, preventing damage to the other printer components.

The surface where the part is printed is called the print bed. This part is usually made of glass or aluminium and the size depends on each model, due to the 3D printer subsystem constraints. In some models the print bed is heated. This solution allows better adhesion of the first printed layer preventing wrapping and/or cracking effects.



When the model does not have a heated bed, a polyamide tape (kapton), stick glue or painter’s blue tape are used. The choice of one of these solutions depends on the type of filament used.

Looking at the electronics subsystem diagram displayed in Figure 1, it is possible to see the main interconnections between components. The choice of each component is already defined by the developers of each 3D printer model. The different available solutions enable the users to expand and upgrade the 3D printer and incorporate other functionalities. The two electronic boards Arduino Mega 2560 and Arduino Mega Pololu Shield (RAMPS) are the usual choices for the electronic solution. They are versatile systems allowing the implementation of new features, like dual extruder, different temperature sensors, different kinds of drivers and other user needs.

One add-on that can make a difference is the LCD display with an embedded SD card reader. With this feature, it is possible to have a standalone printer.

Each axis is normally driven by a stepper motor and there are a lot of different models and sizes that can be used. NEMA 17 stepper motors with 1.8º of resolution without gearbox are usually used. Each motor is controlled by a stepper driver usually assembled in the electronic board.

The position control of each axis is implemented with an open loop configuration, with the position measured through the number of driven steps. The zero position is not saved in non-volatile memory, so it is necessary to move to the zero position eve-ry time the printer is switched on. For this effect an end stop switch is used, which can be magnetic, mechanical or optical.

A RepRap 3D printer needs frequent maintenance since it is built with printed parts, some of them being used to support the moving axes. However, the time and cost spent in maintenance is considerably reduced when selecting RepRap 3D printers with higher quality and better mechanical components. In any kind of 3D printer, a regular check-up and calibration is always needed to achieve better quality prints.

Another important item of 3D printers is the software. As shown in Figure 2 the printing process requires three steps: design the part in Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software; generate the program (g-code) to control the printer using Comput-er-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software; execute the program with the printer con-troller, using a host software. In the RepRap community, there is a lot of free software to be used with the 3D printers which is in constant development for addition of new features. On the other hand, there are some companies that sell their 3D printers with specific and closed source software, optimized for a specific printer.

Fig. 1. Common 3D printer electronic diagram

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Fig. 2. The three steps in the printing process

All the considerations mentioned in the previous paragraphs allowed the authors to have a better understanding of the main aspects in choosing a 3D printer that would fit the needs. Thus, all models with prices below 600 ! were excluded, since the overall quality was found inadequate to the required needs.

The 3D Printer chosen was the RepRap BCN3D+, developed by Fundació CIM, an entity connected to the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech (UPC), with a retail price around 1200 !. It is based on the Mendel model, presenting a high structural rigidity. It uses a Cartesian axes configuration. The printing bed moves along the Y axis while the extruder operates in the X and Z axes. The Y axis is de-coupled from the X and Z axes.

An important aspect in selecting this printer was related to the continuous effort from Fundació CIM to improve the product. This has been verified by the numerous free updates received for software and firmware since the printer was bought three years ago. They also introduced the dual extrusion head, easily adaptable to the print-er. With this new feature, it is possible to print parts in two colours of the same or different materials. In the latter case, one of them can be a support material to build parts with large overhangs that require a support structure.

3 Remote Access to the 3D Printer

The 3D printer existing in the lab, intensively used by the resident students and re-searchers with recognized success, raised the interest of other users, including non-faculty members. This led to providing the printer with online access to allow differ-ent users to start a print job and monitor its progress. This facility differs from online 3D printer platforms such as Shapeways since it allows direct access to the 3D printer, letting the user have total control of the printing process.

The identified functionalities for such remotely operated/monitoring process in-clude the possibility to turn the printer on/off, to upload a print job, to access the printer memory and to stream a real-time video of the process.

Traditionally, the high tech/high cost 3D printers already provide such functionali-ties. Some of them include Wi-Fi connectivity to be used for remote operation, such as Replicator from Makerbot, Cube PRO from 3D Systems, etc. This is not the case of the available printer. Some solutions to overcome this lack of connectivity were iden-tified. In the authors’ opinion, the more relevant solutions are the OctoPrint, Printto-peer, 3D Printer OS, Vision Authentise and 3DPrintBox [12-16].

The 3DPrintBox provides a turnkey solution for every RepRap 3D Printer with a USB port. This integrated solution provides Ethernet/wireless network capabilities. It is a proprietary webserver where the 3D printer and a webcam are connected by USB. Accessing the webserver by a web browser enables to control the printer and watch the printing process.



The other listed solutions require a Raspberry Pi to provide internet access to the 3D printer. Such solutions are more suitable than the 3DPrinterBox because they are based on open hardware. Both Printtopeer and 3D Printer OS require a sign up on their websites to have access to several online services. To start a print job it is neces-sary to download a dedicated operating system for the Raspberry Pi so that the printer can be detected through the website. Secondly the STL file format of the part to be printed must be uploaded. STL (STereoLithography) is a triangulated representation of a 3D model surface. After the upload, tools are available to configure the model and the print parameters. The identified limitations of these two solutions are related to the reduced number of 3D printer parameters/settings available.

The Vision Authentise is a solution focused on monitoring the print progress. With a webcam, it is possible to detect any deviation from the planned print progress and automatically stop the print job or notify the problem by email or text message. For its use, it is required to sign up on the website, to install a server on a PC or Raspberry Pi and to run a calibration setup. This solution accepts the upload of STL files to start the print job.

The OctoPrint is the chosen solution. It is based on a webserver provided with the appropriate interfaces for the 3D printer, video camera and relays module. The con-nection diagram of the implemented solution can be seen in Figure 3.

The chosen solution uses commercial available hardware and open source soft-ware. The webserver is based on a Raspberry Pi running an open source application, the Octoprint.

This application (OctoPrint) is a host software that can be used with multiple 3D printers providing a web interface to remotely manage and control the printer. This open source software tool fulfils the identified needs to remotely operate the 3D print-er. Among the provided functionalities, the main ones are: start, pause and stop print jobs, jog the printer axes, monitor temperature of the printer bed and extruder, watch the printing progress and create a time-lapse video. Being an open source software, there is a large community behind, developing upgrades and plugins. Some of them are used, like a history list, a STL viewer, a status line and a custom command editor, which gives the ability to add custom controls like turn on or off the printer power supply. The implemented solution uses a Raspberry Pi B+ module as a webserver running the OctoPrint under the OctoPi operating system. The OctoPi operating sys-tem is based on the Raspbian. The 3D printer and a standard webcam are connected to the webserver through USB ports. A standard module, with two relays, is connected to general purpose digital input/output (GPIO) ports and is used to turn on/off the printer and the external light. The solution is inexpensive, easy to implement and does not require deep knowledge of informatics and electronics. Figure 4 presents an image of the web interface used to remotely operate our 3D printer.

Another interesting feature of this software is the configuration of three different access levels for the users. Anonymous users can only have access to the read-only data from the web interface. Logged users can start a print job having access to all data, except the settings and the system commands that are the privilege of the admin-istrators.

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Fig. 3. Connection diagram for the remote implementation

Fig. 4. Web interface for remotely operating the 3D printer on a computer

The Octoprint web interface is suitable for mobile devices (Figuree 5a), although some android apps with less features are available to remotely control the OctoPrint server. App examples are the OctoDroid from mariogrip (Figure 5b) and Moritz Zan-der (Figure 5c), OctoAndroid from NairbSpace (Figure 5d), which are free, and Printoid from Anthony St. (Figure 5e). All applications have main features such as axes and temperature control, webcam view, list of files to be printed, and some print job commands (start, pause, stop).



The main drawbacks of the OctoPrint solution are the lack of a booking system and the need to manually remove the printed part. This proved to be a limitation when using the printer in a multi-user environment.

(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

Fig. 5. OctoPrint server interfaces: (a) webpage; (b) OctoDroid; (c) OctoDroid; (d) Oc-toAndroid; (e) Printoid

4 Examples of Printed Prototypes

The 3D printer is hosted in the Instrumentation and Measurement Lab at FEUP. Several works are taking advantage in using the 3D printer. The examples presented in this section were printed using the implemented remote control solution. The printed examples are presented in increasing order of both complexity and size.

The first example (Figure 6) comprises three modules with external dimensions that fit inside a cube with 100 mm edge. The idea was to progressively test the remote 3D printer robustness with small pieces. The second example (Figure 7) presents a mechanical characterization system that required printing multiple parts of different sizes.

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 6. Small printed modules

iJIM ‒ Vol. 11, No. 5, 2017 51


Fig. 7. System with multiple simple parts of different sizes

An external request from a customer was received to print a tray for transporting components, Figure 8. This tray occupies approximately twice the available printable area. It was necessary to print it in two parts and assemble them. The customer was invited to use the online platform. The 3D model was reworked to fit on the print bed (divided in two parts) and converted into two STL files. After the conversion of the STL file to g-code, it was the client who carried out the printing process using the 3D printer webpage. Each half part of the tray had a printing time of approximately 12h, which was a great opportunity to test a long print job that was monitored by both the costumer and our team.

Another example is related to the replication of the 3D printer. In this case, the print bed was almost totally filled with the maximum number of 3D printer parts. Figure 9 depicts a set of nine independent parts of the structure with complex geome-tries, occupying almost the total print bed that were printed simultaneously, taking approximately 20h to print.

Fig. 8. Tray with sockets requested by a customer



Fig. 9. Some components printed simultaneously

5 Examples of Students Works

Many student works and theses have been supported by the use of this 3D printer. Some examples of MSc thesis topics that have been supported by this lab facility, are listed below:

• Force sensor development and characterization for a rehabilitation glove; • Serious games to a device for hand rehabilitation; • Device for manipulation of daily objects; • Tactile device to simulate arterial pulse;• Development of a passive device for hand rehabilitation;• Low cost system for monitoring a refrigerator; • Study and development of a 2 DOF haptic device based in DC actuators; • Development of a system for actuating and controlling a glove for rehabilitation;

Some of these works led to other developments presented and described in the web address https://remotelab.fe.up.pt/#instrumented_devices.

6 Conclusions

The availability of the 3D printer on the Internet is found to be of great value for monitoring and controlling the printer. It gains greater emphasis when printing parts that take several hours. Students using the 3D printer for their master thesis projects

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were able to take advantage of remote access and control of the printer, using both mobile and computer devices.

The students enthusiasm, fostered by getting an effective proof of concept for their works, enabled them to reach higher goals in their theses and so the standard in-creased in results, in general, and in the experimental results, too.

The selected and implemented OctoPi open source solution does not require any kind of website registry, is free and has several important features. The main remote features are the possibility: to upload desired part files to the printer server; to start, pause and stop the print job; to monitor the g-code, temperature, axes position; to stream a real-time video; to switch on/off the printer and external illumination.

It is possible to use a browser on a computer or mobile device connected to the in-ternet to control and monitor the printing process. When using an Android mobile device, there are different applications available that can replace the use of the brows-er but with reduced functionalities.

A limitation related to the non-existence of a booking system was identified. Other constraints are inherent to the printer: the lack of an automatic system for filament material exchange and for removal of printed parts.

7 Acknowledgment

The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding of Project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000022 - SciTech - Science and Technology for Competitive and Sustainable Industries, cofinanced by Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (NORTE2020), through Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER).

This work was also funded by Project LAETA - UID/EMS/50022/2013 and project U-Academy from Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

8 References

[1] D. A. Kolb, Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. FT press, 2014.

[2] E. De Graaf and A. Kolmos, "Characteristics of problem-based learning," International Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 657-662, 2003.

[3] P. C. Blumenfeld, E. Soloway, R. W. Marx, J. S. Krajcik, M. Guzdial, and A. Palincsar, "Motivating project-based learning: Sustaining the doing, supporting the learning," Educa-tional Psychologist, vol. 26, no. 3-4, pp. 369-398, 1991. https://doi.org/10.1080/0046 1520.1991.9653139

[4] J. S. Krajcik and P. C. Blumenfeld, Project-based learning, 2006. [5] D. Cohen, M. Sargeant, and K. Somers, "3-D printing takes shape," McKinsey Quarterly,

Jan, 2014. [6] C. Christensen, "The innovator's dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to

fail," Harvard Business Review Press, 2013. [7] T. Rayna, L. Striukova, and J. Darlington, "Co-creation and user innovation: The role of

online 3D printing platforms," Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, vol. 37, pp. 90-102, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jengtecman.2015.07.002



[8] J. L. Irwin, "Evaluation of RepRap 3D Printer Workshops in K-12 STEM age," vol. 26, p. 1, 2015.

[9] S. Junk and R. Matt, "Workshop Rapid Prototyping-A new approach to introduce digital manufacturing in engineering education," in Information Technology Based Higher Educa-tion and Training (ITHET), 2015 International Conference on, 2015, pp. 1-6: IEEE.

[10] B. Evans, Practical 3D printers: The science and art of 3D printing. Apress, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4302-4393-9

[11] P. Abreu et al., "On the use of a 3D printer in mechatronics projects," in Interactive Col-laborative Learning (ICL), 2014 International Conference on, 2014, pp. 995-999: IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICL.2014.7017915

[12] G. Häußge. (2016, 25/10/2016). OctoPrint. Available: http://octoprint.org/ [13] P. Inc. (2016, 25/10/2016). printtopeer. Available: http://www.printtopeer.com/ [14] D. C. S. Ltd. (2016, 25/10/2016). 3dprinteros. Available: https://www.3dprinteros.com/ [15] Authentise. (2016, 25/10/2016). Authentise. Available: http://authentise.com/vision/ [16] G. R. GmbH. (2016, 25/10/2016). German RepRap. Available:

https://www.germanreprap.com/ [17] L. Hao, S. Mellor, O. Seaman, J. Henderson, N. Sewell, and M. Sloan, "Material character-

isation and process development for chocolate additive layer manufacturing," Virtual and Physical Prototyping, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 57-64, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1080/1745275 1003753212

[18] F. N. Network. (2014, 25/10/2016). Scientists trying to create human heart with 3D printer. Available: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/04/10/scientists-trying-to-create-human-heart-with-3d-printer.html

9 Authors

T. F. Andrade (corresponding author), P. Abreu, M. T. Restivo, M. F. Chouzal, B. F. Santos and J. Rodrigues are with the LAETA-INEGI, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal (e-mail: {tfa, pabreu, trestivo, fchouzal} @fe.up.pt, [email protected], [email protected]).


iJIM ‒ Vol. 11, No. 5, 2017 55

Special Focus Paper—Technology and Innovation in Agriculture: The Azores Case Study

Technology and Innovation in Agriculture: The Azores Case Study


E.L.D.G.S. Silva!"!# Universidade dos Açores, CEEAplA, Angra do Heroísmo, Açores – Portugal

[email protected]

C.M.M. Oliveira

SDASM, Ponta Delgada, Portugal

A.B. Mendes, H.M.G.F.O. Guerra Universidade dos Açores, Algoritmi, Ponta Delgada, Portugal

Abstract—A growing population world might exceed its food supply in the future. Food availability needs an increasing agricultural productivity and pro-duction through technology and innovation. European concerns about innova-tion policies reflected on the Lisbon Agenda include the European program PROPRURAL+ for the Portuguese Azores Islands. The agricultural innovation in the Azores started with the Green Revolution, which increased agricultural production, using seeds, fertilizers, chemical products and agricultural equip-ment. But much more innovation is needed for the Azores to became a well-sustained and competitive European region in this economic sector. For exam-ple, concerning milk, the region is responsible for more than 30% of the nation-al production. But, since the liberalization in EU imposed by the global mar-kets, a crisis in the sector is installed. Dairy producers are now facing many dif-ficulties in trying to enhance the profitability of their farms, by reducing costs and improving efficiency. A characterization of the Azorean agriculture, em-phasizing the milk production sector is presented. The specificities and the po-tential of the region are discussed and some agricultural innovations with IoT technologies are pointed out.

Keywords—technology; agriculture; robot; data mining

1 Introduction

Currently there are more than 7 billion inhabitants on planet Earth. In the next 10 years, it is estimated that the population will increase by more than a billion. Thus, inevitably the demand for food will increase in the near future and agriculture is at the center of the three challenges of the XXI century: climate change, depletion of natural resources, and food security [1].

All these factors demand a significant increase in agricultural productivity and pro-duction through technology and innovation. Innovation is the process of translating an



idea or an invention into a good or a service that creates value or for which customers will pay. On the other hand, technology concerns the use of scientific knowledge to solve practical problems. To be innovative, the idea must be applied with an associat-ed financial cost, and with the aim to satisfy a specific need.

Madureira et al. [2] present the innovative concept in agriculture and the branches of the innovation. According to these authors, innovation in Agriculture is the intro-duction of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), process, organi-zational structure or marketing method. Product innovation is defined by changes to its technical characteristics, with the offer of new features; focus on product quality or new ways of use / application. Process innovation is the introduction of a new or sig-nificantly improved production or delivery method, including significant changes in techniques, equipment or software. Organizational innovation is the introduction of a new structure or method of business organization or external relations. Finally, the marketing innovation occurs by introducing a new marketing method that involves significant changes in the design of the product or packaging. Marketing innovation is also about placing on the market or new ways of marketing, promotion or price.

There are several types of innovation: 1) technological innovation, 2) non-technological innovation, 3) mixed innovation: with influence of the previous two. Finally, 4) hidden or soft innovation (non-technological origin, not linked to R&D) and related to human resources, interactions and / or cooperation, and the role of vari-ous actors of innovation.

Madureira et al. [2] analyze the soft innovation in the Portuguese rural sector. Soft innovation is an important source of innovation in agriculture.

More than just a trend, innovation and new technology will be a need for sustainable and efficient agricultural production. The challenges ahead justify the increasingly arising companies to invest in this sector. Examples can be found in several Japanese companies, such as Panasonic, Toshiba, Sharp, Sony or Fujitsu, historically linked to electronics. Currently, those companies are experimenting in the production of strawberries in Dubai, in the production of lettuces in Japanese industrial complexes used in electronics manufacture or in the production of spinach in Singapore.

Therefore, it is necessary to clarify what is meant by these two so interlinked concepts in agriculture. Technology is associated with the creation of new products and / or new processes, while innovation is the introduction of technology in the agricultural reality. Given the paramount importance of innovation in agriculture we present the different types of innovation, giving special attention to hidden innovation and the innovation in the European policies (Lisbon Agenda). The particular case of the Azores is covered by means of the PROPRURAL + Community program [3].

In fact, the major innovation steps were named the Green Revolution and were based on technology introduction in agriculture to achieve higher productivity through the development of research in seeds, soil fertility, use of pesticides and mechanization including IoT [4,5]. Sensors and apps have a long history in agriculture, but recently their generalization became a competitive factor. Preoccupations with water consumption, soil improvement, species rotation, and animal growing can be addressed by IoT technologies in such a way that the term

iJIM ‒ Vol. 11, No. 5, 2017 57


Smart Agriculture is becoming common sense. One example is the climate-smart agriculture (CSA), which is an approach for transforming and reorienting agricultural systems to support food security under the new realities of climate change [6].

New solutions for business challenges with machine-to-machine (M2M) communi-cation are also in great demand in agriculture, and some of the most compelling IoT architectures and applications are coming from the agricultural industry. One example is the prototype mentioned by Schuster et al. [7], which puts forth an Internet-based architecture for machine-to-machine communication and computation that enhances bio-productivity in agriculture. The prototype utilizes an auxiliary language to enable data interoperability in a synthetic computing environment and to make connections between data and mathematical models. The approach also includes some aspects of cloud and context aware computing.

The rest of the paper is organized as follows: section II is devoted to explain in de-tail the main aspects relating to innovation in agriculture, suitable for application to the Azorean reality in the case study of section III; and also, to present an Azorean agriculture characterization based on the Census from 1998. Section III presents the Azorean case study of innovation concerning milk production. Finally, some conclu-sions and ideas for further work are presented in section IV.

2 Innovation in European Union and Azores

The world population is growing faster than the availability of food and this drives an increasing agricultural production and productivity through technology and / or innovation. The FAO projection of world population is 8.5 billion (2030); 9.7 billion (2050) and 11.2 billion (2100). In a global economic crisis situation, the food demand for a growing population imposes on global leaders the challenge of increasing agri-cultural production in a sustainable manner. As said by Hélder Muteia (FAO) in the workshop Demanda Mundial por Alimentos e o Combate à Fome, «it will not be easy. To answer this demand, global food production must grow by about 70%.» This is a clear opportunity for innovation and technology.

Innovation is an EU fundamental bet since the 2000 Lisbon Agenda. There was recognition and appreciation of knowledge and innovation as drivers for competitive-ness, sustainability, social cohesion and Europe 2020 maintain the goal of Agenda 2000. In the Azores islands innovation is promoted in the agricultural sector with the European program PRORURAL (+) – specially action 16, and Sub action 16.1 - Es-tablishment and operation of operational groups of the European Innovation Partner-ship (EIP) for agricultural productivity and sustainability; Sub action 16.2 - Support for pilot projects and the development of new products, practices, processes and tech-nologies; Sub action 16.3 - Cooperation between small operators with common pro-cess and sharing facilities and resources; Sub action 16.4 - Cooperation for develop-ment and promotion of short supply chains and local markets and Sub action 16.5 - Intervention to mitigate and adapt to climate change and environmental projects and practices.



In the agricultural field, innovation appeared with the Green Revolution [4,5] and associated with technological innovations for higher productivity through the devel-opment of research in seeds, soil fertilization, pesticide use and mechanization. The Green Revolution has enabled the development of appropriate seeds for specific types of soils and climates, soil adaptation for planting and development of machinery. The seeds have high resistance to different types of pests and diseases, its planting, com-bined with the use of pesticides, fertilizers, agricultural implements and machines, significantly increases agricultural production. There has been an extraordinary in-crease in food production. In Mexico, wheat has quadrupled its production in seven years.

Another example is the large increase in production and harvest in the Philippines rice. However, world hunger did not reduce, because food production in developing countries is aimed, mainly, for the industrialized rich countries such as the United States, Japan and the European Union. The modernization in the fields changed the agrarian structure. Small producers, who failed to adapt to new production techniques, could not achieve enough productivity to compete with big agricultural companies, and have requested large bank loans for the mechanization of activities. Their only form of payment is to sell the property to other producers. The Green Revolution provided technologies that achieve greater efficiency in agricultural production, sig-nificantly increasing food production. However, world hunger has not been resolved, edging out the humanitarian discourse to increase food production to end hunger in developing countries.

Innovation can also be acquired in the agricultural field through Data Mining tech-niques, using machine learning and statistical algorithms to extract patterns from data, which lead to new knowledge and better forecasts and decisions [8]. A well-known possible example is the production prediction using historical data obtained in agricul-ture in recent years.

Some of the Data Mining algorithms commonly used in agriculture are: 1) Super-vised algorithms like some Artificial Neural Networks, Support Vector machines; and K-Nearest Neighbor algorithms; 2) Non-supervised algorithms (clustering) like: K-Means; Principal Component Analysis, Multiple Regression Model, Biclustering Techniques [8].

Ramesh and Vardhan [9] had estimated the crop production using two alternative methods (K-means clustering algorithm and regression model). They analyzed data from 44 years (1965 to 2009), using as dependent variable (target) rainfall, and inde-pendent variables: year, seeded area and production. The K-means algorithm found 4 clusters based on annual rainfall: cluster 1 - 1st 3 years, cluster 2 - with 21 years, cluster 3- with 18 years and cluster 4- with 2 years) As a result, they found similar average production between the real data and the models (linear regression and K-means production). For instance, in cluster 3, the average production from actual data was 473,213, linear regression 469,635 and k-means algorithm 419,095. These results bear witness to the influence of climatic conditions (mainly rainfall).

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Table 1. Structural characteristic of Azorean Agriculture, Agricultural Census: 1989, 1999 and 2009.

1989 1999 2009 Var

1. Average size agricultural holdings (ha) 4.8 6.3 8.9 !

2. Indicators for community of farm typology i) Holdings number 24,706 19,280 13,541 " ii) VPPT (103 #) of farms specializing in livestock n.a. n.a. 316,681 --

Table 2. Technological characteristic of Azorean Agriculture, according with Agricultural Census: 1989, 1999 and 2009.

1989 1999 2009 Var 1. Effective Animal

i) No. of livestock per ha of SAU in RAA 1.43 1.72 1.71 !

ii) Cattle (No. of animal/farm) by exploration 15.8 24.1 32.0 !

iii) Dairy cows (No. of animal/farm) 10.3 19.3 28.2 !

2. Indicators for farm machinery i) No. of farms with farm equipment and type of agricultural machinery

2,716 4,490 4,893 !

ii) No. of tractors of farms and classes of SAU 1,899 2,630 3,750 !

iii) No. of milking parlours of farms and old milking parlours n.a n.a 373 -

iv) No. of mobile milking machine of farms and age of the machines. n.a n.a 2,166 -

Silva et al. [10] analyse the structural characteristics of the Azorean Agricultural

sector, as seen in Table 1 and Table 2. The agricultural size of holdings has increased in the last 20 years, from 4.8 to 89 hectares and as a consequence, the number of hold-ing has decreased. The normalized value of production was 316,681 (103) #.

The total number of animals (dairy cows and beef) has increased from 1989 to 2009, as well the stock density (from 1.43 to 1.71). Farms with farm machinery in-creased from 2,716 to 4,893 (between 1989 and 2009) and the numbers of tractors are a big contribution, which increased from 1,899 to 3,750 (between 1989 and 2009).

For comparison purposes we use 1989 as the zero year for implementation of inno-vation in the Azores. Portugal joined the European Union in 1986, and at that time Portuguese agriculture was very "backward" with practically no agricultural equip-ment and the production systems were more extensive, less productive and with less specialized breeds.

Since then, and until Portuguese agriculture started using Community funds, a few years passed, and although we cannot say with certitude, in 1987 or 1988 there were



no large funds to support agriculture. For these reasons, we considered the year 1989, from data published in the General Agricultural Census, as base year (year zero) without any "technological innovation".

The following years, and always taking advantage of Agricultural Census data (already published) corresponded to data that already includes technological innovation.

In São Miguel, Sampaio da Nóvoa [11] uses the work of [12] to evaluate the current technological evolution of the São Miguel agriculture, and concludes that the process of technological transformation at this time has a very positive economic impact on the income of producers. In fact, these authors confirm that producers greatly improved their competitive power and enhanced their economic viability in the context of the period. They also conclude that technological evolution is a function of the valuable work of experimentation and popularization, essential to the development of Azorean agriculture. For the authors in [11, 12] the main technological changes were: re-seeding of older and / or degraded pastures; rational scheme of fertilization; appropriate technologies for the conservation of silage. These authors also recommend cattle header control; generalization of artificial insemination; increased annual growth rate of herds; rational administration of concentrate; use of other energy sources (e.g. beet). Finally they indorse replacing whole milk for calf feeding; generalization of milking systems; accomplishment of crosses of cattle adapted to the productive vocation; and creation of efficient meat production systems that bring calves from birth to slaughter.

3 The Case Study of Azores Innovation

New technologies adopted by European farmers are the key to maintaining Europe competitiveness in the global market. However, these technologies are not accessible in the same way, the agricultural structure varying widely from country to country, from region to region. In effect, in the Member States of the European Union (EU) it varies as a function of differences in geology, topography, climate and natural resources, as well as diversity of regional activities, infrastructure and social customs [3].

There were about 12.2 million farms across the EU-28 in 2010, working 174.1 million hectares of land (the utilized agricultural area) or two fifths (40.0%) of the total land area of the EU-28. The average size of each agricultural holding (farm) in the EU-28 was 14.2 hectares.

Milk production is the most important sector after cereal production, representing 12.7% of the agricultural activity in the EU-28. This sector is characterized by presenting a diverse structure in the EU Member States, both in terms of size of farms and dairy effective, and actual milk production. In 2013, total cow milk collection in the EU-28 amounted to about 141 million tonnes [3].

Regarding the Azores, this is a sector that has been expanding in some islands, especially in the island of São Miguel.

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Over the centuries, the Azores struggled with serious crises in the agricultural sector, leading to the introduction of new crops and new technologies. Presently, the region is again facing a new serious crisis, this time in the dairy sector.

The milk sector has been rising in some islands, especially in São Miguel island. Currently the region produces more than 30% of the national milk production. In spite of having witnessed a modernization of the sector in recent decades, the region struggles due to the small farm size and high fragmentation.

In the present scenario of milk production liberalization in Europe and competitiveness imposed by global markets, together with the effort that has been observed but that should be enhanced by the industry, producers who are forced to improve farm profitability have no alternative but to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

Today agriculture has a very distant reality from a relatively recent past. New technologies are increasingly emerging for the farm environment, and behind these technologies are engineers, scientists, biologists, technicians which directly or indirectly depend also on agriculture.

Thus, there are new tools that give producers a greater capacity for decision. But in the Azores specificity there are extra constraints, including the animal transhumance and insularity of the region, as well as the long distance to market and the poor literacy of farmers. The fact that cows remain in the pasture all year has limited somewhat the investment in these types of equipment.

Within the most relevant technologies that is possible to find in São Miguel farms, stand out modern management software, monitoring systems and video surveillance, pedometers for estrus detection, automatic feeders with individual metering of feed, separation curtains and milking process control. Some of this can be understood as IoT in the sense that pedometers or surveillance feed data to a system that can act on site and IP codes and cellular apps are frequently used.

Effective management software tools already have some expression. In the dairy farms, the daily, repetitive and cyclical interventions inevitably require records. Many of the farmers have this information recorded on paper, however this system makes it difficult to apply the concept of "Farm to Fork"screening, does not allow the issuing of alerts, hampers the processing of data and a more detailed analysis of available information.

A large range of effective management software tools are available in the market, some with the latest technology, consisting of web applications accessible from any computer, tablet or smartphone with internet access, without the need for software installation.

Some farms already have electronic identification systems (RFID) with various purposes, from the control of the feeding process, to assessing the supply of concentrates and balancing it with the cow individual nutrient needs. These stations have identification readers and when the animal approaches provide them concentrate according to the levels of production, the phase of lactation and regulate portions during the day, thereby reducing metabolic disorders (Figure 1).

Depending on the equipment available on the farm, the electronic identification of animals enables the control of the milking process with equipment that perform



measurements of individual production (Figure 2), the exportation and the computer processing of the data collected. When animals are being treated, this information is recorded in the clinical history of the animals, the system preventing them from accidentally being milked, to avoid milk contamination in the cooling tank.

Fig. 1. Identification necklace with associated RFID chip

Fig. 2. Feeding Stations.

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There are also milking equipment that by measuring the electrical conductivity of milk enable the detection of mastitis and / or heats. More recently have come to São Miguel more sophisticated devices that detect the presence of blood in the milk, thereby preventing disease and eluding tank contamination (Figure 3).

The RFID tags are usually associated with the use of pedometers, electronic devices for assessing the activity of animals via the number of steps. Cattle has cyclic reproductive behaviour, and the number of steps increases past the point when the female rut, this information being transmitted to a central computer which analyzes the data and triggers alerts, thereby reducing hand labour with the observation of animals and improves reproductive efficiency, and in consequence the annual productivity.

The Rural Development Programmes of the Azores have enabled farmers to access EU funds and invest in the modernization of farms. In recent years, we have seen the construction of fixed stables and milking, on larger farms it is sometimes possible to find gates separating animals. It is an automatic system, controlled by software that allows the separation of animals for simple and stress-free intervention (Figure 4).

The Voluntary Milking System (VMS) is already a very common reality in the Por-tuguese mainland, and although there are producers who intend to adopt this system in the Azores, it is not yet to be found there, quite possibly because it is very expensive. In fact, a VMS requires specialized technical assistance, and above all, VMSs are applied on farms with different livestock management from the Azorean reality, re-quiring that the animals remain stabled 24 hours a day.

We believe that adopting a mid-term strategy it is possible to improve innovation in the Azorean agriculture, by developing new systems able to integrate the legacy systems and prepared to collecting and analyzing data generated by IoT devices, ap-plying data mining techniques to provide efficient decision systems and, thus, con-tribute to help Azores to become a well-sustained and competitive EU region.

Fig. 3. Milk Meter Appliance.



Fig. 4. Automatic gates for separating animals.

4 Conclusion and Future Work

Technology and innovation promote agricultural production and productivity, be-ing a resource to be used for obtaining food and income to rural communities.

Data mining, although not much used in the agricultural field, presents a potential for the development of agricultural production and provides tools to support agricul-tural producer decisions, especially when coupled with IoT devices for data collec-tion.

We propose to survey results on how well technology is accepted by Azorean farmers in following works.

5 References

[1] FAO “Global agriculture towards 2050” high-level expert forum, Roma 2-3 October 2009. [2] Madureira, L., Gamito, T.M., Ferreira, D., Portela, J. ”Inovação em Portugal Rural, Dete-

tar, Medir e Valorizar”, Principia, 2013, 200p. [3] Eurostat Agriculture, forestry and fishery statistics Eurostat Pocketbooks, European Union,

2013. Available: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/3930297/5968754/KS-FK-13-001-EN.PDF/ef39caf7-60b9-4ab3-b9dc-3175b15feaa6

[4] FAO “Towards a New Green Revolution”, in Report from the World Food Summit: Food for All. Rome 13–17 November 1996.

[5] Gaud, William S. "The Green Revolution: Accomplishments and Apprehensions". AgBio-World., 8 March 1968.

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[6] Leslie Lipper “Climate-smart agriculture for food security” Nature Climate Change, vol. 4, pp. 1068–1072, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2437

[7] Schuster, E.W.; Lee, H.-G.; Ehsani, R.; Allen, S.J.; Rogers, J.S.; “Machine-to-machine communication for agricultural systems: An XML-based auxiliary language to enhance semantic interoperability” Computers and Electronics in Agriculture Volume 78, Issue 2, X, pp. 150–161, September 2011.

[8] Hetal Patel and Dharmendra Patel “A Brief survey of Data Mining Techniques Applied to Agricultural Data” International Journal of Computer Applications Volume 95 - Number 9, 2014.

[9] Ramesh, D. & Vishnu Vardhan, B., “Data Mining Techniques and Applications to Agri-cultural Yield Data”, International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer and Com-munication Engineering, Vol. 2, Issue 9, September 2013, 3477- 3480.

[10] Silva, E., Jonnalagedda, S. and Marta-Costa, A., “The Efficiency of POSEI and PRORURAL Programs in Azores Islands Development” in IFSA 2016 - Symposium Work-shop 5.3 Rural Development Policies in the Peripheral Southern and Eastern European Regions, 2016, U.K

[11] Sampaio da Nóvoa, Isabel C.B.L. 1992. Perspectivas de Evolução Tecnológica da Agro-pecuária Micaelense face à integração na Comunidade Económica Europeia (Óptica Eco-nómica). Relatório de Estágio do Curso de Engenheiro Agrónomo. Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Instituto Superior de Agronomia. Lisboa.

[12] Avillez, Francisco (1991). Estudo de base microeconómica sobre as prespectivas do de-senvolvimento da Agricultura dos Açores. Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Instituto Supe-rior de Agronomia. Lisboa.

6 Authors

E.L.D.G.S. Silva (corresponding author) is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Agrarian Sciences and Environment, Azores University, Angra do Heroísmo. Açores, Portugal and a researcher in CEEAplA, Ponta Delgada, Açores, Portugal (e-mail [email protected]).

C.M.M. Oliveira, is a Senior Technician in SDASM, the São Miguel Agrarian Services, Ponta Delgada, Açores, Portugal (e-mail: [email protected]).

A.B.Mendes is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Azores University, Ponta Delgada. Açores, Portugal and a researcher in Algoritmi Research Center, Minho University, Portugal (e-mail: [email protected]).

H.M.G.F.O. Guerra is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Azores University, Ponta Delgada. Açores, Portugal and a researcher in Algoritmi Research Center, Minho University, Portugal (e-mail: [email protected]).



Special Focus Paper—Development of a Tool to Perform Vehicle Road Tests

Development of a Tool to Perform Vehicle Road Tests https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v11i5.7071

Manuel Gameiro da Silva!"!# University of Coimbra, Portugal

[email protected]

Ahmet Gültekin, Eren Ünlütürk Middle East Technical University, Northern Cyprus Campus

Abstract—The development of a tool to analyse data collected in car road tests is presented, allowing a better understanding of the Physics of car motion. Using the measured data of fuel consumption and the main variables related to the vehicle displacement, it is possible to make corrections to the influence of the main disturbing factors and clearly improve the quality of road tests based evaluations. Thus, the fuel consumption rate is continuously recorded during the motion of the vehicle, whereas the power required to ensure displacement can be calculated using a simulation model with the data recorded during a path. Integrating over time the average power values at each interval, the energy necessary to ensure the vehicle displacement is calculated, while integrating the fuel rate over the duration of the path, the fuel consumption is computed. The ratio between the theoretically required energy and the one actually spent pro-vides the conversion efficiency of the vehicle propulsion system. The developed tool is very useful in the framework of the courses about car dynamics included in Mechanical or Automotive Engineering Programmes. The developed tool couples data collected during road tests with a simulation model that computes all the force components acting on the car body during the motion. It has been written in LabView and an attractive graphical interface is used to keep the at-tention of the students when the data is displayed in real-time or analysed based upon previously recorded files.

Keywords—Energy conversion in vehicles, Data processing and display, Lab-View application tool, Software tool for road tests.

1 Introduction

In this paper is presented the work developed during a final thesis project of two students of a graduation program in Mechanical Engineering. The challenge was to develop and implement a methodology to allow the determination of the energy con-version efficiency of the propulsion system of a passenger car based upon the data

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collected in road tests. Complementarily, the communication of road tests results in an attractive manner, facilitating its interpretation, was also defined as a main target. Due to the nature of the work, the total budget had to be contained. Nevertheless, the ob-jectives were also to improve the quality of the performed assessment, reducing the uncertainties through the correction of the main disturbances caused by the variability of wind conditions during the tests. Since most of the car road tests are performed by the automotive manufacturers, the results are not frequently published due to concur-rence issues. Nevertheless, some papers with methods and results of on-road tests were found by the authors in a technical literature survey [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].

2 Theoretical Formulation

The energy conversion efficiency of the propulsion system of a vehicle is the rela-tionship between the energy needed to travel a path and the actual consumed energy. In a vehicle with an internal combustion engine, the total consumed energy is calcu-lated multiplying the lower calorific value of the fuel by the consumed amount of fuel. This type of calculation can be performed either in the end of the travel, or for individual paths after a certain time interval.

Starting by the determination of the needed energy to ensure the movement, in the case of a vehicle traveling on the road, the motor torque is applied to the shaft via the transmission system and results on the force that the driving wheels transmit to the ground to ensure the movement. This force can be calculated by the following equa-tion:

Fdrv = Rrol + Raerod ±Finerc ±Fgrav (1)

in which Fdrv is the driving force applied on the ground by the wheels, Rrol the roll-ing resistance, Raero the aerodynamic drag, Finerc the inertial force and Fgrav the gravita-tional force. During acceleration periods, Finerc becomes positive, corresponding to a resistance, while in deceleration phases becomes negative, helping the movement. Fgrav is positive and represents a resistance when the vehicle is climbing, and is nega-tive and helps the movement when the vehicle is going downhill.

In equation (2), each term of the second member of equation (1) is replaced by its analytical expression:

++!!!= )(cos 210 grdrv vKKgMF "

!" sin

21 2 ##±#±####+ gMaMvAC airx

(2)

wherein: M – vehicle mass [kg] g – gravitational acceleration [m/s2] ! – road slope angle [°] K0 – static friction coefficient [dimensionless]



K1 – dynamic friction coefficient [s2/m2] vgr – relative vehicle/ground velocity [m/ s] vair – relative vehicle/air velocity [m/ s] Cd – aerodynamic drag coefficient " – specific mass of air [kg/m3] A – frontal area of the vehicle [m2]

The instantaneous values of the total driving force can be calculated from the sum of terms in the second member of (2), using the characteristics of the test vehicle (total mass M, drag coefficient Cd and tire/road friction coefficients K0 and K1) the other terms in the equation, with the exception of g and !, being derived from the data collected by the on-board acquisition system during travels.

Fig. 1. Path between points P1 and P2

Since for each sampling moment of time the geographical coordinates (latitude, longitude and altitude), the vehicle speed and the dynamic pressure of the flow in the front of the vehicle are obtained, with the information for two consecutive points it is possible to calculate the road slope angle (") and the speed of the vehicle relatively to the ground (vgr) and to the air (vair), as exemplified in Figure 1. The distance between points P1 and P2 is calculated multiplying the duration of the sampling interval by the mean velocity:

)(

2)(

1212 vtvvd +

+=

(3)

The road slope angle is calculated as:

!"

#$%

& '=

dhh 12arcsin(

(4)

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3 Experimental Methods

The tests were carried out with a passenger car Renault Fluent 1.5 dCi, equipped with a 81 kW Diesel type internal combustion engine, belonging to the university car fleet. The measurement and data acquisition system mounted in the vehicle has been designed in order to allow the sampling of the fuel rate together with the main param-eters that were considered to have a relevant effect on the displacement conditions. Thus, it has been considered essential:

• to have a complete definition of the traveled routes, i.e. the geographic coordinates (latitude, longitude and altitude), as well as the vehicle speed;

• to correct the disturbances due to the occurrence of wind during the journey; • to gather the information available on the electronic central unit (ECU) of the vehi-

cle motor, available through the on-board diagnostic (OBD) plug.

The schematic representation of the measuring and data acquisition system is shown in Figure 2.

Fig. 2. Car used in the road tests and scheme of the monitoring system

The measuring system is composed by:

A: Pressure ports P0, P1 and P2; B: Pressure sensors Omega PX163 and PX164; C: OBD II plug; D: Auterra Dash Dyno Data logger.

Since the GPS system of the Dash Dyno logger does not acquire the altitude values and they are fundamental to the implementation of the calculation model, a second GPS data logger (GlobalSat DG100) has been added to the monitoring system. It records the time tag, the latitude, the longitude, the altitude and the speed.

In Table 1, are identified the OBD II variables that were selected to be recorded in the Dash-Dyno logger. They were considered to be the most relevant to document the engine operation for further analysis. Channels 3 and 4 are not digital signals from OBD II plug and correspond to analog voltage signals that are received from the two pressure transducers connected to the pressure taps in the front of the vehicle. Channel



3 is recording the dynamic pressure measured in the flow stagnation zone. It is ac-quired from subtracting the value of the static pressure from the stagnation pressure obtained from the P0 pressure tap. To evaluate the angularity of the flow due to the effect of crosswinds, the difference pressure between the P1 and P2 taps is recorded on channel 7.

Table 1. Channels of Dash-Dyno Data Logger

Channel Parameter Channel Parameter 1 GPS Speed 9 Fuel Rail Pressure 2 Rotation Speed 10 Calculated Load 3 Analog 1 Pdina 11 Nr of GPS Satellites 4 Analog 2 Dif P 12 GPS Hdop 5 Fuel Rate 13 Air Flow Rate MAF 6 Intake Air Pressure 14 Air Flow Rate MAP 7 Coolant Temp 15 Throttle Position 8 Vehicle Speed 16 Idle Time

Details of the installation of the pressure sensors box in the engine compartment

are presented in Figure 3. A constant input voltage of 10 volt, obtained from the car battery tension passing through a voltage regulator, is used to supply the piezoresis-tive pressure sensors. In the same figure an image of the mounting of the 3 pressure ports in the front of the vehicle is also presented.

Fig. 3. Images of the pressure sensors box in the engine compartment and the pressure ports in the front of the car

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Images of the two data loggers mounted in the vehicle to register data during the road tests are presented in Figure 4.

Fig. 4. OBD II Dash Dyno logger and GlobalSat GPS logger

In Table 2, the characteristics of the vehicle and the physical constant values are displayed. For the Cd and the frontal area values, the data delivered by the manufac-turer in the available technical information has been used. The mass value was calcu-lated summing to the technical catalogue value the mass of the passengers.

Table 2. Vehicle’s Characteristics and Constants

Parameter Value Mass (kg) 1634 Static friction coef K0 0.01 Dynamic friction coef K1 0.0000003 Specific mass of air ! (kg/m3) 1.225 Aerodynamic drag coef Cd 0.32 Frontal area A (m2) 2.136 Acceleration of gravity g (m/s2) 9.81

As regards the friction coefficients, the typical values presented in [1] were con-

firmed in a deceleration test.

4 Results

In Figure 5, the followed test route is depicted. Point 1 represents the beginning and end of the test. It is a gas station next to a Cypriot town named Bostancı. To suc-cessfully complete a tank refill consumption method, the trip should start and finish at a gas station. Therefore, the test is completed by a closed circuit along that path. The geographical features of the route are very important for the experimental results. The first part of it consists mostly of flat roads. The second part is the path in Girne Moun-



tains. Due to the curvy road and altitude changes, a lot of breaking events are re-quired. Therefore this gives the perfect chance to analyze the effect of gravitational force and inertial force changes in the instantaneous values of the fuel rate. The last part of the path is the road between the mountains and the gas station and like the first part of the route, it consists mainly of flat roads.

Fig. 5. Route followed during the tests in Google Earth platform

Figure 6 deals with the car fuel tank filling operation and the calibration of the gas station flow rate measuring systems. To check the uncertainty of this system, before filling the tank, the gas station employee was asked to fill with 1 liter measured by the gas pump a graduated burette.

An error of 1% has been detected, meaning that the actual volume should be ob-tained multiplying by 1.01 the value measured by the fuel pump flowmeter.

The GlobalSat DG-100 GPS Data Logger has been configured with a sampling in-terval of 5 seconds. A short path of recorded information is illustrated in Figure 7. Each green stamp represents a recording. If the distances between stamps are increas-ing, it means that the vehicle is accelerating and vice-versa. Each recording includes the time, current speed and current vehicle position (latitude, longitude and altitude).

The application tool developed in the LabView programming platform to visualize and analyze the data collected during the road tests is presented in Figure 8, showing in the various displays the data collected in the end of the performed test.

Fig. 6. Fuel tank filling and calibration of gas station flowmeter

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Fig. 7. Representation of the GPS acquired data points

It may be used either during the test, in case a laptop computer is collecting the in-formation in real-time from the data-loggers, or to process previously recorded data files, showing, like a movie, the time evolution of the different parameters.

In the case of post-test visualization of data, the user can define in the upper left corner the rate at which the displays are refreshed, adjusting it depending on the total duration time of the test to be analyzed. In the left side of the screen, from top to bot-tom, are included: a speedometer with built-in odometer, a bar display showing the throttle position and two analog meters showing the air admission temperature and the engine coolant temperature.

Fig. 8. Graphical interface of the application tool developed to display and analyze the road test data



The central part of the screen is used to present four X-T graphs, from top to bot-tom: the car speed measured by the GPS in km/h, the altitude measured by the GPS in meters, the calculated driving in the car wheels and, finally, the fuel rate value calcu-lated and available at the car electronic central unit (ECU).

In the right side of the screen, there are five slider displays showing the instantane-ous values of the four force components in the second member of equation (1) and the instantaneous value of the driving force in the wheels (Total Force, corresponding to the sum of the four components). The instantaneous values of the fuel rate calculated by the ECU are displayed in the analog meter located in the lower right corner of the screen.

5 Conclusions

A methodology has been implemented coupling the results from the data acquisi-tion system installed on-board of a car with the calculations of a simple model. Be-sides delivering the time evolutions of a larger number of parameters related with both the travel path and the vehicle operating conditions, it allows the determination of the energy conversion efficiency of the car propulsion system. The application tool developed to visualize the tests results is a precious auxiliary in teaching activities because it helps learners to establish the cause-effect relationship between the evolu-tion of the path parameters and the force components participating in the vehicle mo-tion equation. It may be used in two different ways: for post-processing of the files recorded by the data loggers in their internal memory or in a SD card; or as a real-time data processing and visualization tool. In the latter case, the vehicle road test experience may be converted into a remote access experience [7], in case a mobile internet connection is available in the car.

Exploring the same concept presented in [8], where the images of a webcam are displayed together with the results of a data acquisition process, a laptop computer running the application may act as a server using the web-publishing tools of Lab-View. In this way, all the students in a classroom may follow the evolution of the data collected while the car is tested on the road.

6 Acknowledgment

The authors acknowledge the METU-NCC administration services for lending the car used in the tests, as well as the driver services. The paper has been prepared in the framework of the project TRAPHIC (ref. POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016729 and PTDC/ECM-URB/3329/2014).

7 References

[1] V. Mick#naitis, A. Pik#nas, I. Mackoit, “Reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emission in motor cars” Vilnius, Lithuania, May 2007

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[2] P. Roura, D. Oliu, “How energy efficient is your car?” American Journal of Physics, 588, 2002

[3] J. Merkisz, J. Pielecha, “Emissions and Fuel Consumption during Road Test from Diesel and Hybrid Buses under Real Road Conditions”. Poznan University of Technology Insti-tute of Internal Combustion Engine and Transport. 2009

[4] D. W. Kim, J. W Yoon, S. Park, K. Kim, T. Lee “Fuel consumption parameters for realiz-ing and verifying fuel consumption prospect algorithm of vehicle driving route information system”. International Journal of Automotive Technology, Vol. 14, No. 6, pp. 955$964. 2013https://doi.org/10.1007/s12239-013-0105-0

[5] M. Ghodsirad, J. Teixeira, P. Breda, C. Campos, L. Serrano, M. Gameiro da Silva “A Methodology to Evaluate the Performance and Consumption of Vehicles in Comparative On-Road Tests”, Paper F2014-EDU-026 presented in FISITA 2014 World Automotive Congress, 2-6 June 2014, Maastricht, The Netherlands

[6] V. Pirs, Z. Jesko, J. Laceklis-Bertmanis. “Determination methods of fuel consumption in laboratory conditions”. Engineering for Rural Development- 7th International Scientific Conference (s. 154-159). Jelgava: Latvian University of Agriculture, May 2008

[7] M. Teresa Restivo, M. C. Gameiro da Silva, “Portuguese Universities Sharing Remote La-boratories”, Special Issue of International Journal on Emerging Technologies in Learning, November 2009, https://doi.org/10.3991/ijoe.v5s2.1090

[8] J. Dias Carrilho, M. Mateus, M. Gameiro da Silva, “ Real time web publishing of envi-ronmental noise monitoring data”, 3rd Experiment@ internacional conference, June 2015, Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal

8 Authors

Manuel Gameiro da Silva (corresponding author) is Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Coimbra and has been Invited Professor at METU-NCC. He is the Coordinator of the Research Group in Energy, Environment and Comfort of ADAI-LAETA, the President of the Direction Board of the Portuguese Society of Engineering Education and Vice-President of REHVA (Federation of European Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Associa-tions).

Ahmet Gültekin graduated in Mechanical Engineering at the Middle East Tech-nical University – North Cyprus Campus. He is Project and Coordination Engineer in Partner Teknik, Istambul.

Eren Ünlütürk graduated in Mechanical Engineering at the Middle East Technical University – North Cyprus Campus. He is Jr. Mechanical Engineer in VA Tech Wabag, Istambul.

Article submitted 22 November 2016. Published as resubmitted by the authors 13 February 2017.


Special Focus Paper—Industry 4.0 Concept: Background and Overview

Industry 4.0 Concept: Background and Overview https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v11i5.7072

Andreja Rojko ECPE European Center for Power Electronics e.V., Nuremberg, Germany

[email protected]

Abstract—Industry 4.0 is a strategic initiative recently introduced by the German government. The goal of the initiative is transformation of industrial manufacturing through digitalization and exploitation of potentials of new tech-nologies. An Industry 4.0 production system is thus flexible and enables indi-vidualized and customized products. The aim of this paper is to present and fa-cilitate an understanding of Industry 4.0 concepts, its drivers, enablers, goals and limitations. Building blocks are described and smart factory concept is pre-sented. A Reference Architecture Model RAMI4.0 and role of standardization in future implementation of Industry 4.0 concept are addressed. The current sta-tus of Industry 4.0 readiness of the German companies is presented and com-mented. Finally it is discussed if Industry 4.0 is really a disruptive concept or simply a natural incremental development of industrial production systems.

Keywords—Industry 4.0, Cyber-Physical Systems, Enterprise-Resource-Planning, Manufacturing Execution System.

1 Introduction

Industrial production is nowadays driven by global competition and the need for fast adaptation of production to the ever-changing market requests. These require-ments can be met only by radical advances in current manufacturing technology. Industry 4.0 is a promising approach based on integration of the business and manu-facturing processes, as well as integration of all actors in the company’s value chain (suppliers and customers). Technical aspects of these requirements are addressed by the application of the generic concepts of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and indus-trial Internet of Things (IoT) to the industrial production systems. The Industry 4.0 ‘execution system’ is therefore based on the connections of CPS building blocks. These blocks are embedded systems with decentralized control and advanced connec-tivity that are collecting and exchanging real-time information with the goal of identi-fying, locating, tracking, monitoring and optimizing the production processes. Fur-thermore, an extensive software support based on decentralized and adapted versions of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is needed for a seamless integration of manufacturing and business processes. The third important aspect is handling of a big amount of data collected from the process-es, machines and products. Typically the data is stored in a cloud storage. This data

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requires extensive analytics that lead from the ‘raw’ data to the useful information and, finally to the concrete actions that support an adaptive and continuously self-optimizing industrial production process.

Due to the importance of this transition for the position of a country in a global market, some government-led initiatives were introduced all-around the world to support the transition. Industry 4.0, as the first such initiative and inspiration for other initiatives, comes from Germany and will be addressed in detail in this paper. Similar concepts that were initiated in other countries are shortly presented in the continua-tion.

The concept of Industrial Internet has been brought up in North America by the General Electric company in late 2012. It is seen as a tight integration of physical and digital worlds that combines big data analytics with the Internet of Things. The con-cept assumes a much broader application area as the Industry 4.0 and covers power generation and distribution, healthcare, manufacturing, public sector, transportation and mining [1]. Within the Industrial Internet consortium that was founded by Gen-eral Electrics and some other companies [1], it has been estimated that 46% of the global economy can benefit from the Industrial Internet.

In France, the concept ‘Industrie du futur’ was introduced as a core of the future French industrial policy. It is based on cooperation of industry and science and built on five pillars: (1) cutting edge technologies including additive manufacturing, virtual plant, IoT, and augmented reality, (2) supporting the French companies, especially small to middle ones, to adapt to new technologies, (3) extensive employees’ training, (4) strengthening international cooperation around industrial standards and (5) promo-tion of French industry of the future [2].

Next similar initiative ‘Made in China 2025’ was introduced in 2015 [3]. It was ini-tiated by the China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in cooperation with many experts from the China Academy of Engineering. The main goal of this initiative is to comprehensively upgrade Chinese industry by drawing direct inspira-tion from Germany's Industry 4.0 concept and adapting it to the China needs. The transformed manufacturing should be innovation-driven. Also other elements like sustainable development and green energy are considered. Ten priority sectors were identified starting from information technology, robotics and automated machine tools. The long term goals are to reform China manufacturing industry, to move from the high number of low-cost products to high-quality products and to take over Ger-many and Japan dominance in manufacturing until 2035, in order to evolve into the industry world superpower until 2049.

This paper will focus on the Industry 4.0 concept introduced by the Germany gov-ernment aiming at industrial production systems. Background of the concept, devel-opment plan and current state will be addressed. Some software technological back-ground issues, which reflect essential aspects of Industry 4.0 concept, will be present-ed.

The paper is structured as follows. The second section presents the core idea of In-dustry 4.0, its origin, goals and elements as well as Industry 4.0 production system (smart factory). Also IT/software support is addressed. In the third section a Refer-ence Architecture Model RAMI 4.0 that sets the basis the for standardization activi-



ties is described. In the fourth section the readiness of companies for Industry 4.0 is discussed and a concrete example of a company that has already adopted most of the Industry 4.0 elements is presented. In the last section conclusions are drawn and gen-eral topics are discussed.

2 Core idea of Industry 4.0

2.1 Through the industrial revolutions

Stages in the development of industrial manufacturing systems from manual work towards Industry 4.0 concept can be presented as a path through the four industrial revolutions. The development is depicted in Figure 1.

The first industrial revolution began with the mechanization and mechanical power generation in 1800s. It brought the transition from manual work to the first manufac-turing processes; mostly in textile industry. An improved quality of life was a main driver of the change.

The second industrial revolution was triggered by electrification that enabled in-dustrialization and mass production. Often mentioned in this context is a quote of Henry Ford, who said about the Ford T-Model car ‘You can have any colour as long as it is black.’. The quote captures well the introduction of mass production but with-out the possibility of products’ customization.

The third industrial revolution is characterized by the digitalization with introduc-tion of microelectronics and automation. In manufacturing this facilitates flexible production, where a variety of products is manufactured on flexible production lines with programmable machines. Such production systems however still do not have flexibility concerning production quantity.

Fig. 1. Through the industrial revolutions

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Today we are in the fourth industrial revolution that was triggered by the develop-ment of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). Its technological basis is smart automation of cyber-physical systems with decentralized control and ad-vanced connectivity (IoT functionalities). The consequence of this new technology for industrial production systems is reorganization of classical hierarchical automation systems to self-organizing cyber physical production system that allows flexible mass custom production and flexibility in production quantity.

2.2 Origin of Industry 4.0 concept

That the Industry 4.0 concept comes from Germany is not surprising, since Germa-ny has one of the most competitive manufacturing industries in the world and is even a global leader in the sector of manufacturing equipment. Industry 4.0 is a strategic initiative of the German government that traditionally heavily supports development of the industrial sector. In this sense, Industry 4.0 can be seen also as an action to-wards sustaining Germany’s position as one of the most influential countries in ma-chinery and automotive manufacturing.

The basic concept was first presented at the Hannover fair in the year 2011. Since its introduction, Industry 4.0 is in Germany a common discussion topic in research, academic and industry communities at many different occasions. The main idea is to exploit the potentials of new technologies and concepts such as:

• availability and use of the internet and IoT, • integration of technical processes and business processes in the companies, • digital mapping and virtualization of the real world, • ‘Smart’ factory including ‘smart’ means of industrial production and ‘smart’ prod-

ucts.

Besides being the natural consequence of digitalization and new technologies, the introduction of Industry 4.0 is also connected with the fact that many up to now ex-ploited possibilities for increasing the profit in the industrial manufacturing are almost exhausted and new possibilities have to be found. Namely the production costs were lowered with introduction of just-in-time production, by adopting the concepts of lean production and especially by outsourcing production to countries with lower work costs. When it comes to the decreasing costs of industrial production, Industry 4.0 is a promising solution. According to some sources, Industry 4.0 factory could result in decrease of [4]:

• production costs by 10-30%, • logistic costs by 10-30%, • quality management costs by 10-20%.

There are also a number of other advantages and reasons for the adoption of this concept including: (1) a shorter time-to-market for the new products, (2) an improved customer responsiveness, (3) enabling a custom mass production without significantly



increasing overall production costs, (4) more flexible and friendlier working environ-ment, and (5) more efficient use of natural resources and energy.

2.3 Industry 4.0 production system (Smart factory)

Figure 2 depicts the Industry 4.0 smart factory. The core process is digital to physi-cal conversion in a reconfigurable manufacturing system. Reconfigurable manufactur-ing systems are the latest advance in the development of a manufacturing system. First step were fixed production lines with the machines dedicated to the performance of specific tasks so only one product could be produced. Next step were flexible pro-duction systems with programmable machines that allowed production of a variety of different products but offered no flexibility in the production capacity [5]. As the results of the latest development are reconfigurable manufacturing systems able to adapt their hardware and software components to follow ever-changing market re-quirements of type and quantity of the products [6], [7].

Machines in Industry 4.0 factory are Cyber-Physical Systems, physical systems in-tegrated with ICT components. They are autonomous systems that can make their own decisions based on machine learning algorithms and real-time data capture, ana-lytics results, and recorded successful past behaviours. Typically, programmable ma-chines (CNC and NC) are used, with a large share of mobile agents and robots able of self-organization and self-optimization.

Fig. 2. Industry 4.0 smart factory

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Products in such factory are also ‘smart’, with embedded sensorics that is used via wireless network for real-time data collection for localization, for measuring product state and environment conditions. Smart products also have control and processing capabilities. Thus they can control their logistical path through the production and even control/optimize the production workflow that concerns them. Furthermore, smart products are capable of monitoring their own state during the whole life cycle, including during their lifetime/application. This enables proactive, condition-based maintenance that is especially valuable for products embedded in larger systems (like for example power converters in electric grids) [8].

In Industry 4.0, the production elements have beside their physical representation also virtual identity, a data object that is stored in the data cloud. Such virtual identity can include a variety of data and information about the product, from documents, to 3-D models, individual identifiers, current status data, history information and meas-urement/test data.

Important elements of the Industry 4.0 concept are also interoperability and con-nectivity. A continuous flow of information between the devices and components, Machine-To-Machine interaction (M2M), manufacturing systems and actors should be established. Hereby the machines, products and factories can connect and com-municate via the Industrial IoT (mostly based on wireless network). Another im-portant topic is Human-To-Machine (H2M) collaboration that is necessary as some production tasks are too unstructured to be fully automatized. A lot of research effort is currently also invested in so called collaborative robotics. Here human workers and especially designed compliant robots work together in the execution of complex and unstructured work tasks at the manufacturing production line. Such tasks were done completely manually before. Advanced user interfaces are developed for new forms of M2H communication. They often include teleoperation and are based on augment-ed reality environments.

Between the Industry 4.0 manufacturing technologies, additive manufacturing, such as 3D printing, is often mentioned as one of the key technologies. In combina-tion with rapid prototyping methods including 3D modelling, a direct digital thread can be established from design to production, facilitating a shorter time from the idea to the product. Until now, however, additive manufacturing processes cannot always reach the same quality as a conventional industrial process and some new materials still need to be developed.

2.4 IT support

Software tools are crucial for operating of the Industry 4.0 smart factory. Figure 3 depicts the well known pyramid structure of support software of modern production systems.

On the business level, the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool is implement-ed. ERP supports enterprise-wide planning such as business planning, supply chain management, sales and distribution, accounting, human resource management and similar. Usually commercially available solutions are implemented. Currently the leading solution is SAP, by the German company SAP SE [9]. In traditional ERP



tools, the decision process is centralized on the highest level in the automation pyra-mid. Most of the available ERP solutions do not support fast adaptation in production planning due to the unplanned events.

Fig. 3. Automation pyramid in modern production systems

The second level in the traditional automation pyramid is Manufacturing Execution System (MES). It supports production reporting, scheduling, dispatching, product tracking, maintenance operations, performance analysis, workforce tracking, resource allocation and similar. It covers aspects such as management of the shop floor and communication with the enterprise (business) systems. Most of the software solutions available on the market are centralized and not distributed to the shop floor elements. This is a major limiting factor when flexibility is needed due to the dynamics of cus-tomers’ order flow and/or changing production environment, including shop floor configuration.

The next operative level is process level control based on Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) control system architecture followed by controllers on machine/device level such as Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), robot control-lers and other controllers.

The last level of the automation pyramid is a machine/device level. In opposition to the top two layers, this level has a naturally distributed control level.

ERP and MES tools represent basic software in the company and are used since the nineties. Both systems have typically a modular structure but are centralized in their operation and thus have limited capability for dynamic adaptation of the production plan [10]. Nevertheless, already implemented conventional ERP and MES systems should not be seen as main obstacles to the introduction of the Industry 4.0 concept but more as a step towards it. Namely already the introduction of a common MES tool requires advanced IT infrastructure on the shop floor level and this is also a precondi-tion for further development towards smart factory.

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The next important issue is information integration among ERP, MES and other software tools used in the company such as, for example, Customer-Relationship-Management (for help at managing relationships with the outside) and Business Intel-ligence (for business analysis purposes). The problems such as database integration and communication protocols need to be resolved [10].

It can be concluded that for the Industry 4.0 the classical automation structure does not present the best solution as it is not flexible enough for adapting to the dynamic changes in the order flow and at the shop floor. Distributed MES solution, where most of the functions are decentralized, is expected to be more suitable for the reconfigura-ble production systems, Figure 4. For full support of reconfigurable systems, a con-tinuous flow of information (vertical and horizontal integration) between all elements should be realized.

Fig. 4. Industry 4.0 structure of IT support and operative level control in the industry

3 Reference architecture model RAMI4.0

It is clear that the Industry 4.0 concept will be in most companies realized by using already available equipment and technologies. Only when a new production system is planned, there is an opportunity to design the production system already from the beginning as Industry 4.0 system. Therefore one of the challenges is how already available standards will be integrated into the new concept.

To address the standardization issue, a Reference Architecture Model for the In-dustry 4.0 (RAMI4.0), Figure 5, was developed in Germany [11].



Fig. 5. Reference Architecture Model for Industry 4.0 [11]

This is a meta-model so it describes the aspects that play an important role in the Industry 4.0 production system. It is based on the internationally accepted Smart Grids architecture model introduced in year 2014, however with two additional bot-tom layers to address specific aspects of Industry 4.0. The three dimensional RAMI4.0 should enable:

• identification of the existing standards, • identification and closure of gaps and loopholes in the existing standards, • identification of overlaps in the existing standards.

The first dimension of the RAMI4.0 addresses two elements, type and instance. As long as an idea, a concept, or a product is still a plan and is not available/realized yet, it is called type. The second dimension of the model deals with location, functional hierarchy from the product to the connected world (as the last stage of Industry 4.0 development with all enterprises, customers and suppliers connected). The third di-mension of the RAMI4.0 model is organized in functional layers as follows [11]:

• An assets layer includes physical components such as robots, conveyer belts, PLCs, documents, archives, but also non-physical objects such as software and ideas.

• An integration layer provides information for assets in a form that can be digitally processed. It includes elements connected to IT such as sensors, integration to HMI and computer-aided control of technical processes.

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• A function of the communication layer is standardization of communication using uniform data format and predefined protocols. It also provides services for the in-tegration layer.

• An information layer is processing and integrating available data into useful infor-mation.

• A functional layer includes formal descriptions of functions. Also ERP functions belong to this layer.

• A business layer includes mapping of the business model and links between differ-ent business processes.

RAMI4.0 is in Germany registered as DIN SPEC 91345 and it is as such a first compilation of the essential technological elements of Industry 4.0. It is perceived as a precondition for deployment of Industry 4.0 concept in practice and also as a model that requires international acceptance.

4 Current state of Industry 4.0

When considering the current state of the Industry 4.0, it is important to understand the preconditions that have to be fulfilled so that a new concept can be introduced in industrial manufacturing system. At least the following has to be fulfilled:

• Stability of the production has to be guaranteed also during the transition phase. • Stepwise investment should be possible as most of the industrial processes cannot

bear big one-time investments. • A good know-how protection is necessary. Closely connected is the cybersecurity

issue.

Furthermore the industry concept is not limited just to the production system but it includes the complete value chain (from suppliers to the customers of one enterprise towards the ‘Connected Word’ of all enterprises) and all enterprise’s functions and services. It is clear that it is not easy to fulfil these criteria, therefore only some ‘is-lands’ of the Industry 4.0 concept currently exist.

To evaluate the current state the German organization ‘Verband Deutscher Mas-chinen- und Anlagenbau’ has conducted a study on the readiness of Germany compa-nies for Industry 4.0. The following six dimensions were evaluated, [12]:

• Strategy and organization (investments, innovations management), • Smart factory (equipment and IT systems, data capturing and usage, digital model-

ling), • Smart operation (integration of value chain, cloud storage), • Smart products (physical components, virtual identity), • Data-driven services (ICT functionalities, prediction and optimization of business

outcomes, ..), • Human resources (employees skills, continuous education).



A survey was conducted of 268 companies from Germany with more than 20 em-ployees, [12]. The results showed that 56.5% of all participating companies are not fulfilling any requirements concerning Industry 4.0 readiness. Further, 20.1% of the companies are assessed to be on the Level 1 (beginner), which means that the compa-ny is involved in Industry 4.0 through pilot initiatives in various departments and investments. This is however limited to a single area and only few processes are al-ready supported by IT systems. Only 0.3% of companies (8 companies from 268 that were participating) are ranked on the Level 5 (top performer). This means that they have already implemented the Industry 4.0 strategy and have sufficiently addressed all six evaluated dimensions.

One of the few companies that has already implemented the Industry 4.0 concept is the German company SEW Eurodrive from Baden-Württemberg [13]. The basis of their approach is manufacturing logistic based on so called ‘mobile assistants’. The mobile assistants are autonomous mobile platforms that move through the shop-floor carrying material, half-products and tools. In the attached Radio-Frequency Identifica-tion (RDIF) chips mobile assistants also carry all information concerning the required manufacturing processes. When a new customer order arrives the mobile assistant collects the necessary material and autonomously brings it from workstation to work-station, according to the order of necessary manufacturing processes. At the work-stations that are cyber-physical systems, the mobile assistant connects to the machine and provides necessary information. At the workstations based on manual human work, the communication with the worker is established via user interface running on a tablet.

As a result, the productivity of the SEW company has been increased and the workers were relieved from most of the heavy manual labour connected with trans-porting and displacing of material and half-products. According to [14], the only limi-tation towards complete automation in this company is a human factor. For example, when constituting working teams for a specific product it needs to be considered who can most efficiently work together. Such decisions can of course not be automated.

5 Conclusions and Discussion

In this paper, the background and development of the Industry 4.0 concept are pre-sented. Although the concept is very comprehensive and complex, three main points can be identified:

• The Industry 4.0 concept is not limited just to the direct manufacturing in the com-pany but it includes also a complete value chain from providers to customers and all enterprise’s business functions and services.

• The Industry 4.0 assumes broad support of an entire life cycle of systems, products and series, distributed both spatially and organizationally. The smart products are not smart only during the manufacturing process but they continue to provide the data about their state also during their lifetime. These data can be used for preven-tive maintenance; it can provide the manufacturer useful information about lifetime and reliability of their products.

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• The Industry 4.0 is a specialization of the Internet of Things applied to the manu-facturing/industrial environment. It assumes a real-time data collection leading to the issue of handling and analysing huge data and cybersecurity.

Finally, let us consider a generally accepted opinion about the role and future of the Industry 4.0 concept. Namely the Industry 4.0 is often considered as disruptive tech-nology that will pave the way to a new generation of industrial manufacturing systems that will be completely different than the existing ones. Further, the Industry 4.0 is generally adopted as a concept of the fourth industrial revolution. This opinion does however require a closer look since the fourth industrial revolution is the first indus-trial revolution that was announced in advance and not when it was already fully de-veloped.

On the other hand, Industry 4.0 can be also perceived as a natural transformation of the industrial production systems triggered by the digitalization trend. This hypothesis is supported by comparison of ‘conventional’ topics in industrial production systems and Industry 4.0 topics depicted in Figure 6. It is obvious that the main issues/topics did not really change, just the technology and approaches for tackling the connected issues are new.

Fig. 6. Comparison of topics in conventional industrial production and the Industry 4.0 topics

Five years after the introduction in Germany, the Industry 4.0 concept is known worldwide and it has been also transferred from its original application field in indus-trial manufacturing to other engineering and non-engineering fields. The correspond-ing concepts such as Automotive 4.0, Logistic 4.0 and Education 4.0 have in common with original meaning of Industry 4.0 only extensive usage of ICT tools, connectivity and capture and analysis of real-time data.

The way towards wider deployment of the Industry 4.0 production concept is still long. There are only very few Industry 4.0 enterprises, mostly new enterprises built to prove the concept. It can be expected that most of the enterprises will introduce the Industry 4.0 elements gradually and by building on already existing equipment and software solutions, thus not endangering the stability of their production.



6 References

[1] Industrial Internet Consortium, Industrial Internet Reference Architecture,Version 1.7, 2015.

[2] Presentation at the French Embassy in the Germany, “Industry of the future“, 2015. Avail-able at. http://www.ambafrance-de.org/Vorstellung-des-neuen-franzosischen-Plans-Industrie-du-Futur-in-der-Botschaft. Last accessed: 24.11.2016.

[3] The State Council of the People's Republic of China, “Made in China 2025“, Available at: http://english.gov.cn/2016special/madeinchina2025/. Last accessed: 24.11.2016.

[4] Thomas Bauernhansl, Jörg Krüger, Gunther Reinhart, Günther Schuh: Wgp-Standpunkt In-dustrie 4.0, Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Produktionstechnik Wgp e. v., 2016.

[5] U.R. Dhar, “Flexible manufacturing systems: Major breakthrough in manufacturing man-agement“, Elsevier Engineering Management International, Volume 5, Issue 4, May 1989, Pages 271-277.

[6] Yoram Korena, Moshe Shpitalnib, “Design of reconfigurable manufacturing systems“, Elsevier Journal of Manufacturing Systems, Volume 29, Issue 4, October 2010, Pages 130–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmsy.2011.01.001

[7] N. G. Nayak, F. Dürr and K. Rothermel, “Software-defined environment for reconfigura-ble manufacturing systems, “ Internet of Things (IOT), 2015 5th International Conference on the, Seoul, 2015, pp. 122-129.

[8] B. C. Morello, B. Ghaouar, C. Varnier and N. Zerhouni, “Memory tracking of the health state of smart products in their lifecycle,“ Industrial Engineering and Systems Manage-ment (IESM), Proceedings of 2013 International Conference on, Rabat, 2013.

[9] SAP SE, Available at: http://go.sap.com/corporate/en.html. Last accessed: 24.11.2016. [10] A. Bratukhin, T. Sauter, “Functional Analysis of Manufacturing Execution System Distri-

bution,“ IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, Vol. 7, No. 4, Nov. 2011, pp. 740-749. https://doi.org/10.1109/TII.2011.2167155

[11] Referenzarhitekturmodell Industrie 4.0 (RAMI4.0), VDI/VDE Gesellschaft Mess- und au-tomatizierungstechnik, April 2015.

[12] Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau. Industrie 4.0 readiness, Cologne Insti-tute for Economic Research (IW) and Aachen University 2015.

[13] SEW EURODRIVE: ‘Industrie 4.0 – Unsere Vision der Lean Sm@rt Factory’. Available at: https://www.sew-eurodrive.de/unternehmen/ihr_erfolg/zukunftsthemen/industrie_40/ industrie_40.html. Last accessed: 30.11.2016.

[14] SEW EURODRIVE: ‘Industrie 4.0’ (German). Available at: http://video2.spiegel.de/flash/12/41/1701421_1024x576_H264_HQ.mp4. Last accessed: 30.11.2016.

[15] IMPULS Foundation of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), Industrie 4.0 read-iness check tool for companies, Available at: https://www.industrie40-readiness.de/?lang=en. Last accessed: 24.11.2016.

[16] K. Zhou, Taigang Liu and Lifeng Zhou, “Industry 4.0: Towards future industrial opportu-nities and challenges“, Conference on Fuzzy Systems and Knowledge Discovery, 2015, pp. 2147-2152.

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7 Author

Andreja Rojko received a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the Univer-sity of Maribor, Slovenia in 2002. Afterwards she was with Institute for Robotics at the University of Maribor. In February 2016 she joined ECPE - European Center for Power Electronics, Nuremberg, Germany. (e-mail: [email protected]).



Spaecial Focus Paper—Approach to Adapt a Legacy Manufacturing System Into the IoT Paradigm

Approach to Adapt a Legacy Manufacturing System Into the IoT Paradigm


João Rosas!"!#, Vasco Brito, Luís Brito Palma, Jose Barata New University of Lisbon, Portugal

[email protected]

Abstract—Enterprises are adopting the Internet of Things paradigm as a strategy to improve competitiveness. But enterprises also need to rely on their legacy systems, which are of vital importance to them and normally difficult to reconfigure or modify, their mere replacement being usually not affordable. These systems constitute, therefore, barriers to agility and competitiveness, rais-ing the need to develop cost-effective ways for IoT adaptation. An approach for adapting legacy manufacturing systems into the IoT realm is proposed in this research. The methodology is twofold: an adaptation board is firstly designed to provide IoT connectivity, allowing to remotely invoke the “legacy” functionali-ty as services. Then, the board itself can leverage the legacy system by develop-ing additional functionalities inside it, as the update process is usually triggered by the need of new functionality from these systems. An experiment, which consists of adapting to IoT a small distribution line that is controlled by an aged Programmable Logic Controller, is developed to illustrate how straightforward, affordable and cost effective the adaptation approach is, allowing to holistically achieve a new system with more sophisticated functionality.

Keywords—Internet of Things, Legacy Systems, Manufacturing Systems

1 Introduction

1.1 Motivation

We are currently witnessing an increase regarding the use of IoT systems, which manifests itself in the various aspects of human activity. In fact, the IoT paradigm has been gradually used in a variety of areas, such as surveillance, monitoring, localiza-tion, logistics, healthcare, manufacturing, and so on, mostly driven by complex mar-ket demands. This trend has in turn allowed the creation of new and innovative prod-ucts and services. However, many systems exist today, usually mentioned as legacy systems, that are still used and participating in value creation, but which are unable to be integrated in the IoT realm. For instance, in manufacturing, there are many ma-chines and other systems, which may be relatively old and lacking these IoT capabili-ties, but whose use is still economically advantageous. These systems, although of vital value in many enterprises, affect their competitiveness, as explained below.

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This is very specifically pointed in a related research [[1]]: there are systems, namely legacy software systems, which have been working for more than 50 years.

The most important aspect for manufacturing systems is that they need to cope with an increasingly competitive and more global market environment, whose de-mands have shifted from the mass production paradigm into one which necessitates more personalized products and fast delivery. This requires that these manufacturing systems should remain as agile and adaptable as possible to the changing conditions. Among the trends under Industry 4.0 that may enable this agility is the IoT paradigm. According to [[2]], IoT is considered as one of the key enabling technologies for the fourth industrial revolution that is known as Industry 4.0. The transformations in manufacturing systems, due to this paradigm, have enabled enterprises with the re-quired agility. This is also confirmed in [[3]], where it is mentioned that the automa-tion of assembling products is considered a key aspect for labor-costs, asserting that to improve manufacturing efficiency and profitability, it is necessary to transform capital intensive assembly-lines into smart systems able to reconfigure rapidly, allow-ing fast rescaling of the production systems, in response to demand fluctuations. Leg-acy systems, due to their lack of autonomous responsiveness to disruptive events, would not allow prompt reaction to changing demands. An interesting trend also men-tioned in [[3]] is the economical and social shift towards “manufacturing as a ser-vice”.

The importance of integrating legacy-manufacturing systems into the IoT realm is emphatically expressed in related research. As described in the next chapter, there is an abundant research focusing on legacy system adaptation to IoT. Most authors deal with this problem in a very broad perspective, either in the form of management ar-chitectures, IoT adaptors, gateways, and so on. To our knowledge, no research work is to be found with approaches describing the concrete steps that are necessary to adapt a legacy manufacturing system to the IoT paradigm. This is precisely the aim of our research.

Therefore, in this paper, we present an approach that allows the transfiguration of a legacy manufacturing system into a form that allows operating within the IoT para-digm. The proposed methodology allows resetting the characteristics of a legacy sys-tem in terms of IoT functionality, typically, easier wireless communication, more autonomous behaviour, the ability to collaborate with other IoT objects, and energy management. By comparing the system’s existing (legacy) functionality with the one required for an IoT object, gaps can be identified. Within our approach, these gaps are fulfilled through the development of corresponding service modules that are used to “upgrade” the legacy system. With these services, the transformed system can now operate in the IoT realm. As an illustration, the proposed approach is applied in the control of a distribution line, which is currently controlled by an aged (or legacy) Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). After its transfiguration, the mentioned as-sembly line is now able to behave as an IoT system. This distribution line, now able to operate in an IoT realm with many other IoT systems, can collaboratively partici-pate in the provision of more complex services.



1.2 The legacy system and the IoT adaptation approach

As mentioned before, we present an experiment that consists in the adaptation of a legacy system to the IoT paradigm. This system is a small distribution line, as illus-trated in Figure 1. A Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) controls the line, which is very old. A simple local Human-Machine Interface (HMI) has got a button for start-ing a part transfer process. The PLC programming software no longer runs on the current operating systems. As it is, the system is not able to connect to the Internet and we are not able to reprogram the LADDER program running inside, unless we use a computer with an outdated operating system. From the assumptions highlighted later on, in the related research section, we can consider the distribution line and PLC as a legacy manufacturing system.

Fig. 1. Representation of the original (legacy) distribution line

As illustrated in Figure 1, the system can only be controlled locally through its HMI. Available operations are those that are programmed within the PLC code, which under the context of our experiment, we are not able to modify. Our aim is, on one hand, to adapt the system so that it can provide additional functionality. On the other hand, we intend that both the current and new functionalities can be remotely invoked in the form of services. A remote operator could then invoke these services. Furthermore, other IoT devices may be able to collaborate with this system and, holis-tically, participate in the execution of more complex services.

Our approach relies on developing a simple, very flexible, efficient and affordable adaptor, named IoT adaptor, as illustrated in Figure 2. The approach we are going to describe can easily be replicated in other situations. This includes the electronic cir-cuit design, the connections to the PLC and distribution line, the firmware that will also hold the web services, and examples of services invocation. Contrasting with related research, as stated in the next section, our aim is to specifically describe the concrete steps to develop the board and undertake IoT adaptation of the legacy manu-facturing system.

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Fig. 2. Adaptation through an IoT adaptor board.

2 Literature Review

There are currently many systems, specifically legacy systems, which still partici-pate in value creation and play vital roles inside enterprises. In spite of their lack of flexibility, mainly regarding interoperability with other systems, there are good rea-sons to keep them, and as an alternative, proceed to their modernization with adequate approaches. To illustrate what we mean in reality, it is important to first discuss the concept of a legacy system.

According to research work from the software engineering area [[4]], a legacy sys-tem can be informally characterised as being difficult to maintain, but remaining itself vital for an organization. According to this research, many of such systems have been in operation for many years, as much as 50 years. Due to their reliance on the use of legacy systems, it is believed that, as stated in [[1]], one in four companies will lose in competitiveness due to lack of competences in digital business technologies, and, therefore, they will not have the access to new markets, faster time-to-market, stream-lined operations and cost savings that digital businesses generate. The research em-phasizes the fact that these systems digest up to 90 percent of the IT budget, the main causes of these situations being problematic APIs and "dead" languages. Older APIs do not have built-in RESTful model properties. Many systems have been implement-ed with languages and paradigms that are no longer taught in universities, notably COBOL [[1]].

In a manufacturing context, recent research work emphasizes the idea that at shop-floor level operations are frequently controlled by PLCs and computer numerical controlled resources, and that IoT or Cyber Physical System (CPS) virtualization will need to consider these shop-floor aspects for legacy reasons [[5]]. Furthermore, ac-cording to the research in [[6]], IoT is transforming the way that modern manufactur-ing systems will be developed and operated, mainly due to the adaptation of the REST architectural paradigm. According to the mentioned research, this imposes a paradigm shift for the automation system and requires effective approaches for handling the complexity in this transition, including the need for legacy manufacturing components to be integrated in the modern IoT manufacturing environment. These are modelled through the Unified Modelling Language (UML) profile design for the IoT, allowing

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the automation of the IoT-compliant generation process for both new and legacy equipment.

Many of the IoT works found in related research are focused on developing archi-tectures for sensor networks, IoT or CPS. For example, the research described in [[7]] deals with the design of IoT architectures from the perspective of European projects, aimed at obtaining a common framework of IoT architecture design. The research described in [[8]] proposes an IoT architecture that allows for the interaction between mobile clients and smart / legacy systems through wireless gateways. In [[9]] an IoT architecture is proposed that includes support for legacy systems, focused on easing the task of adaptation. Also legacy integration in the car manufacturing industry is slightly addressed in [[10]]. The research described in [[11]] deals with the problem of connecting legacy devices to the world of smart services, by the utilization of me-diator adapters that provide interoperability between industrial networks (CAN, PROFIBUS, and so on) to other systems. Other work deals with the integration of legacy devices in the SOA-based factory, emphasizing an infrastructure that copes with device heterogeneity, and proposing a gateway, or Service Mediator, to perform the transition of legacy infrastructure [[12]]. In this research it is assumed that Gate-ways and Service Mediators for legacy systems are connected to an industrial com-munication system, e.g. Modbus, PROFIBUS / PROFINET, and CAN, which are commonly used industrial networks.

Other works focus on the study of gateways for the interoperability of IoT nodes, including legacy systems. For instance, an "IPV6 multi-protocol gateway" is proposed in [[13]] for seamless integration of automatic building management systems into IoT, providing an interface for each legacy system.

There are research works making comprehensive surveys of IoT in the industry context. For instance, the research in [[14]] provides this kind of survey, identifying key enabled technologies, major industry IoT applications, research trends and chal-lenges, such as wireless sensor networks (WSN), big data analytics, RFID, and so on.

In the approach described in [[15]], mechatronic components are considered at the lowest level in the system composition hierarchy that tightly integrates mechanics with the electronics and software required to convert the mechanics into a intelligent (smart) object, offering well-defined services to its environment. A software layer, named wrapper, is developed on top of the mechatronic components, allowing inte-gration in an IoT based industrial automation environment. It transforms a mechatron-ic component in an “industrial automation thing” (named as “IAT” in [15]). The ap-proach is undertaken by a so-called model-to-model transformer, which automatically transforms the legacy mechatronic component into an IAT.

All in all, our study of the related research led us to conclude that there are many authors addressing the adaptation of legacy systems, and specifically manufacturing systems, to the IoT paradigm. The research of legacy to IoT transformation is in gen-eral well addressed. However, we found little research describing the concrete steps undertaken during this transformation.

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3 Implementation and Testing

3.1 Legacy system IOTization

In this section, an approach for adapting a legacy system into the IoT environment is presented. We will describe the concrete steps undertaken during the adaptation of the system. The initial step consists of reformulating the existing “legacy” functionali-ty, with additional requirements that are desired in the system after being adapted into IoT, as illustrated in Figure 3. This is because the desire to replace or upgrade a lega-cy system is frequently induced by the need for additional functionality. The compari-son between these two sets allows us to identify gaps of unsatisfied requirements and proceed to their implementation during the adaptation phase.

Fig. 3. Methodological approach of IoT adaptation

3.2 Requirements for modelling and implementation

In order to proceed with our experiment, a wireless digital input/output board is as-sembled in a circuit that will be connected to both the PLC and the distribution line. The PLC unit is very old and, as mentioned before, it no longer allows modification of the LADDER diagram that is encoded and runs in its internal memory. Therefore, this system can be considered as legacy.

Applying the suggested approach of filling the required functionality gaps (as sug-gested in Figure 3), both existing and required functionality are placed in contrast as shown in Table 1. The first set of requirements are the ones already existing in the legacy system. The latter constitute the newly desired functionality, which ought to work in an IoT way. Requirement 7 provides the doorway for invoking the legacy functionality as remote services.

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Table 1. Requirements for the legacy system - IoT adaptation

Req Description Legacy (already there)

1 A button in a HMI triggers the start operation, which performs a push of a new part from the entry buffer.

2 Each part that enters the system is identified as either A, B or C by the sensors. 3 According to its type, each part A, B or C must be delivered to exits 1, 2 and 3 respectively. New IoT functionality

4 Remotely, switch on/off the power of the legacy system. 5 Monitor whether the legacy system power is on/off. 6 Count the number of each part transferred from the input buffer into each station. 7 Trigger the local operations through corresponding remote services. As a legacy system, the distribution line required locally the presence of a human

to operate the system through its HMI. The new requirements were specifically for-mulated to allow the system to be operated remotely, without the need for the local human operator. That is also why the new IoT functionality permits the on/off electri-cal power switch of both the PLC and distribution line, allowing significant savings in energy consumption. Furthermore, the adaptor board can inform whether there is a sudden power cut from the grid. In such situations a backup battery provides power to the IoT adaptor board. The satisfaction of the above requirements resulted in an adap-tation of the system as shown in the diagram in Figure 4.

Fig. 4. Architecture for turning legacy system into IoT

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3.3 Proof of concept and testing

The distribution line is represented by a reduced scale model, as shown in Figure 5. For the intended purposes, we can rely on a model for our experiment. The line has got a vertical feeder at the right side. A cylinder is used to push a part on the main conveyor. During this process, two digital sensors are used to identify the part num-ber. According to the LADDER program running inside the PLC, each part is distrib-uted to its exit according to the identified type.

The PLC, which is running the LADDER program, and the HMI, are shown in Figure 6. As in any PLC, the sensors of the distribution line are connected to the input lines of the PLC. The actuators, namely the main conveyor and cylinders, are con-nected to the output lines.

The circuit diagram for the IoT adapter is shown in Figure 7. It comprises an inte-grated circuit, namely the ESP8266-12e (ESP) microcontroller, which provides Wi-Fi connectivity and several reconfigurable General Purpose Input/Output lines (GP_IO). An example of the use of this device in engineering contexts can be found in [[16]]. Additional components, like resistor and opto-couplers, are used to interconnect the ESP and both the PLC and distribution line. The adoption of a distinct network proto-col, such as Bluetooth or ZigBee, is just a technological aspect we can neglect for the purposes of our experiment.

Fig. 5. The distribution line

Fig. 6. The PLC and HMI



Fig. 7. Schematic for the adapter board

The corresponding circuit for the ESP-based IoT adapter is shown in Figure 8. Be-low the circuit lies the battery backup, which provides power to the board when there is a power shortage in the grid. In normal conditions, the battery is charged with ener-gy from the mentioned grid.

The program for the IoT adapter is programmed inside the ESP in C language. The structure of the code for ESP configuration, namely setting pin modes, either input or output, is shown in Figure 9.

Figure 10 illustrates the C code for configuring ESP as an Access Point (AP). Set-ting it as an AP, any laptop or mobile device can connect to the ESP as a client. Addi-tionally, the ESP circuit could be programmed in “station” mode and, therefore, be able to connect to an existing network infrastructure.

An important aspect subjacent to IoT systems is their ability to interconnect with other IoT devices. Similarly, our IoT adapter requires a number of web services, which enable remote operation. That is, by invoking these services, a human operator, or even other IoT systems, can remotely operate the distribution line. According to the requirements previously established during the gaps identification, the corresponding web services are identified in Table 2.

Fig. 8. IoT adapter board with ESP and backup battery

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Fig. 9. Code for the ESP configuration

Fig. 10. Code for the configuration as AP

Table 2. Web services for remote operation

Service Description push_part() Invokes the local push of a new part from the entry buffer. identify_part() Invokes the local identification process and returns the result. power_on() Switches on the power of the legacy system. power_off() Switches off the power of the legacy system. check_power() Informs whether there is a failure in the power of the legacy system. start_system() System initialization and working mode setting. stop_system() Put the system in a stand-by mode.

The source code for a developing a web service inside the ESP is illustrated in Fig-

ure 11. It comprises the manipulation of the corresponding GP_IO pins, to remotely trigger the push of a new part into the system. The remaining part is composed of HTML code, which is optional, showing the result of the operation in a web browser.

Figure 12 illustrates how such services can be invoked by a browser in a mobile device. The web service and HTML corresponds to the service shown in Figure 11.

The test just performed on the new IoT based distribution line shows that the pro-posed approach is effective. The implementation costs are fairly attractive and the time required to adapt the system was also satisfactorily short.

Now that the legacy device can be used through web services, it can interact with other IoT systems inside a manufacturing system. For such interaction, there are sev-eral protocols, which fall on the category of Remote Procedure Call, like REST web services [[17]]. Furthermore, approaches on bridging with industrial networks can be found in [[11]] and [[12]].

The ESP8266 microcontroller, used in the adaptation board, uses Wi-Fi for con-nectivity, but can also be developed with other network protocols like ZigBee as illus-trated in [[18]]. For that purpose, it is necessary to use another microcontroller like the CC2530, as described in [[19]].

This research is only focused on the functional aspects of legacy system IoT adap-tation. There are several important quality-of-service factors, including security,



which must be considered in the industrial context. For instance, the research in [[20]] addresses the security aspects when considering traditional SCADA systems in the realm of the Internet of Things.

Therefore, in a functional sense, we can conclude that the process of adapting a legacy manufacturing system into the IoT paradigm, like the approach proposed in this research, constitutes an attractive alternative, especially when the legacy systems in question are expensive, difficult to replace and of vital importance for an enter-prise.

Fig. 11. Code for developing a web service inside the ESP

Fig. 12. Invoking a service from a mobile device

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4 Conclusions and Future Work

As expressed in the previous sections, and confirmed by the related research, lega-cy manufacturing systems will persist for long, given their importance in value crea-tion in companies and the high cost of their replacement. On the other hand, these systems constitute serious barriers to the agility and adaptability of companies. As such, the more affordable alternative lies in their adaptation from legacy into IoT-based manufacturing systems.

We have described an approach to adapt a legacy system to operate in the IoT realm. We have focused on the essential aspect of providing remote interoperability to the legacy system. Other crucial aspects, like security, will be addressed in a further refinement of this approach.

Our IoT adaptation methodological steps has shown potential value as a general approach for turning legacy systems into IoT ones. Based on the experiment per-formed during this research, the adaptation of the legacy system into IoT was achieved in an affordable way, both in terms of hardware, firmware, and time. Anoth-er side effect is that a human is no longer required to locally operate the system any-more and is then free to perform other task.

5 Acknowledgment

This work has been supported by Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Univer-sidade Nova de Lisboa, by Uninova-CTS research unit and by national funds through FCT -Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia within the research unit CTS - Centro de Tecnologia e Sistemas (project UID/EEA/00066/2013). The authors would like to thank all the institutions.

6 References

[1] R. Nitschke, “What is a legacy system and how does it affect the business model?”, 2016. https://chaione.com/blog/legacy-system-affect-business-model/, seen in 15/11/2016.

[2] K. Thramboulidis and T. Foradis, "From Mechatronic Components to Industrial Automa-tion Things - An IoT model for cyber-physical manufacturing systems." arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.01120, 2016.

[3] J. Chaplin, O. Bakker, L. de Silva, D. Sanderson, E. Kelly, B. Logan, and S. Ratchev, “Evolvable Assembly Systems: A Distributed Architecture for Intelligent Manufacturing”. IFAC-Papers OnLine, 48(3), 2065-2070, 2015 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2015.06.393

[4] K. Bennett, “Legacy systems: Coping with success”. IEEE software, 12(1), 19-23, 1995. https://doi.org/10.1109/52.363157

[5] R. Babiceanu and R. Seker, “Big Data and virtualization for manufacturing cyber-physical systems: A survey of the current status and future outlook”. Computers in Industry, 81, 128-137, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2016.02.004

[6] K. Thramboulidis, and F. Christoulakis, “UML4IoT-A UML profile to exploit IoT in cyber-physical manufacturing systems”, arXiv preprint arXiv:1512.04894, 2015.



[7] S. Kr!o, B. Pokri", and F. Carrez, “Designing IoT architecture(s): A European perspec-tive”, In Internet of Things (WF-IoT), 2014 IEEE World Forum on (pp. 79-84), 2014.

[8] S. Datta, C. Bonnet, and N. Nikaein, “An IoT gateway centric architecture to provide nov-el M2M services”, In Internet of Things (WF-IoT), 2014 IEEE World Forum on (pp. 514-519), IEEE, 2014.

[9] V. Cerf, and P. Kirstein, “Gateways for the Internet of Things: An old problem revisited”, In 2013 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM) (pp. 2641-2647), IEEE, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1109/GLOCOM.2013.6831473

[10] A. Roukounaki, J. Soldatos, R. Petrolo, V. Loscri, N. Mitton and M. Serrano, “Visual De-velopment Environment for Semantically Interoperable Smart Cities Applications”, In Proceedings of EAI International Conference on Interoperability in IoT, Rome, Italy, 2015.

[11] Z. Bi, L. Xu, C. Wang, “Internet of things for enterprise systems of modern manufactur-ing”, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, 10(2), 1537-1546, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1109/TII.2014.2300338

[12] S. Karnouskos, T. Bangemann, C. Diedrich, ”Integration of legacy devices in the future SOA-based factory”, IFAC Proceedings Volumes, 42(4), 2113-2118, 2009. https://doi.org/10.3182/20090603-3-RU-2001.0487

[13] M. Jung, J. Weidinger, D. Bunyai, C. Reinisch, W. Kastner and A. Olivieri, “Demonstra-tion of an IPv6 multi-protocol gateway for seamless integration of Building Automation Systems into Constrained RESTful Environments”, In Proceedings of the IEEE Interna-tional Conference on Internet of Things (IoT 2012), 2012.

[14] L. Xu, W. He, and S. Li, “Internet of things in industries: A survey”, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, 10(4), 2233-2243, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1109/TII.2014.2300753

[15] K. Thramboulidis and T. Foradis, “From Mechatronic Components to Industrial Automa-tion Things - An IoT model for cyber-physical manufacturing systems”. arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.01120, 2016.

[16] Kantawong, S. (2016, June). Design of smart home elevator module for ageing and disable people with PLC based on cloud control. In Electrical Engineering/Electronics, Computer, Telecommunications and Information Technology (ECTI-CON), 2016 13th International Conference on (pp. 1-6). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ECTICon.2016.7561251

[17] Pautasso, C. (2014). RESTful web services: principles, patterns, emerging technologies. In Web Services Foundations (pp. 31-51). Springer New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/97 8-1-4614-7518-7_2

[18] Shih, T. C., Yeh, S. S., & Hsu, P. L. (2014). Development of a Behavior!Based Coopera-tive Search Strategy for Distributed Autonomous Mobile Robots Using Zigbee Wireless Sensor Network. Asian Journal of Control, 16(2), 421-430. https://doi.org/10.1002/as jc.652

[19] Zhao, S., Liu, M., Fan, Z., & Zhang, S. (2014, July). Warehousing environment monitor-ing systems based on CC2530. In 33rd Chinese Control Conference (CCC), 2014 (pp. 353-358). IEEE.

[20] Nugent, E., & Ratte, M. SCADA cybersecurity in the age of the Internet of Things. http://www.controleng.com/single-article/scada-cybersecurity-in-the-age-of-the-internet-of-things/94eccaddb83842690e375274395e629e.html, seen in 2017/02/10.

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7 Authors

João Rosas received his PhD in Electrical Engineering in 2010 from NOVA Uni-versity of Lisbon, Portugal, where is currently Professor at the Department of Electri-cal Engineering. His research interests are in Real-time Systems, Robotics, Internet of Things, and Simulation of Distributed Manufacturing systems. He has several publi-cations in international journals, conference proceedings and book chapters. He has been participating as team member in several European Commission funded research projects.

Vasco Brito received the MSc degree in electrical and computers engineering from NOVA University of Lisbon (UNL) - Faculty of Sciences and Technology (FCT), Portugal in 2016. In 2014 he developed and implemented PID industrial controllers embedded in microcontrollers. In 2015 he participated in a national Siemens contest with a project entitled "Hybrid System of Distributed Automation", regarding distrib-uted automation and fault tolerant control systems, reaching the final stage. He is currently a Researcher at Uninova-CTS Research Institute, Caparica - Lisboa, Portu-gal, in the areas of dynamical signals and systems, intelligent fault tolerant control systems, aeronautical systems and multi-rotors drones. He also works as an Automa-tion and Systems Engineer at Cegelec “Instalações e Sistemas de Automação, Lda”.

Luís Brito Palma received his PhD in Electrical Engineering in 2007 from NOVA University of Lisbon (UNL) - Faculty of Sciences and Technology (FCT), where he is currently Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, and Researcher at Uninova-CTS Research Institute, Caparica-Lisboa, Portugal. His research interests are in automation, fault detection / diagnosis, intelligent fault tolerant control systems, industrial process control, aeronautical control systems and distributed systems. He has more than 100 publications, in international journals, conference proceedings and book chapters.

Jose Barata received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the New University of Lisbon in 1994, and he is currently a Professor at the Electrical Engineering De-partment where he teaches robotics, telerobotics, intelligent supervision and multia-gent systems applied to the shop floor. He has participated in various projects in the area of collaborative networks/virtual organizations (Esprit PRODNET II, IST THINKcreative, VOmap), projects of cooperation between European Union and Latin America, (Cimis.net, FlexSys, SCM+ and MASSYVE projects), and projects of agile shop floor (Assembly-Net network, IP EUPASS - European Ultra Precision Assembly Systems). His main areas of current research include: multiagent systems applied to the shop floor, selforganising shop floors, evolvable assembly systems, and collabora-tive networks/virtual enterprises/virtual organizations.



Special Focus Paper—An Augmented Reality U-Academy Module: From Basic Principles to Connected…

An Augmented Reality U-Academy Module: From Basic Principles to Connected Subjects


Paulo Menezes University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

[email protected]

Abstract—A module for learning about virtual and augmented reality is be-ing developed under the U-Academy project. The module is composed of three parts. The first part is an introduction to the basic concepts of virtual and aug-mented reality with the help of illustrative examples. The second part presents some of the current uses of augmented reality and its prospective use in several areas that range from industry to medicine. The final part aims at those students interested in the insights of this technology by presenting the underlying con-cepts such as: camera models, computer graphics, pattern detection and pose es-timation from inertial sensors or camera images.

Keywords—Augmented Reality, Cognitive Processes, Direct Manipulation, Hand Tracking

1 Introduction

Augmented reality has recently received an enormous amount of attention from both the general public and companies. Naturally, the game industry has been quite attentive to the long promised technologies to support it. There are indeed several companies doing important investments in the development of products for support-ing augmented reality (AR), like Microsoft Hololens, Vufuria, Magic Leap, and Meta 2, or for virtual reality (VR) such as HTC Vibe and Oculus Rift.

As a matter of fact, some technical difficulties have limited the achievable quality of visualization in AR, and for this reason its inclusion in the games offered by the major players in this industry has been postponed until recently. But, with the new visualization devices available, and the high computational power of current game consoles and personal computers, we can say that the principal barriers to AR adop-tion have been removed. Moreover, the current awareness of the general public to this type of technology makes it impossible to ignore at the risk of losing visibility to other competing companies.

While on the users side it is mainly the novelty that attracts attention, in particular amongst the younger generations, on the commercial side several companies have perceived the possibilities that this new concept was creating. As a result, we have seen the promotion of products via AR, for example by adding markers to their en-

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closing boxes that can be used with some AR-enabled applications, typically down-loadable to smartphones and tablets.

Beyond the promotional use, there are indeed several areas where augmented reali-ty may create new opportunities and added value. Fashion selling stores can use it for enabling people to try on clothes without having to put them on and off. We can also expect that it will bring important benefits to several industrial areas, and in particular to manufacturers, that have the opportunity to include it as a helping tool in assembly, inspection, or maintenance tasks. Among the foreseen uses, we can mention the use of AR for providing guidance about the sequencing of operations to be executed during the inspection of aircrafts, complex assembly procedures, or maintenance tasks. Be-yond guidance, it may support the visualization of quantities being measured at a given instant, or related with some functioning parameters of a particular machine.

For all these reasons, it becomes clear that engineering students should be intro-duced to the AR concepts, as it is most likely that they will encounter this type of technology in their future workplace. Beyond the question of what AR is, how it dif-fers from VR [1,2,3], and how it can be used, the question of what is it built upon may also be explored, either by the curious student, or in the context of specific courses like computer vision (CV) or human-machine interaction (HMI).

The use of AR as a motivation for computer vision can be employed to give practi-cal examples of the use of various subjects that may range from pattern recognition to projective geometry. In the case of HMI, it opens the possibility to use AR as a basis for the creation of new interaction mechanisms. These new mechanisms in turn may be applied to support activities like: AR-guided minimally invasive surgery, immer-sive teleoperation of micro or remote robots, tele-surgery and tele-diagnosis, to name but a few.

The remainder of this paper will present some of the subjects that will be progres-sively integrated on this U-Academy module. The next section discusses some con-cepts that are needed to understand the difference between AR and showing infor-mation or graphics on top of images, how is reality perceived and what are the ingre-dients for creating systems capable of inducing augmented reality perceptions. Sec-tion III provides an analysis of the main types of interaction used nowadays, their limitations and the need to develop direct manipulation mechanisms. Section IV is about the development of AR applications and how it can be explored for motivating students to subjects like computer vision, signal processing, filtering and estimation, graphics programming, or even electronics. Related with the two latter subjects ex-amples are presented of inertial-based hands, and object trackers that can be used to explain both the electronics, the signal filtering and estimation processes or even computer graphics. Section V summarizes and concludes the article, by leaving point-ers for the interested reader to access the material of the module that is already availa-ble.



2 Augmented Reality Concepts

There are indeed several misconceptions about augmented reality (AR), especially among programmers and companies willing to use the current hype to promote their products. The most common one is the notion that for creating AR, one needs to get some nice 3D model and just superimpose it on live video. In fact, that can be part of it, but it is not enough to create "augmented reality. This is similar to the subtitles that frequently appear superimposed on a movie or TV show, but which are not (perceived as) part of the scene (or “reality”) being shown.

On the other hand, it has become common in sport transmissions to have virtual field marks displayed on the field, e.g. to help spectators understand why a referee has taken some decision, or why someone claims that it was a wrong decision. In these cases, those marks can be perceived as lying on the field, so they "augment" the per-ceived scenario. For this reason, we can say that this case corresponds to an example of augmented reality.

2.1 So, what is reality augmentation?

To know how to augment reality we need first to understand what is reality. Is it some absolute truth or is it the result of a set of cognitive processes that involve learned concepts, mental models and perception mechanisms?

As human beings, we can only verify (and accept as true) what we see, touch, hear, smell, or taste, and compare it with memories of previous experiences or with ac-quired concepts. We can say that it is the combination of what is acquired through the senses, its processing, and matching against pre-learned models that results in the perception of reality. In fact, it also involves the use of pre-acquired models and con-cepts, that may completely change the interpretation of any sensed (acquired) infor-mation.

An example of how knowledge may affect reality perception can be when an adult and a child walk on a field and encounter a strawberry poison-dart frog (Oophaga pumilio). The child will probably become excited with the beauty of the frog and will want to try to catch it, while the adult will be terrified and will stop the child from doing the probably mortal move. Here the two persons will have completely different notions of reality for exactly the same situation.

2.2 Cognition and perception of the reality

Our senses and cognitive processes being limited both in acquisition and pro-cessing terms, we have developed impressive capabilities of inference, recognition and reasoning, even in face of incomplete data. This is probably the result of our evo-lution as to what concerns anticipating dangers or survival advantages. The capability of using partial data has made possible the development of our visual system, which is based on 2D projections of the 3D world, and, from these 2D representations, is able to infer about the 3D structures and deal with them. But the 2D nature of this percep-

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tual system leads to the appearance of illusions, that are just the result of some model fitting process upon incomplete or ambiguous data.

Although the two-eye configuration has an important role in the perception of 3D structures, the great capability of our brain for integrating sensory information along time enables us to use self-motion to get more information about the neighbouring 3D structures, in particular when the stereo-based vision is not enough for that purpose. These movements, which are frequently done in an automatic and unconscious way, have the purpose of removing ambiguities or breaking up misinterpretations. In other words, this is the way we check how realistic is what we perceive. This can be seen as a geometry-related consistency verification, where we move to check if the 2D struc-ture we are perceiving respects some 3D mental model that was selected as hypothe-sis.

2.3 Augmenting (the perceived) reality

To produce augmented reality, it is necessary to generate the required sensory stimuli, through the use of some mediating technology, for enabling the perception of virtual elements perfectly integrated with the real (physical) ones. Being our percep-tion able to extract geometric relationships, it is fundamental that the integration of the virtual models and the "real" scene exhibit spatial coherence. Thus, for an aug-mented scene to be credible (or realistic), the virtual elements must always appear in the same relative positions and poses with respect to the physical ones. Or, as an ob-server moves towards, away or around the scene, the view of all virtual and physical elements must suffer exactly the same perspective and rigid transformations. This consistency check enables us to perceive the virtual elements as being part of the scene, and therefore in our vicinity, and as a result we may develop the feeling that we can touch them.

When we achieve a sense of tangibility or sense of presence, as defined by Sheri-dan [4], we can say that we tend to accept the scenario as real, but for that to happen it must pass all the voluntary and involuntary consistency checks we perform.

2.4 Head mounted displays versus handheld visualisation

Although it can be discussed if the right way to produce AR is by using HMDs or, in alternative, handheld devices (e.g. tablets, smartphones, or other), both of them have advantages and disadvantages as will be seen.

In fact, an HMD with one or a pair of coupled cameras, that transform it into a see-through device, seems to be the right choice for creating AR experiences. It can ena-ble the user to look in any direction and see the augmented scenario. But a handheld device can also be considered as an instrument that enables us to see through it and obtain different and augmented views of the surrounding environment, similarly to the use of a portable magnifier.

There is no distinction between them in terms of the involved principles. In both cases the device enables the exploration of the surrounding environment and sees it with added contents. The technical needs and difficulties are also similar, both requir-



ing the estimation of the viewing pose with respect to the environment in a perfectly stable way. In addition, the extraction of the 3D structure of the environment may enable the correct management of the occluding interactions between real and virtual elements, but this is still a hard task given the computational difficulties it imposes. As a result, both cases can work well in simplified utilization scenarios like planar surfaces containing detectable markers, or in complex ones for which a priori models of the environment exist and precise localization technologies are in use.

The differences between the two systems are on the application scenarios and therefore not on the involved processing or algorithms. We can say that AR on HMDs is adequate for tasks that require the use of both hands and/or require the visualization from a user-centred perspective. The use of handheld devices can be more favourable for use during short periods of time, so that the AR tool can be picked up, used to examine an object or scene for a few minutes, and then released.

One should note that although AR can make use of different kinds of visual mark-ers to detect and select the information to display, if the visualized object does not appear perfectly integrated in the environment, we cannot say that AR is being used. In such a case, it is just a QR-code (or other) reader application that displays the relat-ed information, eventually after fetching it from some database.

We can say that in many cases we do not really need AR, or, even worse, using it may render the task more difficult than operating a simple code reader that selects the appropriate information to show. And the reason is that, in most situations, it is more practical to scan the code and then look at the device display in the normal handling position, than to keep it up in front of some marker for reading the same information. Conversely, AR may be very practical and useful in situations where the device can be used like a hand magnifier and interactively visualize information about objects, devices, or places just by passing the handheld in front of them.

3 Interaction Issues of Augmented Reality and Connected Devices

In most of the current AR applications the interaction is limited to the motion of the handheld device or HMD as a way to change the point of view with respect to the scene that contains the virtual elements. We can say that for several cases this is suffi-cient if the objective is only the visualization of those elements. But what happens when the user wants to select different types of information, or eventually interact with the virtual elements to modify their behaviour, or even to use them as control inputs for some physical system? The handheld approaches can make use of the touchable interface to select, open menus and select options of these elements. Con-versely, the HMD-based applications are typically hand free approaches, where the interactions may be made using buttons on the helmet itself, if they exist, using gamepads or other handled device, by performing some specific “air-gestures”, or using any other nearby interaction device. In the HMD-based AR cases there are in-deed many possibilities for the interaction, as the surrounding environment remains visible, and so keyboards, button pads, or any traditional device available may be

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used. Unfortunately, most of these devices only provide indirect ways of performing interaction, and this is quite far from natural if we thing about opening a (virtual) drawer using a keyboard or a gamepad. And, if instead of one, several virtual objects do exist in view, will we need to memorize all the corresponding buttons? What if each of the n objects has m degrees of freedom, should the number of buttons corre-spond to m!n, or will we use a selection-before-action method? There is no single solution for this problem, but making the number of controls explode is normally not acceptable as it will oblige the user to learn the mapping and recall it during every interaction session. For this reason, direct manipulation is more favourable as it does not require particular training phases, because acting on the virtual objects is done resembling the usual manipulation of real objects, or through some physical objects that interact with the virtual ones, as is the case shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Interaction example in AR scenario: Varying the inclination of the planar marker to

make the ball roll down towards other virtual objects.

3.1 Direct manipulation and sense of touch

All the above-mentioned interaction mechanisms can be used to modify the behav-iour of the application, or even that of the virtual objects added to the scene. But how strange it may be to change object properties like the position or the orientation through one of these indirect interaction mechanisms. Our intuition (or mental model) tells us that moving an object can be done by touching, grabbing, moving and then



releasing it, or, in a simpler way, by pulling and pushing it. We can say that the natu-ral and intuitive way of moving (or interacting with) an object is through direct ma-nipulation.

Nevertheless, touching virtual objects is still restricted to the use of rod-like inter-faces of haptic devices that enable to touch the objects indirectly with the rod or pen-cil handled by the user. There are however other works on the development of ap-proaches to produce touch-like sensations, or to modify the touch sensations. Some of the most interesting are the use of vibro-tactile [5] gloves, air flow modulation [6] for enabling the user to perceive, up to some level, the sensation of touching virtual ob-jects, and electrostatic vibration for modifying the perceived texture of a surface [7]. All of these cases need to get a precise estimation of the hand motion, and more pre-cisely of the finger tips, to control the generated stimulus depending on their position.

3.2 Tracking hands

The interaction with virtual objects using direct manipulation has been at the centre of attention of several researchers [8], for the reasons explained above. The main difficulty is how to reliably track hands and their gestures, given the high number of degrees of freedom of their articulated nature, and deal with the frequent occurrence of self-occlusions. Vision- or image-and-depth-based approaches have shown good results, as is the case of LeapMotion, Structure Sensor with OpenNI SDK, or Intel PrimeSense, but they are still limited to configurations where the gestures occur in limited volumes without obstructions. Some attempts to use LeapMotion devices mounted on the HMD have shown some good results, but hands are better tracked from below given that their natural poses generate many occlusions when observed from above.

There are also solutions based on wearable hand trackers, that typically provide very good results. The negative aspects are the inadequacy of the use of gloves for some activities, and the price of these devices.

4 Creating Augmented Reality Applications

To create an augmented reality application, independently of the target device be-ing a handheld or a HMD, the principle is to create the illusion that virtual objects or entities are part of the environment that can be viewed by the user. Excluding glass-like devices because these raise a new set of problems that are out of the scope of this paper, the remaining systems employ one or two cameras to capture the view of the environment, and that view is going to be exhibited on the device display. To create the reality augmentation effect, new virtual elements are introduced in the viewed scenario, through their combination with the captured images. This mixing of virtual and real elements should be sufficient to create the intended perception. But for this to be true, the appearances of both virtual and real elements must evolve along time in exactly the same way, i.e. suffer the same viewing transformation.

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For the purpose of generating those viewing transformations, the relative pose of the real objects with respect to the viewing camera, must be known. This relative pose is one of the necessary set of parameters, the second set being the intrinsic parameters of the real camera. While the first serves to set the pose of the virtual objects in the virtual camera referential, the second can be used to define a matching projection matrix.

This estimation can be done by using any type of technology that enables to track both parts, or just one with respect to the other. Although several types of technology are available, their high costs make them prohibitive for consumer grade products. There are however two that, being inexpensive, are typically used for this purpose, being based on: 1) detecting and tracking markers for pose estimation using the cam-era images, and 2) using sensors that provide measures of displacement- and rotation-related quantities, e.g. inertial magnetic units (IMU).

Both have advantages and disadvantages that can be summarized as follows: visual marker-based pose estimation is simple and provides stable pose estimates, but it is affected by illumination variations, and does not typically behave well when markers are not fully visible, either making the virtual models appear or disappear instantly, or stop moving thus not following the camera/marker movements.

On the other hand, IMUs do not provide direct pose information, and it has to be estimated using integration of angular velocity for orientation and double integration of the measured acceleration for position. The problem is that this type of estimation tends to drift, given the accumulation of some minor bias that may be present on the measures. Fortunately, in what concerns orientations, it is possible to obtain quite reliable results through the combination of estimated gravity acceleration, angular velocity and Earth magnetic field orientation. For this reason, IMU-based AR applica-tions typically only use the estimated orientation of the camera to manipulate the view, not allowing for lateral, up-down, or proximity changing movements.

4.1 Direct manipulation for virtual objects

To interact with the virtual elements using direct manipulation, there are several possibilities, but we can say that intuition normally tells us that if we are seeing the objects in front of us, we should be able to reach, move, or act on them with a hand, a finger, or some held object.

The simpler solution is, indeed, the use of some object, e.g. plier, forceps, or stick, for the interaction. This object will be a physical object manipulated by the user, and by being tracked, a virtual representation may be generated and managed accordingly.

In contrast, the direct interaction with the user hands is typically a more complicat-ed solution, given the high number of degrees of freedom, and self-occlusions con-stantly generated that affect trackers based on hand images.

4.2 A wireless hand tracker

Given the importance of capturing the hand movement, not only for AR but also for VR, several solutions were investigated and as a result a low-cost wireless hand



tracker was developed at the Institute of Systems and Robotics of the University of Coimbra (ISR-UC). This new device comprises a set of 6 hardware modules: one main board that connects the five other smaller boards, one for each finger. Each board contains an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and through the use of a special purpose adaptation of the Complementary Filter [9] estimation algorithm it is possible to track the hand and its finger movements. The constructed prototype is shown in Fig. 2 (left), where the parts are individually identified.

Fig. 2. Left: Prototype of hand motion tracker based on MPU-9150 and ESP-01 wireless pro-

cessing board; Right: Example of hand tracking and model animation.

As the motion capture provided by this device is based on inertial sensors, only finger flexion-extension (adduction-abduction) and hand orientation are considered, given that, as previously mentioned, position (translation) estimation normally suffers from error accumulation that typically makes it unusable after a few seconds. The principles and description of the design of this device are available on the website. This device, being accessible through a TCP/IP connection, can be included in differ-ent types of applications that require the capture of hand motion, eventually for both hands by using two devices.

Being wireless it can be used in a variety of applications, namely in AR or VR. In particular, if used in conjunction with a Kinect sensor, it is possible to capture full body and hand movements, even in configurations where the hands are occluded by other body parts or objects.

Fig. 2 (Right) shows an image where a virtual hand replicates the user hand movements captured by the device. As this device is simple to use and does not create any kind of constraint to the hand movement, it has the right characteristics for inter-acting with virtual objects in AR, eventually complemented with vibro-tactile stimula-tion for creating the illusion of touching or holding those objects.

4.3 Touchable but virtually modifiable objects items

One of the features that defy realism, when dealing with the manipulation of virtual objects, is the lack of sense of touch. Despite the attempts in perfecting haptic devic-

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es, these still have limitations in terms of the provided stimuli, and manipulation con-straints.

To circumvent this limitation, our team is creating physical objects that can be easily tracked or even instrumented. As a result, these objects that may be tracked while handled may therefore become active in the AR scenarios, and be represented by superimposed models that aim at changing their perceived appearance, or simply be used to interact with virtual models. The interaction with virtual models may be very interesting for explaining some physical laws to students, as shown by the previ-ous inclined plane example. In complement, using the appropriate sensors, it is possi-ble to give controllable perceptions of an object in terms of some of its properties like rigidity, as proposed by Restivo et al. [10].

Fig. 3. An instrumented cube, whose faces are covered with visual markers for pose estima-

tion, equipped with a wireless processing board, IMU, and pressure sensors.

To enable its use alone or to improve it in conjunction with a hand tracker to ex-tend its use and enable capturing of not only orientation changes but also displace-ments, we included a set of easily distinguishable and identifiable markers on the object surface. Using a camera to capture images of this object, these markers can then be detected and used to estimate the object pose using a computer vision ap-proach. Although this pose estimation is only possible when at least one of the mark-ers is visible, the associated errors are due to the discrete nature of the images and do



not accumulate over time, as in the inertial-based case. Since the object also contains accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers, a fusion algorithm can take ad-vantage of both methods. In fact, the visual marker provides a stable estimate of the object pose but may produce spurious erroneous estimates due to numerical problems or motion blurred images, while the IMU provides better information about its movements, in a smooth but increasingly biased estimate. Therefore, a combination of the two estimates can improve the quality of the result and consequently the generated representation of the virtual model.

It should be noted that, as the camera images are normally produced at a lower rate than the inertial measures, the fusion algorithm must take this into account.

4.4 From augmented reality to connected subjects

It is well known that nowadays students are not attracted to technology as they were in the twentieth century. This has led to reflexions, discussions and experiences on how to motivate the young generations to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). While in the past the normal way of learning started by the basic subjects, currently there are pedagogical experiences on some subjects with interesting results based on top-down approaches, i.e. starting with the visible face of some technology and then going deeper and deeper towards the supporting concepts. One of these subjects is computer network courses, where instead of using the tradi-tional syllabus that started from the electrical signals modulation, to the bit transmis-sion, and climbing up the protocol stack, there are recent ones that start at the user level services like web page access and then go down the protocol layers: transport, network, data link, and physical. This has the advantage of rooting on a common ground that every student has or can be given access to.

The idea of this module is to do the same around Augmented Reality. Benefiting from the attraction that this subject creates on students, we may use it to motivate the study of several other supporting topics. Hereafter follows a non-exhaustive list of these areas, some of them having been addressed along the previous sections:

• Human Factors: perception, attention, memory, recognition, etc. • Human Machine Interaction: design of interactive systems • Computer Vision: pattern detection, geometric transformations, homography esti-

mation and decomposition, camera calibration, etc. • Computer Graphics: 3D models, rendering, stereo displays, shaders, etc. • Signal Processing: IMU noise reduction, high-pass and low-pass filters • Estimation: Kalman filters • Electronics: development of interaction devices. • Data Communication: TCP/IP programming for communication between devices

Besides the supporting principles and technologies, AR and VR can also be used to create experiences that support the study of several other subjects. Some of these experiences would not be otherwise accessible to students due to the involved costs or risks, or even unavailability of equipment.

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5 Conclusion

The concepts presented in this article are available in a U-Academy module about the subject "Augmented Reality: From basic principles to connected subjects" [[1]1]. There are indeed many other subjects that can be studied making use of the connec-tion they have with AR. As shown above, the establishment of connections between them can be used to motivate the students to study the supporting principles, in order to better understand how they can be used to create AR applications, for example. The module is expected to continue evolving, and eventually grow beyond the supporting principles and technologies to the application fields and areas that already are ex-pected to benefit from it. Besides text, it will integrate images, videos, pointers to demonstrators and example code pieces to enable the students to learn about the prin-ciples that support the construction of AR-based applications.

6 Acknowledgment

This work was partially developed within the framework of the project U-Academy, funded by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.

7 References

[1] P. Milgram and A. F. Kishino, Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays, IEICE Trans-actions on Information and Systems, E77-D(12), pp. 1321–1329, 1994

[2] Jun Rekimoto and Katashi Nagao, The World through the Computer: Computer Augment-ed Interaction with Real World Environments, Proceedings of the 8th Annual ACM Sym-posium on User interface and Software Technology. UIST '95. ACM, New York, NY, 29-36 https://doi.org/10.1145/215585.215639

[3] Mann, S., & Fung, J. (2001). Videoorbits on EyeTap devices for deliberately diminished reality or altering the visual perception of rigid planar patches of a real world scene. Pro-ceedings of the Second IEEE International Symposium on Mixed Reality, pp 48-55, March 14–15, 2001

[4] Sheridan, Thomas B, “Musings on telepresence and virtual presence,” in Presence: Tele-operators & Virtual Environments, Number 1, Vol 1,MIT Press, 1992, pp. 120-126.

[5] Giannopoulos, Elias, Ausias Pomes, and Mel Slater. "Touching the void: exploring virtual objects through a vibrotactile glove." The International Journal of Virtual Reality 11.2 (2012): 19-24.

[6] Sodhi, Rajinder, Ivan Poupyrev, Matthew Glisson and Ali Israr "AIREAL: interactive tac-tile experiences in free air." ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) 32.4 (2013): 134.

[7] Bau, Olivier, Ivan Poupyrev, Ali Israr and Chris Harrison, "TeslaTouch: electrovibration for touch surfaces." Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology. ACM, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1145/1866029.1866074

[8] Vasco Rodrigues, Daniel Mendes, Alfredo Ferreira, Joaquim Jorge, ”Mid-Air Manipulati-on of 3D Models in (Semi-)Immersive Virtual Environments,” 22 Encontro Português de Computação Gráfica, 12-13 November 2015, Coimbra, Portugal



[9] Euston, Mark, Coote, Paul, Mahony, Robert, Kim, Jonghyuk, Hamel, Tarek, “A Comple-mentary Filter for Attitude Estimation of a Fixed-Wing UAV”, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2008

[10] F. Carneiro, B. Santos, P. Abreu, M. T. Restivo, “A tool for grip evaluation and learning,” 13th International Conference on Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation (REV), 2016. https://doi.org/10.1109/REV.2016.7444489

[11] Paulo Menezes, Augmented Reality: From basic principles to connected subjects, online, URL: http://orion.isr.uc.pt/pm/index.php/augmented-reality-module

8 Author

Paulo Menezes is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, and the Institute of Systems and Robotics of the University of Coimbra, Polo II, 3030-290 Coimbra, Portugal, and a member of IEEE. His research interests include computer vision, human-robot interaction, human behaviour analysis, and human perception issues and reactions in immersive systems.


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Special Focus Paper—A Distance-learning Course on Indoor Environmental Comfort in Buildings

A Distance-learning Course on Indoor Environmental Comfort in Buildings


Manuel Gameiro da Silva!"!#, Luísa Dias Pereira, João A. Dias Carrilho, Joana Neto, Maria José Marcelino, Mário Mateus, Nelson Silva Brito, Sandra Pedrosa

University of Coimbra, Portugal [email protected]

Abstract—A project for the creation and implementation of a distance-learning course on Indoor Environmental Comfort in Buildings (IECB) is pre-sented. This course resulted from a request by Ordem dos Engenheiros (Portu-guese engineering professional body) to the University of Coimbra. It was based on the Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) course of the Master in Ener-gy for Sustainability and PhD in Sustainable Energy Systems of the University of Coimbra, coordinated by the first author. Jointly with the support of the Dis-tance Education Service of the University of Coimbra, using as a starting point the existing contents of a formal discipline, the teaching methodologies and a set of activities were developed to implement a distance-learning course with a strong e-learning component by the students. Diversified strategies, using the existing platform running on Moodle, such as webinars, virtual laboratories, remote access labs, discussion forums and synchronous sessions, were tested to ensure a dynamic and interested engagement of the students along the course.

Keywords—E-learning course, Indoor Environmental Comfort in Buildings, Moodle, Virtual labs

1 Introduction

The Indoor Environmental Comfort in Buildings (IECB) course was developed as a partnership project between the Energy, Environment and Comfort research group of ADAI-LAETA, from the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of Coimbra (UC) and the Distance-learning service of the same university. Its creation resulted from an invitation to UC by Ordem dos Engenheiros (Portuguese engineering professional body), for making available a course in this area through a distance-learning platform.

As there was already a regular discipline on Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), integrated in the educational programme of the Master in Energy for Sustainability and PhD in Sustainable Energy Systems of the University of Coimbra [1], [2], this was used as starting point for the structuring of the distance-learning course on IECB. Previous experience of the first author in the coordination of a manual published by REHVA (Federation of European Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Associa-



tions) [3], in the areas of Thermal Environment and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), was also an important factor in the decision to bring forward this project.

The course main objectives were:

• Giving the trainees the theory knowledge and practical training on the subjects related to environmental comfort in buildings;

• Developing the trainees’ capacities to define the indoor environment project condi-tions and to assess these in existing buildings.

These general guidelines entail the skills to be developed by the students, as fol-lows:

1. Acknowledging the technical aspects and regulations related to the various areas of analysis of IEQ;

2. Integrating the information on various relevant partial aspects for environmental quality indoors (thermal environment, indoor air quality, noise, vibration, lighting);

3. Diagnosing the IEQ proposing improvement measures; 4. Integrating the knowledge related to IEQ in professional activities related to de-

sign, construction, installation, operation, licensing, and maintenance of buildings and systems;

5. Acting as agents of knowledge dissemination related to the course, including rais-ing awareness of the need for harmonizing concerns regarding IEQ with the re-quirement of rational use of energy.

The main methodologies used for transfer of knowledge, to ensure the communica-tion between the various players and to guarantee the assessment processes are pre-sented in the current paper.

2 Organization and Functioning of the Course

The course on Indoor Environmental Comfort in Buildings (IECB) [4] is structured in five modules, subdivided into twenty-three themes. The introductory Module (0) frames the trainees into the course and promotes their training in the use of a comput-er platform [5]. The following modules (1-4) have a technical character, covering topics related to Thermal Environment (1), Indoor Air Quality (2), Noise and Vibra-tion (3) and Lighting (4), as presented in Figure 1.

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Fig. 1. Graphical interface of one of the access pages to the IECB course platform

The course is designed for a total of 81 hours of work corresponding to 3 ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) credits, according to the fol-lowing plan:

Module 0 | Overall view (10 hours) Theme 0.1 | the student in virtual learning environments Theme 0.2 | objectives and modules of the course Theme 0.3 | comprehensive overview Module 1 | Thermal environment (20h) Theme 1.1 | thermal comfort concept and mechanisms of heat and mass transfer Theme 1.2 | thermal balance of the human body Theme 1.3 | thermoregulation of the body Theme 1.4 | thermal comfort indices Theme 1.5 | thermal comfort assessment Theme 1.6 | thermal comfort adaptive model Module 2 | Indoor air quality (20h) Theme 2.1 | fundamentals Theme 2.2 | ventilation elements Theme 2.3 | IAQ instrumentation Theme 2.4 | analysis methodologies Theme 2.5 | IAQ audits Module 3 | Noise and vibrations (20h) Theme 3.1 | fundamentals



Theme 3.2 | generation and propagation of sound fields Theme 3.3 | urban noise - acoustic environment Theme 3.4 | acoustic quality in buildings Theme 3.5 | occupational vibrations Module 4 | Lighting (11h) Theme 4.1 | systems of units and quantities Theme 4.2 | fundamentals Theme 4.3 | functioning of the human vision Theme 4.4 | visual environment testing.

The course modular organization allows specific content, activities and assessment

in each module. Each module has its own timeframe, with beginning and closing dates. This is a sequential modular structure, dependent of the realization of the pro-posed activities in agreement with the general schedule of the course. The course program is presented in the Appendix.

The course is entirely at distance, supported by a Moodle platform, not requiring in-person sessions. Moodle, acronym of Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning was developed by Martin Dougianas as a software package for internet based disci-plines, having been designed to support a social and constructive approach of teach-ing, in which the teacher role is to give answers to the students learning needs.

Along the course, the learning tasks were conceived to allow exploring various cognitive domains, in a progression that, normally, obeyed an ordering type: knowledge, understanding, implementation, analysis and synthesis. Not all the mod-ules in the course have involved the same cognitive domains, but it can be stated that the three first were always present and that, from the last two, at least one of them was explored.

Moodle includes a group of basic functionalities:

1. Reserved access and different user profiles – each participant has its own private area and particular role in the course (student, teacher, manager, administrator or visitor).

2. Managing the access to contents – contents can be placed online in different for-mats, moments and in different forms of interaction with the students.

3. Synchronous and asynchronous communication tools. 4. Registration and controlling systems of the activities – automatic reports of the ac-

tivities of the platform.

In addition, Moodle enables the definition of activities of diverse character, such as forums, chats, glossaries, surveys, tests, wikis, workshops, works, etc. that enable the application of different teaching methodologies. The access to the platform is flexible, allowing the students to organize and adequate their working schedule in function of the proposed activities. The interactions between the students and the teaching team are established mostly asynchronously, not requiring the simultaneous presence of the different counterparts in the platform. The existence of synchronous sessions is how-ever expected (with participants communicating online at the same time), through an

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online communication tool, in a date/time to be defined during the period of the course.

The evaluation process used in the course is based on the continuous evaluation model, made from the execution of specific activities – the student progression to the following module is only allowed in case he/she has completed the proposed activities in the precedent module. A period of improvement of the performed activities is fore-seen in each module, in which the student may reformulate his works. All the activi-ties may be subject to improvement, during the corresponding improvement period, excepting the assessment test of each module, which can be done only once. The number of activities that can be improved in each module is defined according to the formula n-1 (n= number of activities of the module).

Module 0 has a diagnosis and formation character, and it is not considered in the final evaluation of the student. Nevertheless, all the activities within this module are mandatory and the failure to carry out these activities compromises the student pro-gression and engagement in the course. The final grade corresponds to the arithmetic average of the grades obtained by the students in the various assessment activities along the course (test, practical exercises and reports), being assigned in a 0-20 scale.

3 Teaching/Learning methods

The teaching-learning process is based on the appropriation of the contents and support material provided on the platform for the study of the subjects, and on the systematic follow up of the individual and collective work of the students. An active and collaborative work methodology is developed, in which the students build up competences in the framework of the general thematic of the course, through the di-verse activities that are proposed.

The concern of defining the learning tasks in function of the cognitive domains that were intended to be worked was present during the IECB course plan elaboration, as described in [5]. The first contact of the students with the subjects is done through access to the contents developed by the teaching staff in the form of slide presenta-tions and original documents, included in the platform by the UC distance learning unit team. These are consistently organized with the study plan of the course and are selected by the students through the theme index. This learning task corresponds to the acquisition of basic knowledge (information acquisition and remembering). In Figure 2, for example, the platform graphical interface is presented, showing contents of Module 1.

Student learning is complemented with support from reading, visioning and explor-ing the resources available in each module. Support resources include webinars, cre-ated by the teaching staff, in which are orally explained some slide presentations or image sequences generated from virtual labs. There are also some videos produced by the UC television team, in which the teachers explain the use of some measuring devices used in the framework of the various modules of the course. Books, scientific articles, norms and internet websites of scientific communities and enterprises related to the topics of the course are also provided by the platform.



Fig. 2. Graphical interface of one of the content pages of the IECB course

At this stage, it may be considered that the cognitive domain of subject understand-ing is being worked; it is expected that the students establish new relations with the contents, deepen their knowledge, understand the concepts and reshape some of the previously acquired information.

The consolidation of learning relies on the completion by the students of various activities, including the use of computational simulation and data processing applica-tions obtained from remote access labs, as well as answering questionnaires, problem solving, forums participation and elaboration of synthesis texts. Three other cognitive domains are explored with the performance of the various types of activities:

• Implementation, corresponding to the use of abstract representation in concrete and specific cases. The use of simulation tools, the remote access labs and problem solving are clear examples of the tasks framed in this cognitive domain;

• The analysis capacity (separating elements and establishing hierarchies and rela-tions) is explored through the activities that involve decomposition and recombina-tion of information and knowledge. Data processing, either collected from labs via remote control access or supplied in the framework of problem solving, or the ap-plication of analytical models for adjusting time evolutions obtained through moni-toring processes, are good examples of the exploitation of this cognitive domain;

• The synthesis capacity (elements and separate parts merging to form a whole), is developed by tasks that aim to induce the original construction of new contents in a coherent way. The required texts, as result of the students reflexion process or as reports of activities, are framed in this cognitive domain.

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The students learning activities are carried out in accordance to the schedule de-fined and publicised at the beginning of the course. The period for delivering reports, the answers to questionnaires and the participation in discussion forums are clearly defined. The feedback to students on their performance in the various activities is given by the teaching staff via the Moodle platform. There is an improvement period at the end of each of the modules in which the students may submit new versions of some of the activities, in view of the comments and indications formulated by the teaching team members. The knowledge assessment tests are excluded from this pos-sibility.

The importance of discussion forums is outlined in [6]. The forums are also used as communication tool between the various players in the course. A general forum is present in the entire length of the course, where students may discuss general themes within the course context, launch discussions, share experiences and post general questions. As stated in [6], ‘online discussion fora are a valuable component for every e-learning System’, enhancing the communication between the learners. Within the IECB course there is a particular forum for each module, where specific questions and doubts should be addressed.

Two examples of the virtual labs used in the context of the course are presented in Figure 3. The first application is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, previously developed to support lectures on Thermal Comfort contents [1]. In the context of this course, it is used for a training exercise to be developed by the students. A sensitivity analysis on the thermal comfort indices – PMV and PPD – and the several input parameters for the calculation are included in this work. The main objective of this exercise is that students acquire sensitivity for the relative and absolute effects on the thermal com-fort sensation of both the environmental parameters (air temperature, mean radiant temperature, air velocity and partial vapour pressure) and the individual parameters (metabolic activity rate and clothing thermal insulation). It also allows students to realise the relative distribution of heat loss in the human body. The result of this anal-ysis is required in the form of a conference paper in order to develop the student ca-pacities of data analysis and information synthesis.

The other computational tool [7], developed in LabView, uses a finite difference solution of the differential equation that models the distribution over time of a pollu-tant concentration in a unizone indoor space. In this case, it simulates the evolution of the concentration of metabolic CO2, in function of the various parameters, namely, the volume of the space, the presence/absence of occupants, the occupants metabolic rate and body mass, the fresh air flow rate, the initial concentration of the pollutant and its concentration on the outside air.

This tool is used in one of the webinars in Module 2, which focuses on the evolu-tion over time of a pollutant concentration. As it is possible to generate a movie show-ing how the pollutant concentration evolves as a function of the input parameter varia-tion, this provides an interesting way of explaining the analytical method used for modelling these phenomena, contributing decisively towards a better understanding by the students.



a)

b)

Fig. 3. Examples of virtual labs used in the learning activities a) Computational application for thermal comfort indices calculation (Activity 1.2 of Module 1)

b) Virtual lab for time evolution simulation of a pollutant used in a Webinar in Module 2

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In Figure 4 are presented examples of two activities performed in Modules 3 and 4. As stated in [8], remote labs are receiving increasing attention. Moreover, these ‘may play a relevant role complementing theory and practice’ [9]. Herein, the first activity, presented in Figure 4.a, is a remote access lab, in which a real time environmental noise monitoring system is used [10], [11], [12]. This system is based on a virtual instrument application developed in LabView, for signal acquisition from a precision microphone through a National Instruments setup. Data post-processing allows the calculation of environmental noise descriptors and their evolution over time. Data display is done in Java Script putting together the measured data and real-time images of a webcam showing road traffic.

Through the provision on a website of the time evolution of the noise equivalent level simultaneously with real time images of the road traffic intensity in the zone, student understanding of the connection between these two variables is promoted. The students task, after visioning the remote access lab dynamic content, consists in pro-cessing data from one complete day, calculating the equivalent noise levels for differ-ent periods of the day (morning, evening, night), using the files available for down-load in the website.

In the activity referred in Figure 4.b, a file is provided with the results of a measur-ing campaign of the illuminance level in a workplace, containing data collected with a lux meter in a 2.5 x 2.5 cm square mesh. Based on this information, students are asked to calculate the average illuminance indicators in the workplace, in agreement with the corresponding standard, and to discuss the sampling spatial magnitude effect on the uncertainty level of the obtained descriptors corresponding to the average illu-minance and uniformity.

4 Conclusions

The methodology followed for designing and implementing a distance-learning course on Indoor Environmental Comfort in Buildings was presented. One of the main challenges faced by the members of the teaching team was guaranteeing that the strategies used in the learning/teaching tasks enabled a strong interaction between the students and their participative involvement, given the fact that the course was entire-ly run in a distance-teaching mode. The existence of some previously developed tools and the nature of the subjects under study enabled to achieve this challenge success-fully. The challenges that the students have to face in the different activities enabled their learning progress based on their own work. The help towards a better under-standing of the subjects provided by different support resources was positively acknowledged in the assessment of the course 1st edition. One particular issue was the positive role of the webinars as complement to the subjects/contents presentation.



a)

b)

Fig. 4. Examples of activities used in the learning activities. a) Remote Access Lab used in Module 3 (Noise and Vibration)

b) Analysis of data of a illuminance measuring campaign (Module 4 – Lighting)

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5 Acknowledgement

The paper has been prepared in the framework of the project TRAPHIC (ref. POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016729 and PTDC/ECM-URB/3329/2014).

6 References

[1] M. C. Gameiro da Silva, “Virtual Laboratories for a Course about Indoor Environmental Quality,” Spec. Issue Int. J. Emerg. Technol. Learn., vol. November, 2009.

[2] S. A. Batterman, A. G. Martins, C. H. Antunes, F. Freire, and M. Gameiro da Silva, “De-velopment and Application of Competencies for Graduate Programs in Energy and Sus-tainability,” J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., vol. 137, no. 4, pp. 198–207, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)EI.1943-5541.0000069

[3] S. P. Corgnati, M. Gameiro da Silva, R. Ansaldi, E. Asadi, J. J. Costa, M. Filippi, J. Ka-czmarcczyk, A. K. Melikov, B. W. Olesen, Z. Popiolek, and P. Wargocki, REHVA - In-door Climate Quality Assessment, Guidebook no14. REHVA, 2011, 2011.

[4] “E-learning course: Indoor Environmental Comfort in Buildings (In Portuguese),” 2015. [Online]. Available: http://www.ed.uc.pt/educ/curso?id=64&rea=1. [Accessed: 14-Sep-2015].

[5] S. Pedrosa, J. Neto, A. Mendes, T. Pessoa, and M. Marcelino, “Concepção e desenvolvi-mento de cursos online – estratégias instrutivas utilizadas no ED.UC (In Portuguese),” in Actas do ICEM-SIIE Joint Conference 2011, 2011.

[6] F. Abel, I. I. Bittencourt, E. Costa, N. Henze, D. Krause, and J. Vassileva, “Recommenda-tions in Online Discussion Forums for E-Learning Systems,” IEEE Trans. Learn. Technol., vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 165–176, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1109/TLT.2009.40

[7] M. C. Gameiro da Silva, “Indoor Air Quality Simulation Tools,” Rehva J. – Eur. J. Heat-ing, Vent. Air-Conditioning Technol., vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 30–32, 2009.

[8] L. F. Gomes and J. García Zubía, Advances on remote laboratories and e-learning experi-ences, vol. 6. Bilbao: University of Deusto, 2007.

[9] Susana Romero, M. Guenaga, J. García-Zubía, and P. Orduña, “New challenges in the Bo-logna Process using Remote Laboratories and Learning Analytics to support teachers in continuous assessment,” in International Symposium on Computers in Education (SIIE), 2014.

[10] M. Mateus and M. Gameiro da Silva, “Desenvolvimento de um sistema de monitorização contínua de ruído sobre uma plataforma LabVIEW,” in Acústica 2012 – VIII Congresso Ibero-Americano de Acústica, 2012.

[11] J. Dias Carrilho, M. Mateus, and M. Gameiro da Silva, “Real time web publishing of envi-ronmental noise monitoring data, ” accepted for presentation at the 3rd Experiment@ In-ternational Conference.

[12] M. Teresa Restivo and M. Gameiro da Silva, “Portuguese Universities Sharing Remote Laboratories,” Spec. Issue Int. J. Emerg. Technol. Learn., vol. November, 2009.



7 Authors

Manuel Gameiro da Silva (corresponding author) is Associate Professor in De-partment of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Coimbra. He is the Coordi-nator of the Research Group in Energy, Environment and Comfort of ADAI-LAETA and the President of the Direction Board of the Portuguese Society of Engineering Education.

Luísa Dias Pereira holds a PhD in Sustainable Energy Systems from the Universi-ty of Coimbra (UC) in the framework of the MIT-Portugal program. Her research is mainly focused on IAQ, Thermal Comfort and Energy Efficiency.

João A. Dias Carrilho holds a MSc in Engineering Acoustics and Vibration at the University of Southampton (2001) . He has participated in several research projects in the field of IEQ and he is the main author of several scientific papers on this field. He is currently finishing is PhD in Sustainable Energy Systems.

Joana Neto is member of the pedagogical team of the UC_D (Special project of Distance Learning of the University of Coimbra). She holds a MSc in Pedagogical Sciences and she has authorship of scientific and conference papers.

Maria José Marcelino is an Assistant Professor at the Computer Science Depart-ment at the UC, and she is member of the Scientific /Pedagogical coordination of the UC_D (Special project of Distance Learning of the University of Coimbra).

Mário Mateus is an Electrical Engineer who further developed his studies on Me-chanical Engineering –both MSc and PhD: “The influence of the parameters pf sam-pling in the uncertainty of environmental noise”. He is an author of several scientific papers, mainly in the field of Acoustics and he is Professor at DEM- UC.

Nelson Brito is an architect. He was an invited Professor at the University of Mi-nho, Portugal (2009-12) and he is currently finishing is Ph.D. on "Upgrade opportuni-ties for buildings in city centers".

Sandra Pedrosa is member of the pedagogical team of the UC_D (Special project of Distance Learning of the University of Coimbra). She holds a MSc in Pedagogical Sciences and she has authorship of scientific and conference papers.

Article submitted 22 November 2016. Published as resubmitted by the authors 13 February 2017.

iJIM ‒ Vol. 11, No. 5, 2017 129

Paper—Non-Prescription Medicine Mobile Healthcare Application: Smartphone-Based Software Design…

Non-Prescription Medicine Mobile Healthcare Application: Smartphone-Based Software Design and

Development Review https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v11i5.7123

Orawit Thinnukool(!), Pattaraporn Khuwuthyakorn, Purida Wientong Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand

[email protected]

Thammarat Panityakul Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand

Abstract—The challenge of this research is to answer the question of what the real need of users regarding the development of a smartphone-based soft-ware for healthcare application. This study aimed to develop the non-prescription drugs mobile health application (NMMHA) to support users in the initial medication. The application has been released to evaluate tested its usa-bility and satisfaction. To ensure the NMMHA is going to perform well, a sur-vey has been conducted to collect data about the opinions of two groups of re-sponders (pharmacists and general people). An attitude test and statistical anal-ysis have also been accomplished for both groups to determine the differentia-tion between the two groups. The impressive results indicate that the group of general peoples tend to use the application more than the group of pharmacists, whereas the overall attitude test results of the two groups are not different.

Keywords— mobile healthcare application, non-prescription drugs, satisfac-tion, performance, reliability.

1 Introduction

The modern world is quickly changing human behaviors every day. Recent techno-logical advances influence daily activities and create new challenges and opportuni-ties for different areas including healthcare. Information technology in the healthcare industry has been utilizing electronic devices to perform a range of tasks which has improved the outcome for patients. Recently, patients are encouraged to engage in their own healthcare using mobile applications [1-5].

A healthcare applications are defined as associated tools for treating and monitor-ing patients. These tools facilitate communication, patient self-management and monitoring patient symptoms, remote monitoring the health or the location of patients and providing healthcare information and suggestions. There are many benefits of smartphone which play an important role to track or manage patients’ health [6-7].



Nowadays, the number of smartphones in use is growing rapidly, and correspond-ing to the number of healthcare application, the use of smartphones is getting more attention steadily. Approximately, at the present day about two billions of smartphones are in use. Moreover, it is predicted that, in 2018, the number of smartphone users worldwide will increase to six billions [8-10]. Android claim the largest market of the top smartphone operating systems in use with an 82.8% share in 2015 [11].

When examining the proportion of smartphone users and the number of mobile software applications, the results indicate that 19% of smartphone users installed at least one healthcare application on their devices according to Duggan and Rainie and 52% of users used the application to search for healthcare information [12].

Furthermore, Lee suggests that there is a rapid growth of mobile software applica-tions associated with healthcare. It has been discovered recently that 46% of healthcare professionals say that they want to introduce mobile software applications to their practice in the next five years [13]. Regarding the results, the need of healthcare mobile software applications is more than 100,000 needs as mentioned in Aditi [14] and more than 1.7 billion people downloaded healthcare applications [15].

Pharmacy mobile application is a type of healthcare applications which greatly benefits patients by providing information about various pharmaceutical products. Nowadays, when a patient needs primary healthcare, smartphone is the first tool that is used to search for relevant information and a suitable treatment before going to the hospital or pharmacy [16]. As we have seen, pharmacy mobile applications are widely used to search medicine information, because of convenience, ease of access and reduced healthcare costs [17-19]. Although users can easily download a mobile appli-cation to their devices, but not all of them can perfectly suit their needs. For example, some functions may not serve users or fit to users’ behavior such as when the users always forget medication information, or when the patients want to contact the phar-macists or doctors, etc.

One of the challenges during the development of healthcare mobile applications is to consider what the real users’ needs are. There are many aspects which are im-portant and must be considered by the developer during the development process, such as, feasibility, reliability, stability, security and accuracy [20]. Moreover, attitude and confidence are two factors that help to identify whether or not users accept the application. While, the graphical user interface (GUI) and system performance can increase user satisfaction regarding the development techniques and enhance the number of participants on healthcare application [21].

There is one more thing to remember when a user download an application onto a device is that the developer has an opportunity only once to get the user’s attention and encourage the user to use the application again and again. If the application does not provide stunning useful functions to satisfy the user’s needs, it is strongly be-lieved that it would be the last time for the user to use the particular application. As a result, it is very important to analyze and clarify what user needs would be and choose wisely what functions the application would have when developing an application. We also considered about the favorite functions or mobile applications that users rely

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on when they want to search for healthcare information or healthcare services and locations.

Recently, a mobile software application for providing pharmacy information called "Non-Prescription Medicine Mobile Health Application (NMMHA)" was designed and developed [22]. The first version of the software contains two main functions: searching for medicine information and setting time to take medicine. The user satis-faction result shows the proven evidence of the software acceptance, however some functions were recommended by users during the software testing process. In this second version of the NMMHA, we focused on function adding and improving the mobile software application corresponding to user feedback in Thinnukool.

In this paper, the study aimed to: (1) to develop the second version of the NMMHA healthcare mobile application for non-prescription based on Android operating sys-tem; (2) to evaluate user feedback regarding GUI, system performance, confidence and attitude on mobile healthcare application. Descriptive statistics were used to ana-lyze the results. The expected outcomes of this study is to provide an appropriate tool which is able to support the real need in personal healthcare for people who have or never have experience in pharmacy or self-healthcare. There are two groups of sam-ples were used for testing users’ differentiation. Consequently, to examine the as-sumption of the study, hypothesis was set as following. (H0: percentage of pharmacist - percentage of general people= 0, H1: percentage of pharmacist – percentage of gen-eral people<= 0)

(i) User acceptant levels of two sample groups in using the mobile health applica-tion as a tool in the initial medication are not different.

(ii) Levels of agreement of two sample groups about the graphic user interface of NMMHA are not different.

(iii) Levels of agreement of two sample groups about NMMHA application usage are not different.

(iv) Levels of agreement of two sample groups about the reliance in NMMHA are not different.

(v) Overall levels of agreement of two sample groups for the NMMHA application are not different.

2 Material and Methods

2.1 Medicine Contents

In Thailand, the Ministry of Public Health is the organization which defines the list of non-prescription medicines which are safe and effective for use by the general public legally without seeking treatment by a health professional. In this study, the non-prescription medicine information was used in the NMMHA application. Fifty two types of non-prescription medicines are grouped in the NMMHA database (Bu-reau of Drug Control) [22]. List of medicine groups of non-prescription medicines is shown in Table 1.



Table 1. List of medicine groups of non-prescription medicines.

Medicine Group Medicine Group

Analgesic/Antipyretic Antihistamine Cough medicine Aromatic inhaler Anti-motion sickness Oral and Throat medicines Antacids Antidiarrheal medicine

Laxatives Parasiticides Muscle relaxants Ophthalmic medicine Dermal/Topical medicine Wound healing medicines Antiseptics Vitamins

2.2 Non-Prescription Medicine Mobile Health Application (NMMHA)

The NMMHA has been improved from the first version [23] and its responsiveness has been added to address user feedback. The App Inventor [24] and SDLC (adaptive waterfall) [25] were used for development. Both versions have been prepared under Android operation system platform, because the majority of mobile device users is based on Android operating system. The user satisfaction for both user interface de-sign [26] and user acceptance were applied [27-30]. Functions from the first version NMMHA have been improved corresponding to user suggestion which is indicated in Table 2.

Table 2. List of user suggestion of the first version NMMHA and improvement issue.

Problem Users Suggestion Improvement Issue

The application does not have location services

They want application to have location services to find pharmacy locations

Develop the pharmacy loca-tion service

The GUI proportion Some front size is too small, some pictures and buttons are not locat-ed on appropriate side

Redesign and resize pictures and buttons

System speed Application speed is too slow and sometimes does not immediately respond

Fixing the speed and reduce size of the application

Does not have function to remind about medicine information

They want to application to have a function to remind them when they forgot to take medicine

Develop a reminder for medi-cine intake by recording a sound of suggestion or typing words into the application.

In emergency case, they want to have a function to ask for help

The function can ask somebody to help patient

Develop a function for alerting somebody specified by the user

After improving according to the real user needs, the NMMHA version 2 in the

Beta version has been released on the Play Store of Google. After testing on the com-pleted functions, graphic user interface has been evaluated again to ensure that all components on the interface are correct. GUI check list was use to evaluate.

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In the NMMHA version 2 provides the useful functions to use non-prescription medicines. The NMMHA screen shots are shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2. In Figure 1, the mobile software application contains a main page (A) which is categorized into six main functions. When a user clicks on the F1 function, the application will show operational tasks of the F1 function indicated on the next panel (B).

The F1 function is illustrated in operational sub-functions which search for groups of medicines (separated by each symptom condition). Whereas, the F2 function icon on (A) is a function of reminding about user in tolerance information which is shown in Figure 2(D). Other functions of the NMMHA version 2 application are described in Table 3.

After completing the final Beta version, the NMMHA has been uploaded on to the Google Play for groups of responders in this research to download.

2.3 Demographic characteristics of participants

There are two sample groups were selected. The first group consists of pharmacists and the second one consists of general people selected by random sampling technique. We chose the samples of pharmacists from Chiang Mai University drug store and general group from the drug store around the campus. The difference between the two groups involves the knowledge associated with medicine (people know how to use non-prescription medicine when sick). Group one (the pharmacist group) has prior knowledge of non-prescription drug usage, but group two (students and general peo-ple, etc.) do not have. This sample groups are for evaluation purposes including the evaluation of satisfaction, performance and reliability which was identified through testing the NMMHA. Table 4 illustrates sample size for each group.

Fig. 1. Sample of the graphical user interface (A) shows on main menu and illustrates opera-

tional task in each function (B-C).



Fig. 2. The graphical user interface shows operation function in each main menu (D-J) which corresponding to main menu in Figure 1 (A).

Table 3. Functional requirements of the NMMHA version 2

Main Function Sub-function How to use 1.Drug store (F1) Indicate drug list by

symptom (B) Click each drug list by symptom to see medicine information

2.Remind about medicine information (F2)

- Record an information of intolerance

3.Emergency (F3) Call or send an e-mail to people that recorded

Record contact information such as phone number, e-mail, Click it when patient have emergency case.

4.Pharmacy location service (F4)

- User can find by click to drug store that close to user current position

5.Remind how to take drug (F5)

- Typing drug information such as drug name, dose to take, timing, then user selects each list after record.

6.Recording a sound of suggestion (F6)

- Record suggestion of pharmacists and user can re-trieve that information after record.

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Table 4. Sampling of the experiment

Group Samples

Total Male Female

Pharmacist 11 21 32 General 15 21 36 Total 26 42 68

Table 5 shows the result that indicates the demographic information of responders

(refer to the section one of the questionnaire). An experiment was designed and con-ducted to study the potential of the NMMHA application. We administered before surveying to cover a wide range of responders including pharmacists and general people. The survey has been planned for collecting the information regarding phar-macists and general people's perceived competency in using mobile devices and their behavior for using similarly available mobile healthcare applications.

Table 5. Demographic samples

Group Sample

Pharmacist n (%) General n (%) Age n=32 n=36 20-30 50.00 30.56 31-40 23.33 22.22 40up 26.57 47.22 Occupation Community pharmacist 28.79 - Hospital pharmacist 3.03 - Faculty member 10.61 - Public health pharmacist 3.03 - Other - 54.55 Residency within Chiang Mai Municipality areas 22.73 27.27 Outlying districts 22.74 27.27 Education bachelor of pharmacy, 5 y program 18.18 - Pharm D 18.18 - higher than bachelor's degree 9.09 - bachelor's degree - 24.24 Lower bachelor's degree - 21.21 Mobile device usage Yes=56.67 Yes=58.33 iOS 53.33 30.33 Android 33.33 38.89 Ever known the Mobile Health Application 43.33 58.33

2.4 Interview

The section one of the questionnaire is about personal information of responders, whereas section two indicates the level of agreement of the survey statements which are about using the mobile health application as a tool in the initial medication. The interviews have been conducted along with the questionnaire to collect the data from responders during 23-26 May, 2016.



The last section of the questionnaire has been conducted by letting responders try the NMMHA on the provided devices (10-15 minutes). Then, they were questioned to indicate a level of agreement of the following survey statements. This section of the questionnaire stimulated response opinions of each criterion on the screen, for exam-ple, buttons, color, size of the font, background and foreground. It also elicited user opinions associated with user confidence. After finishing the interviews, all of the responders have been suggested to download the NMMHA application from Google Play via a direct gateway.

2.5 Questionnaire

The questionnaire used for evaluation in this study determined users’ satisfaction, attitude, and confidence into 5 levels by following the Likert scale; 5-strongly agree, 4-agree, 3-neutral, 2-disagree and 1-strongly disagree. In this experiment, it was as-sumed that rating 5, 4 and 3 are agree opinion, whereas 2 and 1 are disagree opinion. Table 6 demonstrates questions of the questionnaire used in the study, excluding sec-tion one: personal information of responders. The result of the questionnaire repre-sents satisfaction, performance, and reliability of responders including pharmacist and general people on the use of the NMMHA application.

Table 6. List of questions in the questionnaire used for interview in responders, excluding section one: personal information.

No. Questions Indicate level of agreement of the survey statements about using mobile health application as a tool in

the initial medication

Q2:1 Mobile health applications can be an instrument in providing information on the initial medi-cation and resulting an effective treatment.

Q2:2 Mobile health applications can provide accurate information on the healthcare as same as professional advice from pharmacists and doctors.

Q2:3 Using of mobile health applications can make personal healthcare better.

Q2:4 Using of mobile health applications can change behaviors and encourage users to care more about their personal health.

Q2:5 Using of mobile health applications will not be seriously harmful to the users' health.

Q2:6 Using of mobile health applications can reduce the bill for medication when the users get sick.

Q2:7 Using of mobile health applications can facilitate the users in the initial medication. Level of agreement about the Graphic User Interface (GUI)

Q3:1 Buttons on the screen are easy to use. Q3:2 The screen is clearly distinctive between foreground and background. Q3:3 Screen colors are appropriate. Q3:4 Each of the menu images represents understandable functionality. Q3:5 The number of menu is appropriate to use. Q3:6 Menu list is easy to use. Q3:7 Text sizes are appropriate. Q3:8 Contrast of the display is beautifully balanced.

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Q3:9 Users like the overall user interface design, the screen. Level of agreement about the application usage (Experiment)

Q31:1 The application is easy to use and intuitive. Q31:2 The application provides useful information on the use of non-prescription drugs. Q31:3 Allergic Record function is useful for the treatment and can protect users’ drug allergies. Q31:4 Emergency Call is a useful function to inform about any irregularities in taking medicines.

Q31:5 Pharmacy Search Function can help users to find community pharmacies more quickly and easily.

Q31:6 Medicine Record Function (print) allows users to easily record how to take the medicine. Q31:7 Medicine Record Function (sound) is a useful function to take medicines correctly. Q31:8 When receiving information from the application, users can take the medicine on their own. Q31:9 The application can help users in self-medication using non-prescription drugs.

Q31:10 The application quickly and stably runs on mobile device platform. Level of agreement about the reliance on the use of application functionality.

Q32:1 You have confidence in the applications about the instructions for the initial medication. Q32:2 You believe that the application provides information about drugs with accuracy.

Q32:3 The Non-prescription Drugs function can provide accurate information of medicines as well as the advice from professional like pharmacists.

Q32:4 The information provided on the application helps users to understand how to use medicines and are able to use that information for immediate treatment.

Q32:5 You believe that the information given by the application will do no harm to the users. Q32:6 You accept the application and would recommend it to friends.

Q32:7 If you are in an area where there is no pharmacist to advice on drugs, you would use the application to search and buy drugs on your own.

Q32:8 Using of the application can reduce the cost of healthcare. Q32:9 The application Medicine function will facilitate users in the initial medications.

Q32:10 You will download and suggest other people to use the application.

3 Results

The first section shows the hypothesis of this experiment and the corresponding re-sult is shown in Figure 3. The first bar chart shows proportion of percentage of the pharmacist group agree: percentage of the pharmacist group disagree whereas next bar chart shows proportion of the percentage of the general group agree: percentage of the general group disagree, where the footnote in each panel explains the result of testing by using p-value.

The first hypothesis is rejected, H0 means the levels of user acceptance of two groups about using mobile health application as a tool in the initial medication are different (p-value=0.0056) by the proportion agreement of the pharmacist group is 90% whereas disagreed is 10%. While, the proportion of agreement in the general people group is 95% and disagree is 5%, respectively.

The second hypothesis in the next two of bar chart is rejected, H0 means the levels of agreement of two groups about the GUI of the NMMHA application are different (p-value=0.0001) by the proportion of the agreement in the pharmacist group which is



90% and disagree is 10%, whereas the proportion of agreement in the general group is 99% and disagree is 1%.

The third hypothesis in the next two of bar chart is rejected, H0 means the levels of agreement of two groups about the NMMHA application usage are different (p=0.0206), when consider the proportion of agreement of the pharmacist group is 95%, and the reject is 5%. Strongly result by the proportion of agreement in general group is 99% whereas just a few percentages only 1% is disagree.

Fourth hypothesis is rejected, H0 means the levels of agreement of two groups about the reliance of NMMHA are different (p-value=0.001). The proportion of the agreement in the pharmacist group is 90%, whereas the general group is 99%.

Finally, the last hypothesis in last of two bar chart in Figure 3 has been tested of the overall levels of agreement of two groups for the NMMHA application are not different (p-value=0.0001). The result shows that hypothesis is rejected, H1 means the two groups are agreed. As we have seen the proportion of agreement, the result indi-cates the levels of the agreement in the pharmacist group is 90%, and disagree is 10%. Whereas, the overall proportion of agreement level in general group is 99%, where only 1% rejected the NMMHA application.

The hypothesis testing result states that the difference of agreement levels between the pharmacist group and the general people group is portly significant. It shows p-value of all parts are less than the significant level of 0.05. Furthermore, the levels of agreement of the general people group tend to overcome the level of agreement of the pharmacist group. Thus, the consecutive testing is necessary. For instance, the higher level of agreement of the general people group is close to 95% in part (i), whereas the pharmacist group is 90% agreement level. The result of consecutive tests in part (ii), (iii), (iv) and (v) shows the same manner. The result leads to the conclusion of the agreement level of the general people group is higher than the level of the pharmacists group.

Moreover, the testing result illustrates the outcome of the NMMHA. The infor-mation from Google is one point for consideration to track whether participants are still interested in the application or not. The result from developer console in Google Play is able to indicate the information of software downloads. Figure 4 shows some statistics and the number of downloads from May 23, 2016 (start date of the survey) and number have increased in the next following days unit May 27, 2016. However, as seen on Figure 4, the bar chart demonstrates the number of visitors (no download) as well. The number of those who have visited the NMMHA application on the Google Play without downloading was 84 visitors, whereas the number of people who have visited and installed was 34.

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**H0:P.Phr.A:P.Pher.DisA = proportion of percentage of the pharmacist group agree: percentage of the pharmacist group disagree **H0:P.Gen.A:P.Gen.DisA = proportion of percentage of the general group agree: percentage of the general group disagree

Fig. 3. Bar chart show p-value and percentage proportion of agreement and disagree of testing in each group.

Fig. 4. Screen shot of the developer console account on Google Play which can indicates the

download information from May 23-27, 2016 during the survey interviewing. The pie chart shows a proportion of downloads separated by Android version.



4 Discussion

This study aimed to develop the non-prescription drugs mobile health application for support real-user need in the initial medication. The application has been devel-oped based on Android operation system which is one of the most popular operating systems used by the majority [11]. The researcher expected users will be able to sym-pathize when the application is released on the Play Store.

The version 2 of the NMMHA application has six main functions including drug store, medicine information reminder, emergency, pharmacy locations and services, solution record for taking medicines and sound record of the professional suggestion. The mobile application has been evaluated by two groups of responders, pharmacists and general people, using a questionnaire together with interviewing. The question-naire focused on three main points including agreement of using mobile health appli-cation as a tool in the initial medication, agreement about the application usage, agreement about the reliance on the use of application functionality, respectively.

The result points out that each hypothesis shows the different opinion of two sam-ple groups. Let’s consider the proportion of agreement of two groups, it is a clear confirmation of the difference as shown in Figure 3. The value of the general group is quit higher than pharmacists group in the testing hypothesis i-iv. The last hypothesis agreed then the overall of testing confirm the agreement of two groups were not dif-ferent. The result shows that two group are agree in using mobile health application as a tool in the initial medication. As we have seen, the result of testing and agreement proportion of two groups were quite high. The level of agreement about the GUI re-sult claims that they appreciated the GUI, whereas the application functionality can meet their needs as well.

However, when we focused on the encouragement of people to pay attention to their healthcare, the NMMHA application can be used as a tool of healthcare equip-ment. There were many smartphones with Android versions have visited the mobile software application on the Google Play page and downloaded. This shows how excit-ing of users in using or observing the proposed application. Another proven evident occurred by the interview section which each responder was suggested to download the NMMHA application. A report from the Developer Console account on the Google Play shows the Android version which are claimed that Android version 4.3 and 6.0 (Figure 4.) are widely used, whereas the result suggested the developer moni-tor regarding technical development when each version affects to speed and system performance.

While within next five years, as a study of Aditi P. [14], the paper claims that the number of the healthcare application will be more than 100,000 applications. This is an excellent opportunity for developers to prepare the development plan to produce useful applications to serve the market. Although, Android is still a popular operating system on mobile devices [11], a real need functionality would be placed as the first priority to consider more than a convenience and ease of access [17][19].

In terms of the benefits gained from using healthcare applications, many research-ers claimed that mobile software applications can be used as a useful tool for monitor-ing and may be reducing a cost on healthcare as well [6-7][18]. Corresponding to the

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NMMHA application, it indicates the useful functions for instant, the function to record an information of intolerance, the function to remind users when they forget the information of their intolerance list. This function provides the answer to the real need of users when some responders always forget their intolerance list. The intoler-ance list can be recorded as systematic recording which is better than taking a photo-graph by a camera on a mobile device.

Moreover, many function such as the function for finding drug stores, the function to remind how to take drug or to remind about medicine information or recording a sound of suggestion are to support users for assistive medication which have been confirmed by the result in our experiment. Therefore, the NMMHA application can be claimed as a tool for medication which is corresponding to the mPharmacy [16].

Although, this study shows a good result of the second development of the NMMHA. But, the challenges during the development of the healthcare applications have to be the consideration of the real users’ needs [26-30]. When the expectations such as reliability, stability, security and accuracy are also important points to be concerned in developing useful healthcare applications. Whereas, the study of the NMMHA application provides useful information to confirm that the application can be used as shown in the testing result (Figure 3 and Figure 4). The NMMHA applica-tion can be a useful tool in term of using in medication regarding to this experiment study.

On the other hand in term of opinion and attitude, the report of Mohamed et al. [3] has found an attitudes of pharmaceutical students and general publish on healthcare application, the result shows that the groups of sample did not rely to use the healthcare application because of education and knowledge of users are different.

Our study, the education levels of responders are not affect to their opinion and at-titude. As shown in the demographic section, the information shows the general group have a similar proportion between responders who are educated in bachelor degree level and lower. Thus, education and knowledge might be not correlated to the use of the healthcare application. But, reason may be the understating of the benefits of the mobile system or the trend of technology in different countries as well.

4.1 Limitations

A couple limitations of this experiment are discussed in this section. Firstly, for this version of the NMMHA, the interviews and data collection were applied to a specific areas. So, the number of samples and the size of target areas of the further study need to be increased. Furthermore, for the long-term and larger scale efficiency study, technical security and research ethics will become issues.

In addition, study boundaries of the NMMHA application version 2 in term of technical system are follows;

(i) The speed for display GUI of Android version lower than 5.0 needs to be im-proved.

(ii) The resolution and sensitivity have to be fixed when display on screen less than 5.5 inches.



(iii) Function for finding drug store locations should cover all the places while us-ing the application and the connectivity need to be fixed.

(ix) The insensitivity when touching on screen is not immediately reaction. It needs to be improved.

5 Conclusion

The non-prescription drugs mobile health application (NMMHA) supports real us-ers’ needs in the initial medication. The version 2 of the NMMHA has been devel-oped based on Android operation system.

Regarding to the result, the two sample groups, pharmacists and general people, have positive attitude and satisfactions to monitor their healthcare by agreement on the healthcare application. The result leads to the conclusion of the agreement level of the general people group is higher than the level of the pharmacists group by statisti-cal significant at .001.

Based on the NMMHA, the objective of this study was the useful development of the second version of the NMMHA application, but many functions and some focused points of GUI still need to be improved before releasing the version of 2.1 at the Google Play in an update version.

6 Acknowledgment

This research was funded by the College of Arts, Media and Technology, Chiang Mai University. Cooperative research and the development of the non-prescription drugs mobile health application is cooperation between the Chiang Mai University drugstore, Faculty of Pharmacy and the Embedded System and Mobile Application Laboratory, the College of Arts, Media and Technology, Chiang Mai University. Most of all, the correspondent author would like to thank Prof. Donald McNeil from the Macquarie University who educate the knowledge in research.

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[27] Caburnay, C.A., Graff, K., Harris, J. K., McQueen, A., Smith, M., Fairchild, M., and Kreu-ter, M. K. (2015). Evaluating Diabetes Mobile Applications for Health Literate Designs and Functionality. Preventing Chronic Disease. 12(61):1-13.

[28] Baysari, M. T., and Westbrook, J.I. (2015). Mobile Application for Patient-centered Care Coordination: A Review of Human Factors Method Applied to their Design, Development, and Evaluation. IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics. 10:47-54. https://doi.org/10.15265/IY-2015-011

[29] Norman, DA. (2002). The Design of Everyday Things, vol. xxi. 1st Basic paperback ed. New York: Basic Books, 257.

[30] Elizabeth, M., Jennifer, L.B., Kristine, L.O., Renee, M.R., Diana, D., John, D., and Melis-sa, S.M. (2016). Mobile application features sought after by patients of a regional grocery store chain pharmacy. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association. 56: 62-66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.japh.2015.11.007

8 Authors

Orawit Thinnukool (corresponding author) received his Ph.D. Degree in Re-search Methodology. His background is in information technology, education tech-nology and research operation. He is with the Department of Modern Management and Information Technology, College of Arts, Media and Technology, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand ([email protected])

Pattaraporn Khuwuthyakorn received her Ph.D. in Engineering from the Aus-tralian National University in 2012. Currently, she is a lecturer at the College of Arts, Media and Technology, Department of Modern Management and Information Tech-nology, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand ([email protected]).

Purida Wientong received her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Care. Her area is in healthcare system and healthcare management. Currently she is a researcher and a lecturer of the Department of Pharmaceutical Care, Faculty of Pharmacy, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand ([email protected]).

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Thammarat Panityakul he received his Ph.D. in Statistics. He is researcher and lecturer Department of Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla 90112, Thailand ([email protected]). His area is statistics and data science.

Article submitted 09 May 2017. Published as resubmitted by the authors 28 July 2017.


Paper—Mobile Road Traffic Management System Using Weighted Sensors

Mobile Road Traffic Management System Using Weighted Sensors


Akinboro S.A.!"!#, Adeyiga J.A. Department of Computer Science and Information Technology,

Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. [email protected]

Omotosho A. Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara State, Nigeria.

Akinwumi A.O. Bowen University Iwo, Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract—Vehicular traffic is continuously increasing around the world, especially in urban areas, and the resulting congestion has become a major con-cern to automobile users. The popular static electric traffic light controlling sys-tem can no longer sufficiently manage the traffic volume in large cities where real time traffic control is paramount to deciding best route. The proposed mo-bile traffic management system provides users with traffic information on con-gested roads using weighted sensors. A prototype of the system was imple-mented using Java SE Development Kit 8 and Google map. The model was simulated and the performance was assessed using response time, delay and throughput. Results showed that, mobile devices are capable of assisting road users’ in faster decision making by providing real-time traffic information and recommending alternative routes.

Keywords—Congestion, Traffic Control, Mobile Devices, Smart Phones, road users.

1 Introduction

Traffic management system is the planning, monitoring, control and influencing the volume of traffic [1]. The objectives of traffic management is to maximize the effectiveness of the use of existing infrastructure, ensure reliable and safe operation of transport, address environmental goals and ensure fair allocation of infrastructure space (e.g. road space) among competing users [1].

Basically two approaches can be applied in order to minimize transportation prob-lems [2]. The most straight forward solution is to build more infrastructures, such as bridges, roads and viaducts, in order to increase capacity but this is not sufficient. Constructing new road infrastructure is limited due to environmental, social and !nancial constraints. The present traffic solutions in the urban areas such as traffic

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light have caused road users to stay longer than necessary on the road, resulting to increase in the cost of transportation, failure of appointments and health problems as a result of CO2 emissions [3].

This research presents a scalable, integrated traffic management solution that ena-bles mitigation of traffic congestion. The traffic management solution was developed using mobile devices and weighted sensors. The system was able to provide real time traffic information to road users on their mobile devices and also suggests alternative routes. This will provide road users with relevant traffic information needed to make intelligent decisions for a safe, faster and convenient trip.

2 Related Work

There are several research works on transport management system especially in the area of traffic control. Some of the existing works for various traffic control system were reviewed in order to identify the research description. In [4], an intelligent transportation system ITS services using cloud computing was presented. Identifying information (such as driver personal identification) transmitted by the sensor was secured through a proposed Vehicular Cloud Computing Service-oriented Security Framework (VCC-SSF) to address the limitations and security threats of VCC-based services. The work majorly focused on securing important data transmitted via the network. Also, [5] proposed an Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), as a mobile sen-sor to collect road traffic information. Cruise route planning problem of UAVs was developed based on the highway network physical structure and a multi-objective optimization model was proposed to minimize both the total cruise time and the in-formation value non detected by UAVs. Finally, a case study was used to demonstrate the results of the proposed model in UAVs’ route planning.

In the work done by [6], a system that was able to calculate vehicle's weight at any moment was proposed. The system was capable of measuring changes of vehicle suspension system in order to monitor changes of vehicle loading weight in various local and time situations and also, checking driver’s attitude toward road surface roughness. The functionalities include, tracking mobile vehicle and showing them on maps inside the control center which can also be an intelligent tracking via a tele-graphic that connects between mobile vehicles and the control center. Therefore, monitoring the situation such as; exact location, speed, other information regarding each vehicle, ability to send and receive message, control on sensors and to restrict the vehicles activities based on some defined rules such as forbidden areas, areas under inspection.

In the effort of [7], IEEE 802.15.4 network architecture was used to monitor ve-hicular traffic flows near to a traffic light. The architecture was implemented with an innovative algorithm in order to determine green times and phase sequence of traffic lights, based on measured values of traffic flows. The focus of their work was to re-duce the average waiting time. Several simulations were performed to confirm the validity of the proposed approach and the obtained results illustrated that, it is possi-ble to obtain a better management of isolated traffic light junctions. According to [8]



it was discovered that in a conventional traffic light controller, the traffic lights change at fixed time. This is because many traffic light controllers implemented in current practice, are based on the 'time-of-the-day' scheme which uses a limited num-ber of predetermined traffic light patterns and implement these patterns depending upon the time of the day. They concluded that this automated systems do not provide an optimal control for fluctuating traffic volumes. They then emphasized that the efficiency of traffic flow through an intersection depends on the phases, sequence and the timing of the traffic signals installed to minimize the wait time of the vehicle in each queue. So, the fuzzy optimization used in their work deals with finding the val-ues of input parameters of a complex simulated system which results in desired out-put. Fuzzy logic controller is then used to execute fuzzy logic inference rules from a fuzzy rule base in determining the congestion parameters, getting the warning infor-mation and the appropriate action. The number of vehicles in each lane is measured using sensors and at the end of each phase these numbers are used as inputs to fuzzy controller. Fuzzy controller calculates the duration of green light as per the traffic situation. Their simulation results show an improvement in the overall outcome of traffic management as compared to the conventional traffic controller, marking great feasibility and practicality of their model.

The work of [9] also proposed the use of wireless sensor networks to sense the presence of traffic near junctions and route the traffic based on traffic density in the desired direction with a microcontroller based routing algorithm. The sensors interact with the physical environment while the transmitter pages the sensor’s data to the central controller which then receives the signal and computes the road and lane that has to be given green signal based on the density of traffic. The controller uses rout-ing algorithm to perform the intelligent traffic routing. This is very easy to imple-ment, less expensive. In [10] a similar method to that of [9] was presented, to avoid pedestrians coming in contact with heavy traffic rather than just sensing the presence of traffic near junctions. The work of [11] designed a system that utilizes and effi-ciently manages traffic light controllers. The work described an adaptive traffic con-trol system based on an improved traffic infrastructure using Wireless Sensor Net-work (WSN). This was found to be dynamically adaptive to traffic conditions on both single and multiple intersections. The system design supported traffic control over multiple intersections and followed international standards for traffic light operations. In addition, a central monitoring station was designed to monitor all access nodes. Likewise, the traffic lights controller was designed with a priority queue to store all the requests. Emergency vehicles in different directions are stored in queue. They are allowed according to their priority along their directions. Traffic lights controller is responsible to check priority and change lights accordingly.

The authors in [3] worked on the cooperation of vehicles (nodes) on the network through the use of forward manager and fuzzy reputation manager to improve the overall performance of a vehicular ad hoc network by encouraging packet forwarding. The forward manager in each node keeps track of the number of received forwarding requests and the number of packets which have been forwarded so far. The fuzzy reputation manager checks each packet's source node to see whether it is selfish or not. Packets that belong to selfish source nodes are eliminated from the network.

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Their simulation results showed that the proposed scheme can successfully increase network performance. Niittymaki in [12] presented a field test of a simple two-phase fuzzy signal controller. The results showed that the fuzzy logic controller performed better than vehicle-actuated control in terms of delay, percentage stops and savings in fuel and emissions. The efforts of [13] considered the arriving rates of compared signals based on a fuzzy rule approach which was designed to regulate traffic flow for oversaturated intersections. The fuzzy controller decides whether to terminate the currently green signal or extends it for some period. The assessments were made using set of fuzzy rules. These rules considered the queuing lengths and arrival rates of current green signal and then compare these to the waiting signal.

In [14] an intelligent RFID traffic control in order to solve the problems with sys-tem that uses image processing and beam interruption techniques was developed. In their work, RFID technology with appropriate algorithm and database were applied to a multi vehicle, multi-lane and multi road junction area to provide an efficient time management scheme. The simulation results from the work shows that the dynamic sequence algorithm has the ability to intelligently adjust itself even with the presence of some extreme cases. The real time operation of the system emulated the judgment of a traffic policeman. The authors in [15] developed a real time traffic signal timing model which was integrated into a single intersection for urban road to solve the prob-lem of traffic congestion. The method employed was to first analyze the current situa-tion of the traffic flow and then put forward the basic models to minimize total delay time of vehicles at the intersection. Their result provided useful insight on signal control to prevent traffic congestion. Also authors in [16] developed an intelligent traffic light control using fuzzy logic which has the capability of mimicking human intelligence for controlling traffic lights. The time delay experienced by the vehicles using the fixed as well as fuzzy traffic controller is then compared to observe the effectiveness of the fuzzy traffic controller. As it can be deduced from the review, several different techniques have been proposed for ameliorating vehicular traffic, most of which are either not mobile or road users centered. This work adapted and improved on [8] to propose a mobile traffic management system using weighted sen-sor to provide real time traffic information to road users on their mobile devices and also suggest alternative routes.

3 Materials and Method

3.1 Architecture for the Mobile Traffic Management System

The proposed architecture in Figure 1 consists of weighted sensors, global posi-tioning system, VSAT, control room and mobile devices. It illustrates how infor-mation from the sensors on the road get to the control room and are being display through Google map on the mobile devices. Road users will be alerted on their mobile devices to know the traffic status and will be provided with alternative routes to take when a certain area is congested.



Fig. 1. Model Architecture for the intelligent traffic control system

Roads with appreciable distance from the traffic light junctions are equipped with weighted sensors and help to get information on the number of cars on the road. When the number of cars exceeds the benchmark, the sensors from the road send signals to the road VSAT. The VSAT on the road send the received signal to the con-trol room via the control room VSAT. The GPS Satellite located in space provides road update information to the Google map. The control room consists of an applica-tion server, database server and system administrators which monitor traffic infor-mation. The information in the control room is being use to disseminate traffic infor-mation to mobile devices. The signal sent from the sensors is been processed in the control room then check its database if alternative routes are available. If alternative routes are found in the database, the control room uses a gateway to connect to the internet which then makes use of the Google map application located on the mobile device to relay the information in the form of a notification showing the message “Road is congested, Please take the alternative route”. The system provides the list of alternative routes.

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3.2 Simulation Model for the Mobile Traffic Management System

In this research work, Netcracker 4.1 professional was used to simulate the pro-posed design. The simulation model using NetCracker simulator is shown in Figure 2. It depicts an intelligent traffic control system with appropriate connections from the sensor location to the network operations center (NOC). If a route is congested, the sensor node sends signals to the NOC (which contains the workgroup) where the signals are sent to be processed in the Alternative route processing center to check for alternative routes and when the route is found, it is then sent to the mobile device notifying car users of the alternative route.

Fig. 2. Netcracker Simulation Interface for the Traffic Network

3.3 Parameters Used In Evaluating the Performance of the Network

Throughput: Throughput is the average data rate of successful data or message delivery over a specific communications link. It is controlled by available bandwidth, as well as the available signal-to-noise ratio and hardware limitations.

Throughput (kb/sec) = Window size (kb) / Delay time (s). Where window size is the packet size and Delay time; is the lag time between the point when packets were sent and the point when it is being received.

Delay: The total time that it takes for a packet, to travel end-to-end is called net-work delay. Delay is measured in seconds. The delay of a network specifies how long



it takes for a bit of data to travel across the network from one node or endpoint to another. It is typically measured in multiples or fractions of seconds.

Response time: Response time is the speed at which it takes a packet to be sent from a source to a destination. Response time is measured in seconds. The response time specifies how fast it takes for a packet sent from a source to get to its destination.

3.4 The Database Design

The database design shows different nodes that are attached to specific routes. A route consists of different paths and each path is divided by junctions called nodes and specified by path index in the database. The database - containing excerpt of traffic data within Lagos metropolis, Nigeria - also captures the latitude and longitude of the different nodes. For Route 1 the alternative routes are routes 2 and 3. For route 2 the alternative routes are routes 1 and 3 and for route 3, the alternative routes are route 1 and 2. Table 1 shows the status of different nodes at different times. The node column contains a pointer to the Node in the node table, the day the status was re-trieved, time in 24hr format and the status, which is the weight, returned from the weight sensors. A status of 1 indicates that the route is free while 6 indicate it is blocked. A seven-day history is kept for record purposes. Table 2 shows the different available routes in the database. Three routes that were considered for testing the application are:

Route 1: Allen Round About, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria – Kudirat Abiola Way, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria - Ikorodu Rd, Lagos, Nigeria - Mariland Bus Stop, Kosofe, Lagos, Nigeria.

Route 2: Allen Round About, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria - Ikeja Roundabout, Ikeja, Ni-geria - Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, Nigeria - Mariland Bus Stop, Kosofe, Lagos, Nigeria.

Route 3: Allen Round About, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria - Sheraton Link Rd. Ikeja, Ni-geria - Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, Nigeria - Mariland Bus Stop, Kosofe, Lagos, Nigeria.

For the application runs, junctions on the three routes are randomly assigned weights between one and six, with one indicating that the junction is free and six indicating that it is blocked.

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Table 1. Route status in the database

-id Node Day Time Status Filter Filter Filter Filter Filter

7 2 Friday 13 4 8 2 Friday 14 3 9 2 Friday 15 3

10 2 Friday 16 4 11 2 Friday 17 5 12 2 Friday 18 6 13 2 Friday 19 6 14 2 Friday 20 4 15 2 Saturday 8 1 16 2 Saturday 9 1 17 2 Saturday 10 2 18 2 Saturday 11 3

Table 2. Different Available Routes in the Database

_id Name Lat Long Route Path Pathindex Filter Filter Filter Filter Filter Filter Filter

1 Allen Round About,Ikeja,Lagos, Nigeria 6507113 3348897 Ikeja to

Maryland 1 0

2 Kudirat Abiola Way, Ikeja Lagos Nigeria 6609692 335292 Ikeja to

Maryland 1 2

5 Ikorodu Rd,Lagos Nigeria 6588192 3378908 Ikeja to Maryland 1 3

6 Mariland Bus Stop, Kosofe Lagos Nigeria 6571725 3367395 Ikeja to

Maryland 1 4


Maryland 2 0

8 Ikeja Round About,Ikeja,Lagos, Nigeria 6597156 3341153 Ikeja to

Maryland 2 1

9 Mobolaji bank Anthony Ikeja Nigeria 6592674 3342827 Ikeja to

Maryland 2 2


Maryland 2 3


Maryland 3 0

12 Sheraton Link Ikeja,Lagos, Nigeria 6586165 3363849 Ikeja to

Maryland 3 1

13 Mobolaji bank Anthony Ikeja Nigeria 6583863 3358453 Ikeja to

Maryland 3 2


Maryland 3 3



3.5 Prototype Android Application (Mobile Route)

The system design was illustrated using flowchart in Figure 3. The flowchart shows the coding process indicating the various conditions that govern the operation. An Android application called “MOBILE ROUTE” was developed for the implemen-tation. The application is simply selected from list of installed apps on a mobile de-vice. Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria environment was used for the case study. The application simulates and selects the fastest route from one of three routes from the popular Ikeja roundabout to Maryland bus stop in Lagos. The application has a mobile route on the home page, where users are given access to simulate fastest route from ikeja to Mary-land. Figure 4 is the traffic alert pop-up, which always alerts road users of the traffic situation on the road and also provides an alternative route. The information needed for getting the alternative routes is gathered from Figure 5, which shows the different available routes.

Fig. 3. Flowchart for the proposed traffic management system

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Fig. 4. Traffic Alert Pop-Up

Fig. 5. Different Available Routes

Legend: : Fastest route : Second fastest route : Slowest route

4 Simulation Result And Discussion

Figure 6 shows the various locations and their respective throughput, measured in bits/sec. It shows the values of the respective delay and window size of the various locations. It depicts that the mobile device uses lesser bandwidth than the traffic light center. This implies lower cost, in terms of throughputs, of communicating traffic information on mobile phones. The various locations and values of their respective delay time were shown in Figure 7. Simulation results showed that the delay between the Mobile Device and Traffic Light are very close, this implies that there the time wasted for the traffic information to be passed on to the road users is small. The re-sponse time for each location, measured in seconds, is shown in Figure 8. It was ob-



served that mobile devices have the faster response time of 2.7 seconds than the Traf-fic Light Centre which has a response time of 50.1 seconds. This indicates that the mobile devices responds faster than the traffic light center and that, traffic infor-mation is arrive faster on the mobile devices.

Fig. 6. Graph depicting the throughput of the locations in the network

Fig. 7. Graph depicting the delay time of the locations of the network

Fig. 8. Graph depicting the Response time of the locations of the network

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5 Conclusion

African countries have a very high dependency on satellites, with the majority of the countries having more than 95% of their international traffic carried by satellite ([17], [18], [19]). With almost all of Africa’s international bandwidth provided by satellite, there is great potential for technologies such as VSAT to solve traffic prob-lems in developing countries, although the lack of funds, expertise, equipment or awareness has contributed to developing countries not using satellite technology to its full potential [19]. In this research, we have been able to develop a model and create an application called “Mobile Route” to simulate and show different available routes ranked based on their probability of being traffic free. A traffic management system in which traffic updates are received on mobile devices based on information gotten from weighted sensors is capable of providing feasible alternative to the existing predetermined fixed based traffic control system, especially in developing countries, by reducing road congestion, long hours spent on the road, and creating more access routes at intervals when there is congestion in the road network. Reducing or elimi-nating congestion will lead to a better work-life balance, increase human productivity and help the economy to develop.

6 References

[1] Mohammad, J. & Nasser, G. (2011), “A Fuzzy Reputation System in Vehicular Ad hoc Networks” Workshop on Emerging Topics in sensor networks. Available online at www.sciencedirect.com .

[2] Kang, W. Lee, J. Jeong, Y, Park, J. (2015) “VCC-SSF: Service-Oriented Security Frame-work for Vehicular Cloud Computing” Sustainability vol. 7, 2028-2044 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability. https://doi.org/10.3390/su7022028

[3] Niu, S. Zhang, J. Zhang, F Honghai, L. (2015) “A Method of UAVs Route Optimization Based on the Structure of the Highway Network”. International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks. Volume 20(2), 7 pages.

[4] Safdar, M. (2015) “Remote Sensing: A Mobile Vehicle Weight Sensor and its Application in Transportation (Case Study: Municipal Solid Waste Collection Vehicles)” 1st interna-tional Electronic Conference on Remote Sensing 22 June – 5 July.

[5] Mario, C. Tullio, G. Giovanni, P. & Gianfranco, S. (2014), “Smart Traffic Light Junction Management Using Wireless Sensor Networks”. Journal of WSEAS transactions on com-munications Vol. 13, pp 45 – 56

[6] Javed, A. and Pandey, M. (2014), “Development of Intelligent Traffic Light System Based on Congestion Estimation Using Fuzzy Logic”. Journal of Computer Engineering (IOSR-JCE) Vol. 16( 3), pp 36-44.

[7] Viswanathan, V. and Santhanam, V. (2013), “Intelligent Traffic Signal Control Using Wireless Sensor Networks”. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Advances in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ICAEE’2013), March 17-18.

[8] Hussian, S. and Vinita, S. (2013), “Automated Intelligent Traffic Control System Using Sensors”. International Journal of Soft Computing and Engineering (IJSCE). Vol, 3, pp 77 – 85.



[9] Shruthi, k. and Vinodha, K. (2012), “Priority based traffic lights controller using wireless sensor networks”. International Journal of Electronics Signals and Systems (IJESS) , Vol. 3(4), pp 20 -32.

[10] Niittymaki, J. (2001) “Installation and Experience of Field Testing a Fuzzy Signal Control-ler”. European Journal of Operation Research, Vol. 31, pp. 273-281. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0377-2217(00)00127-2

[11] Sheraz, S. Abbas, S. and Noor, H (2009), “Fuzzy Rule Based Traffic Signal Control Sys-tem for Oversaturated Intersections”. International Conference on Computational Intelli-gence and Natural Computing, vol. 2, pp.162-169.

[12] Al-Khateeb, K. Johari, J. and Wajdi. F (2008), “Dynamic Traffic Light Sequence Algo-rithm using RFID”. Journal of Computer Science, Vol. 5(2) pp 517-524.

[13] Dong, L. & Chen, W (2010) “Real Time Traffic Signal for Urban Road Multi-Intersection” Intelligent Information Management journal, 2010, Vol. 2, pp83-86. https://doi.org/10.4236/iim.2010.28058

[14] Hafizah Binti Ka’ab (2010), “Development of intelligent traffic light control using fuzzy logic” A thesis submitted for the award of bachelor of Electronic Engineering (Computer Engineering) Faculty of Electronic and Computer Engineering. University Teknikal Ma-laysia Melaka April, 2010.

[15] Commission of the European Communities (2009),” Traffic Management for Land Transport” Transport Research Knowledge Centre website at www.transportresearch.info/web/projects/transport_themes.cfm

[16] Michel dos Santos Soares, Jos Vrancken, Yubin Wang (2010),” Architecture-Based De-velopment of Road Traffic Management Systems” in proc.2010 IEEE International Con-ference on Networking,Sensing and Control,Chicago,IL, USA, April 10-12,2010,pages 26-31, 2010.

[17] Moroney, S., Hamilton, P., & Africa, A. I. T. E. C. (2004). Satellite and VSAT: Innovative uses for Rural Telephony and Internet Development.

[18] Nielinger, O. (2004). Assessing a decade of liberal sector reforms in African telecommu-nications. Report, Institute of African Affairs, Hamburg.

[19] Wood, D. R. (2008). The use of satellite-based technology in developing countries (Doc-toral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

7 Authors

Akinboro Solomon A. (principal and corresponding author) a Senior Lecturer from Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun state, Nigeria, holds a B. Tech de-gree in Computer Engineering from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Og-bomosho, M.Sc. and PhD in Computer science from Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife. Research interests include Distributed system and computer network, Mobile Computing and Machine Learning. Member of the following professional bodies: Nigeria Computer Society, Nigeria Society of Engineers and Council for the Regula-tion of Engineering in Nigeria ([email protected])

Adeyiga Johnson holds a Bachelor of Science (BS.c) degree and Master of Science (MS.c) degree in Computer Science both from the University of Ibadan. He is a member of the computer professional registration council of Nigeria, a computer scientist with specialty in cybercrime and mobile computing. He currently lecture in

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Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun state, Nigeria.He has taught many courses in computer science and supervised many projects.

Adebayo Omotosho received his PhD in Computer Science at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology in 2016. He is a Seasoned Computer Programmer and has taken part in a number of programming competitions in C/C++/C#. He is a member of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Computer Professional [Registration Council] of Nigeria (CPN), Computer Science Teachers Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and International Association of Computer Science and Information Tech-nology. His research interests are health informatics, computer security, machine learning and biometrics.

Akinwale O. Akinwunmi is a Phd holder and lecturer at the Department of Com-puter Science and Information Technology, Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State. Ni-geria. He is an Assistant Director, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Directorate of the same University. His research interest among others includes Net-working and Communication, Hardware, Distributed Systems, Mobile Computing, Modelling and Simulation(Phone: 2348034237441 E-mail: [email protected] ).

Article submitted 08 February 2017. Published as resubmitted by the authors 16 April 2017.


Paper—OmniColor – A Smart Glasses App to Support Colorblind People

OmniColor – A Smart Glasses App to Support Colorblind People


Georg Lausegger, Michael Spitzer!"!#, Martin Ebner Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria

[email protected]

Abstract—Colorblind people or people with a color vision deficiency have to face many challenges in their daily activities. Their disadvantage to perceive colors incorrectly leads to frustration when determining the freshness of fruits and the rawness of meat as well as the problem to distinguish clothes with con-fusing colors. With the rise of the smartphone, numerous mobile applications are developed to overcome those problems, improving the quality of live. How-ever, smartphones also have some limitations in certain use cases. Especially activities where both hands are needed do not suit well for smartphone applica-tions. Furthermore, there exist tasks in which a continuous use of a smartphone is not possible or even not legally allowed such as driving a car. In recent years, fairly new devices called smart glasses become increasingly popular, which of-fer great potential for several use cases. One of the most famous representatives of smart glasses is Google Glass, a head-mounted display that is worn like nor-mal eyeglasses produced by Google. This paper introduces an experimental pro-totype of a Google Glass application for colorblind people or people with a col-or vision deficiency, called OmniColor and meets the challenge if Google Glass is able to improve the color perception of those people. To show the benefits of OmniColor, an Ishihara color plate test is performed by a group of 14 partici-pants either with, or without the use of OmniColor.

Keywords—Google Glass, colorblindness, color vision deficiency, color per-ception

1 Introduction

Colorblind people or people with a color vision deficiency (CVD) have to face many challenges in their everyday life. This involves tasks in which color is used as an information medium such as recognizing traffic lights while driving or determining the rawness of meat while cooking. Career choices are also limited, since a working color perception is prerequisite for some professions (e.g. train director) [1]. The usage of mobile devices such as smartphones together with applications that provide

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color correcting or color highlighting methods can support affected persons. However, those devices also come up with some limitations. Many tasks require a hands-free usage - it’s not possible to drive a car with one hand while holding the smartphone permanently in the other hand. Hence, other mobile devices which are already worn by the user and allow hands-free navigation suit better for such purposes. Smart glass-es are mobile devices that are worn as normal glasses and provide a new platform to assist people with a limited color perception.

1.1 Color Vision

Joblove and Greenberg [2] describe color as a function of the spectral distribution of amplitude and wavelength. The retina of the human eye has two light sensitive bodies, which are called rods and cones. Under normal light conditions, visual infor-mation is provided by cones. Rods on the other hand are used to perceive visual in-formation in dim light where cones are insensitive. According to Huang et al. [3], normal color vision is based on the absorption of photons, which are processed by the three different types of fundamental photoreceptor cells, which are called cone cells. Furthermore, these cone cells or cones can be classified in three different types de-pending on their different spectral sensitivities: The long-(L), middle-(M) and short-(S) cones, which form the LMS color space. Although the particular receptors of the LMS triple overlap, each of those cones has a peak response in different wavelength regions of the spectrum: red for the long-, green for the middle and blue for the short cones [2]. Olivera et al. [4] stated, that the human eye consists of plenty more rods than cones. With the discovery of visual pigments in the nineteenth century, it was founded out that rods and cones contain a light-sensitive protein called rhodopsin, which allows color vision. Wakita and Shimamura [5] stated that humans with normal color vision can be referred to as trichromats. Color stimulus for light can be given by a numerical integration:

!!! ! ! ! !! ! !" !!!! ! ! !!!! ! (1)

Whereas ! describes the wavelengths, " is the spectral power distribution of light and lL, lM and lS are the spectral sensitivities for the long-, middle and short-wavelength cones.

Color Vision Deficiency (CVD) can be caused by internal and external factors [6]. Internal factors are defined to be intrinsic to the user (e.g. genetic causes or acquired CVD), external factors are caused by environmental or situational issues outside the user (e.g. lighting levels). If the retina of a human eye does not have specific cone types, one can speak of a genetic CVD. The genetic information for the presence and sensitivity of those cones are determined by the human X chromosome, which can have different variations. Men only have one X chromosome, whereas women have two. Therefore, men are more likely to have a CVD than women. A distinction is made between the lack of one of the cone types and variant forms of dysfunctions of cone types that result in a shifted peak of wavelength sensitivity. The lack of one cone type is called dichromacy whereas the dysfunction of one or more cone types is called anomalous trichromacy. The lack of two cone types (cone monochromacy) or three



cone types (rod monochromacy) is possible, but very rare. Jefferson and Harvey [7] define the three main types of abnormal color vision as anomalous trichromatism, dichromatism and monochromatism. Furthermore, anomalous trichromatism can be separated in protanomaly (abnormal L cone) and deuteranomaly (abnormal M cone). The color perception for people which are affected by protanomaly or deuteranomaly can range from slightly normal vision to nearly dichromatic. Dichromats, which have a lack of a specific cone type, are classified as protanopes (missing L cone), deuteran-opes (missing M cone) and tritanopes (missing S cone). Beside genetic CVD, ac-quired CVD is caused by a damage of the vision system [6]. This can occur by events an accident or disease. Since there are plenty less short- than mid- and long-wavelength cones, the chance of getting a color perception similar to tritanomaly or tritanope is much higher by an acquired CVD.

Color-blindness Tests help to diagnose color-blindness or a CVD. Different tests came up in the past century. The most famous is the one described by Dr. Shinobu Ishihara [8]. According to [4], the Ishihara color test was developed as a color percep-tion test for military recruits. Nigam and Bhattacharya [9] stated that the tests consist of a number of plates which contain multiple colored dots. The dots show hidden objects, where an object may be a number, alphabets or any other shape. These plates are often called Ishihara plates and are well known to diagnose color-blindness for dichromats that have red-green and blue-yellow CVD. Figure 1 shows an example of an Ishihara color plate. While humans with normal color vision should be able to recognize the number six on the plate, whereas protanopes and deuteranopes are nor-mally not able recognize the number (depending on how strong their CVD is).

Fig. 1. Ishihara color plate [10]

Another test for color-blindness was presented by Farnsworth [11] and is called the Farnsworth- Munsell 100-hue test. Meyer and Greenberg [12] describe the test as a widely-used color vision test administered using physical color samples. The goal for the test subject is to rearrange a set of colors into a continuous color sequence. This set of colors form a continuous hue circuit when ordered correctly. However, after the rearrangement, an error score is computed for each sample. Protanopes, deuteranopes

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and tritanopes have different lines of confusion, which where plotted together with the chromaticity of the color samples. Figure 2 shows an online implementation of the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-Hue Test [13].

Fig. 2. Online Implementation of the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-Hue Test

Color-correction Methods came up in the past century. Numerous algorithms and methods to correct images and/or video streams where discovered. This work only treat two of the most common used methods, although there are plenty more methods that can be used to adapt images according to the viewer’s needs.

Daltonization. Anagnostopoulos et al. [14] describe daltonization as a process to modify an image or a sequence of images in a way that the color perception of color-deficient viewers is improved, which is first introduced by John Dalton [15]. The key idea behind this approach is to use the lost information by simulating a CVD which can then be used to improve the original image [16]. Hence, the lost information is used to map colors of the original image to wavelengths that are perceptible by people color-deficient viewers, resulting in shifted colors the viewer can see. The daltoniza-tion algorithm [17] basically consists of four steps:

• First, the RGB coordinates are converted into the LMS color space, which is a color space suitable for calculating color blindness represented by the three differ-ent types of cones of the human eye.

• Next, a simulation of color blindness is achieved by reducing the colors along a dichromatic confusion line, the line parallel to the axis of the missing photorecep-tor, to a single color.

• Then a compensation for color blindness is accomplished by shifting wavelengths away from the portion of the spectrum invisible to the dichromat, towards the visi-ble portion.

• At last, the LMS coordinates are converted back to RGB color space by using the inverse matrix of step one.

Color Contrast Enhancement. Another method is presented by Khurge and Peshwani [18], which is called color contrast enhancement. The RGB values of an image are adjusted in a way that the contrast is enhanced between confusing colors.



Thus, deuteranopes have a lack of green cone cells and therefore green pixels are adapted to appear bluer. The algorithm can be summarized by performing three steps:

• First, the red component of the RGB values is increased relative to pure red. Reds that are further away from pure red are increased significantly, while reds which are close to pure red are only increased marginally.

• Second, the green component of the RGB values is increased relative to pure green. Therefore, the same procedure is applied with green as with red in step one.

• Finally, more contrast is produced by reducing the blue component for pixels that are mostly red and increasing the blue component for pixels that are mostly green.

1.2 Smart glasses

According to Due [19], smart glasses are worn by the user on the head like normal glasses. Beside their main purpose to display information, they can also be used to take pictures or to record videos. Their technology in terms of optics is usually based on a Heads-Up Display (HUD), Head-Mounted Display (HMD) or an Optical Head Mounted Display (OHMD). Independent from the underlying technology, the user of smart glasses is able to see a digital world (online) and a physical world (offline). Pentland [20] stated that the biggest advantage of smart glasses is the fact, that unlike smartphones and other wearables including body integrated technology, which come with need to look away from the actual point of view (normally on a display) in the physical world, these devices are already worn and allow the user to look at the physi-cal world parallel to immersed, digital world. However, in order to recognize a sharp projected image, the area of interest has to be focused. This means that it is not possi-ble to apply the same focus on the physical world as on the digital world at the same time. Also, the context switch between the two worlds need some form of training - people often feel unfamiliar with smart glass when they wear the device for the first time. Another big advantage when compared to smartphones is that smart glasses can be used hands-free.

Google Glass as an example of smart glasses is used within this study. Brusie et al. stated that the big American company Google presented its first head mounted weara-ble device in April 2013. [21] In the beginning, the device was not available for the public. With the Explorer Project in 2014, Glass could be bought for 1500$. Nguyen [22] argues that typically for mobile device, it is rich on sensors and became popular cause of its growing API support and the huge community. Glass comes with a screen resolution of 640x360 pixels, which is equivalent to a 25- inch display from eight feet away. For user input, there is a touchpad located on the right side of the device which supports multi touch gestures. There is also the possibility to control the device with head gestures or voice input. The latter two input methods allow hands-free interac-tion. Additionally, Google Glass has an ambient light sensor, an internal compass sensor and a proximity sensor. For connection purposes, the device supports Blue-tooth 4.0 and has an 802.11 b/g wireless module. It also features a camera that is ca-pable to take photos with 5 Megapixel resolution and record videos up to 1280x720 pixels (720p).

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2 Research Design

Out of the numerous possibilities to create the Google Glass application for color-blind people or people with a CVD, it was decided to create this work according to the method given by experimental prototyping as classified by Floyd [23]. Mayhew and Dearnley [24] describe experimental prototyping as the process of building a prototype or a proposed solution to a particular problem. Therefore, a prototype is created and then evaluated by experimental use. The functionality of the prototype could contain either the full- or a smaller, interesting subset functionality of the target system. At first, core functionalities where elaborated and described. For this purpose, related work where searched and evaluated to get an idea what possibilities exists to create a color correcting application with Google Glass. After the prototype had been developed, it was evaluated in form of a study by testing the functionality with a group of participants. The following research questions should be answered: RQ1: Are smart glasses already suitable for image correction or image enhancing and where are the limits of those devices? RQ2: How can Google Glass improve the color per-ception for colorblind people or people with a CVD?

3 Prototype

This section describes the prototype and the used algorithm within this study.

3.1 OmniColor

The prototype of the Google Glass application to correct images according to the needs of people with colorblindness or people with a CVD is called OmniColor. It works asynchronous and not in real-time. The implementation is based on so called Immersions, which are basic design elements or more precisely representing canvases that contain other application components such as headers and images. However, Immersions offer the most custom experience. Live Cards are other basic design ele-ments on which components can be drawn, but are more likely used for applications which need to be rendered several times in a second such as games. These UI tech-niques are suggested in the Google Glass developers design documentation [25]. To actually perform pixel based operations that are needed for the daltonization process, a standard library for computer vision called OpenCV is used. The application can be controlled either via touchpad gestures or voice control. Touchpad gestures conclude left and right swiping for choosing the correct CVD type, single finger tap for confir-mation and a single finger swipe to go back. Thus, the process to correct an image with OmniColor can be described by the following steps:

1. Starting at the Home screen of Google Glass, one has to get to the application list by performing a single tap on the touchpad or use the voice command OK, Glass.

2. Next, The OmniColor application has to be opened by performing a single tap on the touchpad or use the voice command Omni- Color.



3. Now that the application is opened and initialized, the menu to select the desired CVD has to be confirmed by performing a single tap on the touchpad or via the voice command OK, Glass.

4. With the menu being opened, the desired CVD is chosen by using the forward and backward swipe gesture and accepted by performing a single tap on the touchpad or using the voice command according to what CVD should be chosen (e.g. Deu-teranopia).

5. The next screen shows a prompt to take a picture by performing a single tap on the touchpad or use the voice command.

6. After a short space of time, the taken picture is shown to the user who has now the possibility to accept the image by performing a single tap on the touchpad or to get back by performing the swipe down gesture.

7. Since all computations are performed directly on Google Glass rather than use of-floading to perform computational expensive tasks in the cloud or another device, the processing will take some time. The user gets a hint that the device is now cal-culating the result image according to the previous specified color vision deficien-cy.

8. Finally, after the result image has been computed, it is shown the user and stored on the device. The user can now get back and take another picture without having to choose the color vision deficiency another time.

Figure 3 shows the screen flow of OmniColor and the color corrections of a sample picture.

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Fig. 3. Screen flow of OmniColor (original resolution of Google Glass)



3.2 Daltonization

OmniColor uses a slightly modified version on the standard daltonization algo-rithm. Although there are numerous ways to correct an image for colorblind people or people with a CVD, daltonization was chosen because of the fact that it acts by shift-ing colors, but attempts to preserve color and information. While confusing colors are corrected according to the different CVD types, other colors only change marginally and stay most widely unaltered. People with a normal color perception will only con-sider small changes when comparing the result image with the original one. The algo-rithm is also known for good performance in comparison to other color correcting methods, since each pixel has to be only processed once and can be computed by matrix multiplications rather than calculating integrals. This is an important design criterion for almost all mobile devices. Daltonization can be used for all three differ-ent CVD types, which is another big advantage. Tanuwidjaja et al. [1] also provided a daltonization mode in their Google Glass application Chroma. For simplicity reasons, values are rounded to two decimal places in this paper. The daltonization algorithm used by OmniColor could be described by the following steps:

!!!

!!"!!! !"!!" !!!"!!!" !"!!" !!!"!!!" !!!" !!!"

!!!!

(2)

First the RGB values of the original image which are ranged between zero and 255 are transformed into the LMS color space. This is done by matrix multiplication as shown by equation (2).

!!"#$ !!!! !!! !!!!!!" !!! !!!"!!! !!! !!!

(3)

!!"#$ !!!! !!!"# !!!!"!!! !!! !!!!!! !!! !!!

(4)

!!"#! !!!! !!! !!!!!! !!! !!!

!!!!" !!!" !!! (5)

Each different CVD type has its own color deficiency matrix. Those matrices are respectively Sdeut for deuteranomaly given by (3), Sprot for protanomaly given by (4) and Strit for tritanomaly given by (5).

!!"#!!"#!!"#

! !!!! !!!!

(6)

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In the next step, the CVD type is simulated by multiplying each pixel of the LMS converted original image with the matrix Sx (according to which type is needed), which results in new LMS values (Lsim, Msim, Ssim) shown in equation (6).

!!"!!"!!"

!!!!" !!!!" !!!"!!!!" !!!" !!!!!!!!! !!!! !!!"

!!!"#!!"#!!"#

(7)

The simulated LMS values are transformed into the RGB color space by a multi-

plication with the inverse matrix of the LMS color conversion in equation 2. This results in an equation given by (7).

!!""!!""!!""

!!!!

!!!"!!"!!"

(8)

In this step, compensation values are calculated by subtracting the original’s image

RGB values with the RGB triple given by (8).

!!!!"#!!!!"#!!!!"#

!!!! !!! !!!!!! !!! !!!!!! !!! !!!

!!!""!!""!!""

(9)

Now, the necessary shift is computed to make the color more visible for colorblind

people, resulting in Rshift, Gshift and Bshift given in (9).

!!"#!!"#!!"#

!!!!!!!!!"#!!!!"#!!!!"#

(10)

Finally, the resulting matrix of the Daltonization algorithm is calculated by multi-

plying the original RGB values with the shifted RGB values, as given in (10). Figure 4 shows 3 samples of corrected images, one for each type of CVD.

Fig. 4. CVD correction for deuteranopia, protanopia and tritanopia.



4 Evaluation

The prototype was evaluated with a qualitative user test.

4.1 Method

To evaluate the OmniColor Glass application, a printed 17 plate Ishihara color test containing only numbers was performed. The Ishihara test containing 24 plates is usually only applied for people that are not able to read numbers. Therefore, the test containing 17 color plates was sufficient. Each participant is tested individually, which means that an appointment for place and time was arranged for each person. First, all participants got a short introduction to Google Glass including navigation concepts and input possibilities. Next, a questionnaire has to be filled out by the par-ticipants, primarily to get information about their color vision (normal, color vision deficiency, color blindness). After that, the concept of the Ishihara color plate test is described by the examiner. Related to this description, OmniColor is presented by the examiner - the participants have the possibility to watch a screencast on a standard Android phablet while an example color plate is processed by OmniColor. For this purpose, an introduction plate is used, which can easily be recognized for colorblind people and people with normal color vision. Afterwards the participants have the possibility to do the Ishihara color test twice: The first time without the use of Omni-Color, the second time with the use of OmniColor. There is no time limit for the test nor is the examiner allowed to help the test subject on confusing color plates. The participants are required to read the number of the actual color plate and report it to the examiner. The reported numbers are then recorded by the examiner. Actually, there were three possible options on each plate:

• If the participant is sure about the actual number, it is reported and recorded by the examiner.

• If the participant is not sure about the actual number, he/she can give two sugges-tions. Both are recorded by the examiner.

• If the participant cannot see any number on the plate, he/she can skip it.

After the first test without the use of OmniColor, the participants are instructed to put on Google Glass and do the test again with the help of OmniColor. However, since the image processing on each color plate take a non-negligible amount of time, the test is shortened by only analyzing four color plates with OmniColor (typically those where the participant had problems to recognize the number). The other plates are shown on a tablet, on which each color plate is already preprocessed by OmniCol-or for each color vision deficiency. Participants with a normal color vision can choose the correction method they’d like to see, but they were recommended to use the deu-teranopia or protanopia mode, since the image only change marginally. After the two tests had been performed, the results where compared and discussed with the partici-pants. Figure 5 shows the execution of the Ishihara color test with the use of Omni-Color.

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Fig. 5. Ishihara color test situation

4.2 Results

To verify the usefulness of OmniColor, 14 participants were recruited over a three-week period. Five of the participants have a diagnosed CVD and are males. While four people with a CVD know their color blindness type (protanopia/protanomaly), one person was not able to give this information at the time the questionnaire was filled out. After the first round of the Ishihara color plate test was taken it could be determined, that the person had most likely protanomaly too. Hence, 3 of the CVD group are strong- while the other two are mild-protanopes. No one of the CVD group wears glasses; hence no concern about this limitation was expressed. The age of the participants ranges from 28 to 48. The nine people with normal color vision had no problem to pass the Ishihara color plate test - either with or without the use of Omni-Color. However, two participants had problems on certain plates to report the number. After the confusing plates had been photographed multiple times, the numbers could be rightly recognized. All of the five participants of CVD group where able to signifi-cantly improve on the Ishihara color test with the use of OmniColor. The three strong protanopes went from strong to mild, while one of the mild protanopes went to nearly normal color vision. The other mild protanope only achieved a minimal improvement with the use of OmniColor. However, all participants of the CVD group found the application useful to determine the number better or even faster. Table I shows the Ishihara color test results for the five protanopes. The users had to recognize 17 dif-ferent numbers. Table I shows the correctly recognized numbers with and without OmniColor.



Table 1. Ishihara color plate test results with and without the OmniColor application for par-ticipants with a color vision deficiency.

age CVD type without OmniColor with OmniColor 36 protanomaly 7/17 12/17 48 protanomaly 2/17 11/17 37 protanomaly 3/17 12/17 28 protanomaly 3/17 13/17 41 protanomaly 8/17 14/17

5 Discussion

The overall results had shown that the OmniColor Google Glass application could lead to an improvement for people with a CVD. However, during the test phase of OmniColor, certain limitations and problems came up that need to be considered for further development. First, although the Ishihara color test is a standard test to diag-nose a CVD and what CVD type the test subject have, it does not cover up the daily activity challenges for colorblind individuals such as determining the rareness of meat while cooking or choosing confusing colored clothes. For this purpose, real life sce-narios should be summarized as user stories, which could then be performed in an extended test with colorblind participants. A good approach is brought by Tanuwidja-ja et al. [1]: While all test subjects performed a series of general tests, a subgroup of the participants performed also some specialized tests like recognizing colored band of resistors. The CVD group consisted of only five participants, which is rather small for a convincing result. Therefore, more colorblind people or people with a CVD should be tested. The search for colorblind participants was really challenging. This may be caused by not willing the participants to be recognized as colorblind or be mentioned as so in any work. Also, it would be interested to test even one tritanope with OmniColor. While the OmniColor Google Glass application can be controlled either via touchpad or voice commands, nearly all participants used the touchpad for navigation purposes. Only one participant who was already familiar with Google Glass also tried voice commands. During the development of the application, the voice navigation worked great. However, since each participant is tested individually on different environments with different noise levels, it could be determined that the voice recognition suffers from high background noises. Nevertheless, the touchpad navigation worked correctly for each participant. Most of the participants felt com-fortable by wearing Google Glass. Those people that regularly wear glasses had prob-lems to adjust Google Glass according to their needs and ended up with putting Google Glass in front of their regular glasses. While it is OK to do that for a couple of minutes, none of them would wear Google Glass for a longer period of time. Google need to provide a version of Google Glass with prescription lenses that can also be worn comfortably by wearer of glasses. As Google Glass was primarily designed to be a notification device rather than a device for running compute-intense applications, the performance of OmniColor was criticized by some participants. Although no real-

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time approach was chosen for OmniColor, since images are processed and no video stream, the computation of the daltonized image took too long for a smooth user expe-rience. But not only the actual computation of the output image took too long, the recommended way from Google to use an observer method to wait for the taken im-age to be processed took about three to four seconds [26]. For this purpose, an own logic which uses the Android Camera API could be used to accelerate the capturing process. To improve the performance of the image correction, offloading could be performed. Thus, either cloud services or offloading devices connected via network could be used to perform compute intense operations. Ha et al. [27] presented a simi-lar concept called cloudlets, which can be described as a cloud service next to the user. To guarantee reliability, a chain of computation possibilities where prepared: If no connection with a cloudlet can be established, the connection with a normal cloud service would be established. If that also fails, the users carried offloading devices (laptop) with them, which perform compute-intense operations. If even that fails, all computations had to be performed on Google Glass, which lead to a significant per-formance decrease. The authors also stated that the CPU frequency of the device does not provide the full theoretically computation power of 1008MHz. Because Google Glass tries to minimize heat development, several lower CPU frequencies are used according to the performance needs - Either 300, 600, 800 or 1008MHz. The highest frequency is only used for a short amount of time to boost compute-intense opera-tions. Some participants claimed that Google Glass got very hot while using Omni-Color, which results in an uncomfortable user experience. Most likely, these were participants who do not wear glasses. The reason could be the fact that the temple stem of glasses act as a separator between Google Glass and the head. If the device gets too hot, the current application is interrupted and a warning message will be shown to the user that Glass has to cool down for a moment. Although this never happened on any test of OmniColor, the device still produced a significant amount of heat. Since all image correcting computations are directly performed on Google Glass, offloading may be interesting concept to overcome that issue [27]. The camera provided by Google Glass also brought some limitations, mostly because of the fact that colors deviate from the true colors. Digital cameras often come with the function-ality to calibrate the camera. However, Google Glass does not offer the possibility to manipulate the factory settings of the camera such as white balancing. Also, the Ishi-hara color test was performed on different environments and light conditions. One participant had problems to recognize the numbers on certain plates. After presenting the pre-taken images on the Android phablet, the numbers could be recognized cor-rectly. Hence, the results of OmniColor may vary under different light conditions.

6 Conclusion & Outlook

This paper presents a Google Glass application for people with color blindness or people with a CVD. The reason why Smart Glasses and not ordinary mobile devices as smart phones were the target device group was that Smart Glasses can be used hands-free. This is a big advantage to solve everyday challenges for color-blind per-



sons. It demonstrates how new technical devices in combination with state of the art application development could improve the color perception of those people (RQ2). Although Google Glass had several limitations that came up while testing OmniColor, it shows the great potential of smart glasses for special purposes (RQ1). The applica-tion can be used to solve non time-critical use cases such as distinguish mellow from green bananas or to select appropriate colored clothes or identify the color of a map legend. Since the converted images are stored, the images could be used as accessory to help other color-blind persons. The algorithm itself works as intended, the hard-ware limitations of the device should not be considered as a big issue since the per-formance of the available hardware evolves constantly. Further work may include the improvement of the overall OmniColor performance. In a first step, the logic to take pictures with OmniColor directly via the Android camera API should be modified. In the next step, cloud based offloading possibilities could be used to offload compute-intense operations. The Google Glass Explorer Project ended on January 19th 2015 [28]. Google stated that the company will still support Glass at Work and will work on a newer, better version of smart glasses in an independent unit out of Google X research lab. The Google Glass Explorer Project acted as a beta phase for Google, in which problems could be identified and improved in further development. As a future work, ports to other platforms and devices such as Microsoft’s HoloLens [29] mixed reality head mounted smart glasses would be very interesting.

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8 Authors

Georg Lausegger, Michael Spitzer (corresponding author), and Martin Ebner are with the Department of Educational Technology, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria ([email protected]).

Article submitted 18 March 2017. Published as resubmitted by the authors 05 May 2017.

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Paper—The Effect of Privacy Concerns on Smartphone App Purchase in Malaysia: Extending the Theory..

The Effect of Privacy Concerns on Smartphone App Purchase in Malaysia: Extending the Theory of

Planned Behavior https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v11i5.6961

Zakariya Belkhamza!"!#, Mohd. Adzwin Faris Niasin Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

[email protected]

Abstract—The rise of m-commerce has brought the intention to the issue of privacy concerns among mobile users, and studies showed that it is an im-portant factor that affects attitude and intention to purchase smartphone apps. The objective of this paper is to investigate the issue of privacy concerns on the attitude and purchasing intention among Malaysian smartphone users. This pa-per employed the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to investigate the role of privacy concerns in influencing the decision making process. The paper pro-vides significant insights on the issue of privacy concerns in the usage of smartphones which can help developers such as Google and Apple to improve their apps stores to provide better protection for users’ privacy and security in Malaysia.

Keywords—privacy concerns, purchase intention, theory of planned behavior

1 Introduction

As more consumers embrace the rise of the Internet era, the online privacy con-cerns remains a top priority for every smartphone user [1]. Many companies find it difficult to ensure privacy and security on their apps for their users to use and engage in a successful transaction, especially where cybercrimes are fast increasing. Privacy concerns naturally become an important issue as e-commerce makes it ascent into an important business aspect of most organizations. This is due to the fact that marketers are collecting more information on customers who are buying online to study not only their characteristics, but also their purchase preferences and behaviors. These con-cerns have proven to have negative consequences for the adoption of e-commerce [2], [3]. In Malaysia alone, it was reported by Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Communication agency (MCMC) that the country has a 35% of smartphone penetra-tion, resulting to more than 10 million smartphone users. It is even predicted that smartphone penetration in Malaysia will rise to 60% by 2015. The statistics also re-veals that Malaysia holds a 66% of Internet users from the population, with 60% in-ternet penetration and 140% mobile penetration, with 47% of Malaysians own more than one mobile phone [4], [5]. Of the current smartphone users, 50.9% of them have



installed 10 to 30 apps in their smartphones [4]. In another investigation, the Wall Street Journal examined 101 popular smartphone apps and found out that 56 apps transmitted the phone’s unique identifiers to other companies without users’ aware-ness, while about 47 apps transmitted the device’s location to outsiders [6], [7]. Fur-thermore, the study revealed that both Apple iOS and Google Android mobile operat-ing systems regularly record and transmit location data without the consent of phone owners. These findings represent concerns regarding users’ information privacy, es-pecially when MCMC stated that most Malaysian smartphone users tend to opt for “jailbreak” smartphones that allow the downloading of apps which have not been approved by app stores as these apps may impose security and data integrity risks [4]. This confirms that the increasing number of smartphone users will only lead to the increasing of privacy risks [8], [9].

In addition to these alarming statistics, the lack of academic research on the influ-ence of privacy concerns on consumers’ intention to purchase smartphone apps still suffer from a holistic understanding of the issue, especially when including other influential factors that affect the decision to purchase apps such as the stimulus of social influences and one’s own perceived ability to perform the behavior. Although there are significant number of theories and research on the effect of privacy concerns on purchase intention in the general concept of information systems and e-commerce [10], there is a little evidence if the findings of those studies still hold true in the mo-bile technology context [11]. Known past studies lack the attempt and initiative to investigate and examine the role of privacy concerns on smartphone apps purchase intention by integrating a theoretical predictive consumer behavior framework such as the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in the context of smartphone privacy. Despite the existence of several studies that used TPB on mobile devices related topics, they do not explicitly studied the effect of privacy concerns on smartphone apps purchase intention [12], [13].

On this regard, the objective of this paper is twofold. The first is to investigate the issue of privacy concerns on the purchase intention of smartphone apps. More pre-cisely, the aim is to give further insights on the issue of privacy concerns in the usage of smartphone apps stores which can help developers such as Google and Apple to improve their apps stores to provide better protection for users’ privacy and security in Malaysia. The second objective of the paper is to provide a better understanding on the role of privacy concerns and perception towards the purchase or usage behavior among Malaysian smartphone users through the utilization of the Theory of Planned Behavior as the roles of perceived behavioral control and subjective norm are also taken into consideration.

2 Literature review

2.1 The concept of privacy concerns

Privacy has long been identified as a moral right [14]. As far as technology is con-cerned, ref [15] defined it as “the moral right of individuals to be left alone, free from

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surveillance or interference from other individuals or organizations, including the state”. Specifically, it is the concerns of users on the collection, usage and manipula-tion of personal information by firms or entities due to the fear of loss or threat or breach of privacy. This definition is tailored toward its information aspects, rather than its physical, legal, and behavioral aspects [16]. Ref [17] identified four core measurements for dimension of individual privacy or “concerns for information pri-vacy” (CFIP) where these dimensions have been widely used by researchers in gen-eral [18]. These measurements are collection, improper access, errors and secondary use. Collection in the context of information privacy can be defined as the concerns related to the huge amount of personal information collected and stored in the compa-ny’s database. Similarly, improper access is the concern that the collected information becomes accessible to unauthorized people. Errors concerns the perception that per-sonal information related to individuals may become incorrect due to unintentional or malicious alterations. Finally, secondary use is the concern on the way the collected personal information is used by a third party for other purposes other than the initial intention [17]. The context of this relationship in information privacy has also gained attention in the literature. Ref [17] validated the construct of the use of behavioral intentions to measure individuals’ tendencies to be skeptical in dealing with technolo-gy, which could be used to gather, share their personal information. This construct, which was mainly derived from [19] is being widely used in the literature to explain the user behaviors with technologies across various contexts [20], [21], [22].

On this regards, considerable attention has been paid to the issue of privacy con-cerns and security on smartphones [9], [23]. It was found that many users who have downloaded apps from app stores such as Google Play and Apple’s App Store have low concerns on privacy. This is because they tend to disregard security alerts when they install apps from these app stores, with most of them unable to understand the risks and privacy issues associated with that installation [24], [23]. These studies suggested that users are more concerned about their privacy on their computers com-pared to their smartphones. It was further concluded that users believed that smartphones and personal computers are different. What makes smartphone users different is that they are exposed by considerable vulnerabilities and exposures through the traditional hacking, malwares and spywares, while at the same time are vulnerable to collection and dissemination of personal information by smartphone apps [25]. Google for instance has reportedly provided Australian developers with customer’s personal information which included e-mail addresses [26]. On the other hand, iPhone users are exposed to privacy breach threats as the smartphone’s Unique Device Identifier (UDID) of the device can reveal user’s behavioral patterns and in-formation if exploited based on apps usage or the device itself [27]. According to a recent study conducted by Pew Internet Project [28], more than half of smartphone users decided to uninstall apps from their smartphones due to the concerns of personal information with 54% deciding to forego apps installation while 30% of users unin-stall apps when privacy became a concern. Another report by Hewlett-Packard found out that 9 out of 10 smartphone apps are vulnerable to privacy issues [28].



2.2 Theory of planned behavior

The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) [29] was developed with the goal of pre-dicting the intentions and behaviors of individuals over a multitude of scenarios in a real life environment. TPB is extended from the original Theory of Reason Action (TRA) [30], [31] due to TRA’s limitations and lack of effectiveness in handling indi-viduals’ behaviors where they are having incomplete control over those behaviors [32], [33]. It is widely acknowledged that TPB has been used by many researchers in its consistency to predict the intentions and individuals in a variety of situations [33], [34]. According to TPB, an individual’s behavior to perform an action is determined by the individual’s intention to accomplish the behavior whereas the intention is based on the attitude, subjective norm and the perceived behavioral control of the individual [29]. Attitude refers to the positive or negative connotation or feeling that an individual possess in performing a behavior [29], [35]. Subjective norm is the normative belief of an individual that is influenced by other people and social pres-sure to perform a given behavior; it can reflect the desire of oneself to perform certain actions which are dependent on whether people perceive the actions as favorable or not [29], [34]. On the other hand, perceived behavioral control is defined as an indi-vidual’s perception of his or her own capability to perform a behavior of interest [29]. It includes the perception of resources, knowledge and facilitating conditions required to perform the behavior [13]. Research on the behavioral intention and attitude is well established in the literature [29], [30]. This establishment also includes information systems and technology adoption [35], [36]. These studies in the IT adoption context further confirm the old notion that the relationship between attitudes and intentions is based on the human need to achieve cognitive consistency [37].

Fig. 1. Theory of planned behavior

3 Theoretical framework and conceptual development

The literature reports inconsistency of findings on whether privacy concerns has a relationship with the behavioral intention. [38] for instance reported that a majority of the privacy concerns dimensions were found to have no relationship with consumers’ intention to perform online purchasing act. Yet, [39] found a negative relationship between privacy concern and intention to transact in an online environment. Con-

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sistent with prior research [21] and [40], individuals who are concerned about their personal information privacy would refrain from keeping their personal identifiable information from their online transactions in order to protect their identity. Thus, it is hypothesized that:

H1: There is a significant relationship between privacy concerns dimensions and smartphone apps purchase intention.

The effect of privacy concerns on attitude or intention had been discussed in the literature and has resulted to some interesting findings (e.g. [41] and [33]). [42] found that the attitude of consumers towards direct marketing is negatively associated with the degree of concerns on privacy. This negative influence of privacy concerns over attitude was also confirmed by [41] when they investigated consumers’ attitude to-wards websites for e-mail campaigns. Similarly, [43] have argued that individuals with stronger concerns about information privacy tend to exhibit negative attitudes about using a technology. Therefore, it is hypothesized that:

H2: There is a significant relationship between privacy concerns dimensions and attitude towards smartphone apps purchase.

Some studies did find that subjective norm does have an influence on the intention to implement technology-related behaviors [34], [13]. [13] has stated that referent power of peers’ suggestions and recommendation will have a significant effect on manipulating an individual’s decision to adopt new technology or services. In the context of mobile related issues, this appears to hold true in the context of this study since social norms was found to have a positive impact on the intention to adopt mo-bile shopping habit. Therefore, it is hypothesized that:

H3: There is a significant relationship between subjective norm and smartphone apps purchase intention.

There have been several studies confirming that that perceived behavioral control has an influence on the individual’s intention to perform certain behaviors, specifical-ly in the context of information technology-related topics [33], [34], [13], [44]. Ref [34] indicated that perceived behavioral control on buying product from a Web mer-chant positively influences the intention to buy products from the Web merchant. In addition, ref [13] confirmed that perceived behavioral control has a direct positive influence on an individual’s intention to perform mobile shopping. Therefore, it is hypothesized that:

H4: There is a significant relationship between perceived behavioral control and smartphone apps purchase intention.

In the context of online shopping or e-commerce, several literatures have provided the basis that attitude affects intention to perform behavior. For example, [33] has indicated that when users have positive attitude towards online shopping, the intention of the users to shop online will increase, provided that the users’ trustworthiness to-wards the privacy concern on online shopping is high. Additionally, other researches



on information technology-based behaviors have supported the notion that attitude has a positive effect towards intention [45], [33], [34], [13]. Therefore, it is hypothe-sized that:

H5: There is a significant relationship between attitude and smartphone apps pur-chase intention.

Attitude has been proven to exhibit the capability to mediate the relationship be-tween two variables in multiple contexts such as online learning and online shopping. Ref [46] revealed that attitude mediates the relationship between the likelihood to abort online transaction and other predictors (i.e. information control and effort sav-ing). Therefore, it is hypothesized that:

H6: Attitude towards smartphone apps purchase mediates the relationship between privacy concern dimensions and smartphone apps purchase intention.

Fig. 2. Research framework

4 Methodology

The respondents targeted for this research are consumers who have experienced purchasing and installing smartphone apps through apps stores or repositories such as Google Play Store and Apple Store. Thus, the unit of analysis for this research is individual consumers aged between 20 to 40 years old since these consumers have the capability to acquire not just free apps but also paid apps. These individuals also have a better experience in using smartphones. The study used survey instrument to test the research hypotheses in accordance to the practice in the information privacy literature

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[17]. Measurement scales were adapted from prior research. This has been made to ensure the measurements are valid and reliable. Items measuring attitude towards app purchase were adopted from [46]. The measurement items for app store purchase intention were adopted from [13]. Finally, measurement items for information privacy concerns were adapted from [17]. All items were measured using a five-point Likert scale from “Strongly disagree” = 1 to “Strongly agree” = 5. The questionnaire was distributed to a pool of Malaysian customers in three different geographical locations in Malaysia, namely, the capital Kuala Lumpur, the state of Selangor and the state of Sabah. Both non-probability convenience sampling and snowball sampling were used to collect data because both have been widely used in investigating consumer behav-iors on e-commerce related issues [45], [33]. Furthermore, those types of sampling techniques were necessary to ensure the customer must fulfill the research criteria.

5 Results

5.1 Profile of Respondents

Out of 1200 questionnaire sets sent, 457 respondents were received. After dropping 7 for incompletion, 450 usable respondents were used for the data analysis. The anal-ysis of the respondents’ demographics reveals that 54.7% of the respondents are male, while 45.3% are female. This indicates an adequate balance of the two genders. Most respondents are aged between 21 and 29 years old (58.0%); 36% of respondents have undergraduate degree followed by diploma holders at 30.7%; more than half of the respondents (56.7%) have steady monthly income (i.e. public / private / self-employed).

5.2 Smartphone Apps Usage

This section provides statistical information on the smartphone usage of respond-ents who have participated in the study. The results indicate that the highest percent-age of chosen app store is Google Play Store with 71.3% followed by the Apple Store with 20.0%. Google Play Store indicates that respondents use Android-based smartphones whereas Apple Store represents Apple’s iPhone-based smartphones. The higher usage of Android-based smartphones among Malaysian is consistent with the reports of MCMC of the Malaysia 2013 headphones survey where the majority of Malaysian use Android-based phone at 79.2%. The other 8.7% consists of BlackBerry World (Symbian-based), Window Stores (Windows Phone-based),among others.

5.3 Reliability analysis

The values for all constructs and their variables are presented in Table 1. It can be seen that all values are above the recommended value of 0.8, which shows a good reliability consistency [47].



Table 1. Reliability analysis

Construct Variables Number of items Cronbach alpha Privacy concerns Secondary use

Errors Unauthorized access Collection

4 4 3 4

0.93 0.88 0.85 0.82

Attitude Attitude towards smartphone apps purchase 6 0.93 Subjective norm Subjective norm 3 0.85 Perceived behavioral control

Perceived behavioral control 3 0.81

Intention Smartphone apps purchase intention 3 0.87

5.4 Descriptive analysis

The purpose of the descriptive analysis is to measure the mean and standard devia-tion for all the variables of the study. Based on the scale, mean that score lower than 2 indicate low responses, mean scores from 2 to 4 show moderate responses while mean scores higher than 4 represent high responses. The results compiled in Table 2 reveals that three variables have moderate mean scores ranging from the lowest to the highest respectively: smartphone apps purchase intention (2.99), attitude towards smartphone apps purchase (3.15) and errors (3.84). The rest of the variable showed high responses based on the mean scores that are higher than 4 which are collection (4.11), unauthor-ized access (4.40) and secondary use (4.47).

Table 2. Descriptive statistics

Variables Mean Standard deviation Collection 4.11 0.70 Improper access 4.40 0.59 Unauthorized secondary use 4.47 0.58 Errors 3.84 0.87 Subjective norms 2.75 0.97 Perceived behavioral control 3.80 0.80 Attitude towards smartphone apps purchase 3.15 0.97 Smartphone apps purchase intention 2.99 0.93

5.5 Multiple regression analysis

Multiple regression analysis was used to identify the relationship between the vari-ables of the research model. The first hypothesis (H1) attempts to examine whether there is a significant relationship between privacy concerns dimensions and smartphone apps purchase intention. The results in Table 3 indicates that 6.0% of variances in smartphone apps purchase intention can be explained by privacy con-cerns (R2 = 0.06, p < 0.01). Only the errors dimension of privacy concern is shown to be significant at p < 0.05, thus, H1 is partially supported.

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Table 3. Multiple Regression Analysis for Hypothesis H1

Dependent variable Independent variable Std. Coefficient Beta (!) t-value Smartphone apps purchase intention

Privacy concern: Collection Improper access Unauthorized secondary use Errors

0.067 -0.078 -0.054 0.244*

0.721 -0.717 -0.477 2.710

R2 Adjusted R2 Significant F

0.06 0.02 0.11

The second hypothesis (H2) attempts to examine whether there is a significant rela-

tionship between privacy concerns dimensions and the attitude towards smartphone apps purchase. The result in Table 5 indicates that 5.0% of variances in attitude to-wards smartphone apps purchase can be explained by privacy concerns (R2 = 0.05, p < 0.01). Out of the four dimensions of privacy concerns, only unauthorized access dimension is found to have a negative influence on the attitude of respondents (! = -0.252, p < 0.05). The unauthorized access dimension has the largest unique contribu-tion to explaining attitudes towards smartphone apps purchase as the part correlation value of -0.186 of the dimension suggests that the dimension contributed to 3.4% of variance in attitude. Therefore, H2 is partially supported.


Dependent variable Independent variable Std. Coefficient Beta (!) t-value Attitude towards smartphone apps purchase

Privacy concern: Collection Improper access Unauthorized secondary use Errors

0.11

-0.252* 0.187 0.06

1.173 -2.301 1.658 0.662


0.05 0.02 0.11

The hypothesis H3 attempts to examine whether there is a relationship between

subjective norms and smartphone apps purchase intention. The result in Table 5 indi-cates that 20.0 percent of variances in smartphone apps purchase intention can be explained by attitude where the subjective norms variable is shown to have significant relationship with purchase intention (R2 = 0.20, p < 0.01). Therefore, H3 is supported.


Dependent variable Independent variable Std. Coefficient Beta (!) t-value Smartphone apps pur-chase intention

Subjective norms 0.443** 6.007


0.20 0.19 0.00



The hypothesis H4 attempts to examine whether there is a relationship between perceived behavioral control and smartphone apps purchase intention. The result in Table 4.15 indicates that 13.0 percent of variances in smartphone apps purchase inten-tion can be explained by attitude where the subjective norms variable is shown to have significant relationship with purchase intention. (R2 = 0.13, p < 0.01). Therefore, H4 is supported.



Perceived behavioral control 0.357** 4.649


0.13 0.12 0.00

The hypothesis H5 attempts to examine whether there is a relationship between atti-

tude towards smartphone apps purchase and purchase intention. The result in Table 7 indicates that 36.0 percent of variances in smartphone apps purchase intention can be explained by attitude where the attitude variable is shown to have significant relation-ship with purchase intention with ! value of 0.59 (R2 = 0.36, p < 0.01). Therefore, H5 is supported.



Attitude towards smartphone apps purchase 0.598** 9.068


0.36 0.35 0.00

5.6 Mediation analysis

In order to test the mediating role of attitude on the relationship between privacy concerns dimensions and smartphone apps purchase intention, a mediation analysis suggested by [48] is employed. The proposed method attempts to look at the values of Lower Level Confidence Interval (LLCI) and Upper Level Confidence Interval (ULCI) to establish a mediation effect of a variable. If there is no zero value between the two values, a mediation effect is established. This relationship suggests that atti-tude towards smartphone purchase mediate the relationship between the dimensions of privacy (collection, unauthorized access, secondary use and errors) and the inten-tion to purchase apps. Table 8 summarizes the values of LLCI and ULCI for all four dimensions of privacy where the role of the mediating variable is designated for atti-tude. It can be seen that only the unauthorized access dimension of privacy concerns that does not have a zero value between the value of both LLCI (-.0.444) and ULCI (-0.406). This indicates that attitude does have a mediation effect. For the other dimen-

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sions, the zero values exist between the two values, which indicate that there is no mediation effect of attitude. Thus, Hypothesis H6 is partially supported.

Table 8. Mediation Analysis for Hypothesis H6

Items Effect Standard Error t-value LLCI ULCI Collection 0.087 0.075 1.16 -0.367 0.254 Unauthorized access -0.239 0.103 -2.321 -0.444 -0.406 Secondary use 0.181 0.110 1.645 -0.371 0.413 Errors 0.039 0.062 0.629 -0.088 0.156

6 Discussion

One of the main objectives of this paper was to examine and identify the smartphone apps purchase intention among smartphone users in Malaysia. It is im-portant to note that this paper investigated both the relationship between privacy con-cerns and attitude towards app purchase and the relationship between privacy concern elements and apps purchase intention, which is one of the significance of this re-search. While numerous studies investigated app purchase intention instead of atti-tude, several of these studies found that attitude toward technology and intention to use IT are positively related [49].

The relationship between privacy concerns and attitude towards smartphone app purchase reported in this study was consistent with previous findings. The concerns for information privacy (CFIP) instrument [17], [21] were found to have a significant manifestation of privacy concerns in the mobile context. However, in this study, only unauthorized access was not found to have an influence on attitude. Similarly, the privacy concern’s significant relationship with purchase intention was only accounted for one dimension of the concerns for information privacy (CFIP), which is errors, while the others were found to be not significant. This is consistent with previous research which used The CFIP dimensions to mediate the relationship between com-puter anxiety and behavioral intentions [50].

These findings were not expected when looking at the trend of previous research [21], [51]. However, these findings need to be taken with caution for two reasons: The first reason is because attitude is modified as individuals obtain and process infor-mation regarding attitude objects [52]. This suggests that information privacy should be examined within different contexts to fully understand attitudes of individuals towards any business practice [53], [21]. Attitude in this sense is too delicate to catch the actual behavior of information privacy, especially when the technology is not well formed as the case for app purchase. To rectify this, ref [54] suggested expanding attitude to incorporate the concept of persuasion and ability, a sequence of changes occur in attitude. The second reason for looking at the results with caution is the na-ture of the information privacy dimensions themselves. The CFIP components are developed to capture the information privacy as reflective construct that may be more accurately modeled as a second-order factor rather than first-order dimensions [55], [21]. Moreover, the question of whether a directional change in one construct of the



whole dimension may imply similar directional shift in other constructs is applied in this dimensions [56].

Nevertheless, such findings on attitude are consistent with some previous research. Ref [57] found no significant relationship between users’ concern for information privacy and their attitude towards using firewall protection for their electronic devices such as computers, although attitude was found to mediate the impact of perceived usefulness on behavioral intention. The findings of this study also confirm previous conclusions that individuals are concerned about information privacy as a general case and at an aggregate level, while the way in which individuals are concerned about collection, unauthorized secondary use, improper access, and errors require expanded consideration at the micro level of each dimensions [58]. This argument was also observed and justified by [59] where they observed the influence of cultural values of 38 countries including Malaysia in only errors and unauthorized secondary use, rather than the whole dimensions of the concerns for information privacy (CFIP). Similarly, [60] confirmed the significant differences between the concerns for infor-mation privacy (CFIP) in New Zealand and previous research of [21]. The current status of CFIP dimension may also justify the findings of this research to a great ex-tent. Although the CFIP measurement was validated [21] , [61] , [20], the acknowl-edgement of [17] that the dimensionality of the scale has yet to be proven to be abso-lute still hold true. Nevertheless, this research significantly contributes to the proposal of [21] that the theoretical and operational assumptions of the concerns for infor-mation privacy should be reinvestigated in light of new technology and practice. The purchase behavior using apps is considered an emerging technology where such in-vestigation may provide a better understanding on the dimension [62].

This paper was also able to demonstrate the ability of TPB to predict user’s behav-ior to purchase smartphones apps. The result of the analysis has shown that the origi-nal constructs of attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control in TPB were able of fully explaining the intention of smartphone users to purchase smartphone apps. It is proven that there is a significant relationship between attitude and intention to purchase smartphone apps. This finding is consistent with majority of the studies in the consumer-related behavior field as positive attitude is a usual indica-tion for positive-oriented behavioral intention [29], [34], [63]. In terms of subjective norm, this study backs the finding by [64] where the authors revealed that the recom-mendation by other people generally influence the decision of users to download smartphone apps compared to other influences such as ease of use, value for money, pleasure and apps ranking. This is exceptionally true in the context of users down-loading networking or social media type apps such as WhatsApp, WeChat, Twitter or Facebook. Concerning perceived behavioral control, ref [65] revealed that when smartphone users are given the choice to purchase premium apps that required the least permissions for personal data, they are more willing to purchase apps. While it is highlighted that these users may have high concern for information collection, they do have the ability to purchase expensive apps instead of just free apps. This shows that when users have high level of perceived behavioral control in the presence of personal data security, the intention of users to purchase smartphone apps will be higher.

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7 Managerial Implications

The paper provides further insights to the knowledge concerning smartphone apps privacy concerns from the consumers’ intention and attitude in Malaysia. This was done by investigating the concerns for information privacy dimensions. Some recommendations may be provided. Firstly, this study can assist the responsible government agencies in smartphone users’ privacy security, concerns and consumer-related fields such as The Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). Privacy awareness campaigns should be more prevalent in the Malaysian context as it is confirmed that the privacy concerns in Asian countries such as Malaysia is low and worrying. Thus, this paper suggests that some guidelines and recommendations should be implemented to increase privacy awareness. These suggestions may include organizations maintaining solid security policies, assessing security awareness in regular periods, develop easy to access and understand information security learning sessions and establishing long term implementation to get users involved in security training. These recommendations, in hindsight can also be applied to the general public. As for the study’s implication on the role of smartphone app stores administrators such as Google Play Store and Apple Store as well as smartphone app developers, the current policies and standards set forth by these parties with accountability may not be sufficient in ensuring safe and reliable information practices. It is recommended that certain actions to be considered for better data protection and integrity. Government may also intervene or act by asking app stores and developers to stop collecting smartphone users’ personal information, investing in cybercrime and infrastructure and creating standard and guidelines for data collection in smartphone devices. Important government agencies such as MCMC may collaborate with foreign agencies to establish an intricate network of cooperation in sharing information and practices that can enhance security measures for the smartphone realm.

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9 Authors

Zakariya Belkhamza (corresponding author) is a senior lecturer of management information systems at the Faculty of Business, Economics and Accountancy, Univer-siti Malaysia Sabah, where he teaches management information systems subjects at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. His research interests include IT manage-ment, IS implementation and evaluation, Mobile technologies management. He au-thored and edited two books in the field of Management Information systems, in addi-tion to various research and publications ([email protected]).

Mohd Adzwin Faris is a doctorate candidate at the Faculty of Business, Econom-ics and Accountancy, Universiti Malaysia Sabah. He obtained his Master's Degree in Business Administration from Universiti Malaysia Sabah in 2014. He has prior expe-rience in the financial service industry for more than 3 years. His research interests include management information system, digital marketing, mobile-based activities / behaviors and e-commerce.

Article submitted 29 March 2017. Published as resubmitted by the authors 14 May 2017.


Short Paper—Students' Attitudes Towards the Use of Mobile Technologies in e-Evaluation

Students' Attitudes Towards the Use of Mobile Technologies in e-Evaluation


Mostafa Al-Emran!"!# Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Malaysia. Al Buraimi University College, Oman

[email protected]

Said A. Salloum University of Fujairah, UAE

The British University in Dubai, UAE

Abstract—Mobile learning (M-learning) is a new wave in the era of educa-tional technology that provides informal, personal, voluntary, and situated learning opportunities for both learners and educators. Mobile-based assessment is one of the emerging technologies that attract many scholars to investigate its effectiveness due to the wide spectrum of its features like portability, interactiv-ity, flexibility, and ubiquity. Based on the surveyed literature, we noticed that there is a lack of studying the students' attitudes towards the utilization of mo-bile technologies in the context of e-Evaluation. The present study attempts to investigate the students' attitudes towards the utilization of mobile technologies in the e-Evaluation system of instructors. The data was collected through a questionnaire survey from Al Buraimi University College (BUC) in Oman. The total number of participants is 354 students. Findings indicated that 99% of the students own a mobile phone or tablet. Moreover, results indicated a statistically significant difference among the students’ attitudes in terms of their gender where the differences were in favor of male students. In contrast, results revealed no statistically significant differences among the students’ attitudes in terms of their age, degree, and department. Furthermore, other implications and future work are also reported in the study.

Keywords—Mobile Technology, e-Evaluation, Higher Education, Oman.

1 Introduction

M-learning motivates both cooperative and individualized learning experiences and provides opportunities for those learners who are not comfortable and convenient with the formal type of learning styles. Although M-learning systems are well developed for students to acquire their education, researchers reported that it could be further enhanced to acquire better results if there is some kind of systematic approach that could put forward for these systems. Hence, it is of utmost importance to develop strategies that could help with mobile learning processes [1].

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The elevated utilization of the mobile phones and PDAs has made it essential to acquire details about the assessments done through mobile devices. In the last few years, an increased number of research studies were conducted to examine the utiliza-tion of mobile devices in several sectors; one of them is the higher education [2], [3], [1], [4], [6], [5]. M-learning has a great influence on the students as well as research-ers for developing a robust educational infrastructure. The incorporation of mobile gadgets in the educational processes derives a new learning style named m-learning [7]. M-learning supports various dimensions like mobility of technology, mobility of learners, mobility of educators, and mobility of learning [2].

Instructors are handing out their syllabus, course contents, materials, assignments, announcements, and assessments to their students via online platforms through the aid of the Internet [8]. The increased usage of mobile phones has created the need for Mobile learning a necessity in educational sector [9]. The progress of mobile and wireless communication technologies has stimulated an increasing number of studies concerning M-learning, in which students acquire learning without being restricted to time and place [1]. E-assessment makes it easy for the educators to mark the students' papers in an automatic manner and feed the students back with their results immedi-ately. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the students' attitudes towards the utilization of mobile technologies in the e-Evaluation system of instructors.

The paper is organized as follows: section 2 gives a summarized history of using mobile devices in e-assessment in the higher education. Section 3 explains the re-search methodology. Section 4 shows the results of the study. Conclusion and future perspectives are described in section 5.

2 Literature Review

Nowadays, Mobile technology is being used very progressively in many sectors; especially in education. The performed assessments through mobile devices are recent and have a lot of aspects in various dimensions. Time should be invested in acquiring more information about M-learning technology before it is being implemented for educational purposes. That is, researchers should examine how the users would react to the e-assessment using the M-learning technology. A study by [10] conducted a research that intended to solve the problems of assessment while using the smartphones for assessment. This is implemented by conducting a trial and survey to determine the prototype that consists of experienced specialists in assessments. The survey was based on "Ease of Use", "Satisfaction", "Value", and "length of assess-ment". The increased usage of smartphones has made necessity that mobile communi-cation equipment like mobile phones and PDAs are observed in details before being used for assessments. Several studies were conducted regarding the importance of assessment in the educational process [11], [12], [13], and [14].

PDAs were used for a competency-based assessment by the undergraduate medical students in their final year of study [15]. The study indicated that mobile assessment through the use of PDAs is very clear, simple, easy-to-use, and provides better feed-back. Hence, this allows the students to increase their learning abilities through the



utilization of PDAs for learning purposes. A study by [16] conducted a research study about web-based personality assessment through computers and smart phones. Find-ings showed that there was a lot of variation in the time used for accomplishing the assessments through smartphones and computers. A study by [8] studied the students’ perceptions towards the results of the assessment and the influence on students' productivity through taking the mobile-based assessment. Results revealed that stu-dents tend to like the mobile-based assessment as it is user-friendly, simple, and get-ting quick results through the internet using their smartphones. Authors of [2] stated that 99% of the students in the Gulf region countries (Oman & UAE) own Smartphone/tablets. The study showed that many students were using their mobile devices in the learning-teaching process, surfing the web, and checking their emails. Additionally, the study indicates that students are highly inclined towards suing smartphones for educational purposes.

By investigating the literature, we noticed that there is a lack of studying the stu-dents' attitudes towards the utilization of mobile technologies in the context of e-Assessment, generally, and more specifically in the Gulf region countries. A study by [17] claimed that studying the attitudes toward any technology assist the decision makers to identify the shortcomings and strengths and contribute to the establishment of a reliable infrastructure. Al Buraimi University College (BUC) is one of the evolv-ing colleges in Oman that is keen to provide reliable technologies to their staff and students; one of such technologies is the e-Evaluation system [18]. Accordingly, this creates a need for examining the students' attitudes towards the utilization of mobile technologies in the e-Evaluation system of instructors at BUC. Though, we are seek-ing to answer the following research questions:

RQ1: Is there any significant difference among the students’ attitudes towards the use of mobile technologies for e-Evaluation in terms of gender?

RQ2: Is there any significant difference among the students’ attitudes towards the use of mobile technologies for e-Evaluation in terms of age?

RQ3: Is there any significant difference among the students’ attitudes towards the use of mobile technologies for e-Evaluation in terms of degree?

RQ4: Is there any significant difference among the students’ attitudes towards the use of mobile technologies for e-Evaluation in terms of department?

3 Research Methodology

3.1 Sample and Study Instrument

The data was collected by using a questionnaire survey. Surveys were conducted at Al Buraimi University College (BUC) in Oman. The total number of participants is 354 students. According to [2], we followed the "Purposive Sampling approach" in which the participated students were easily reachable and eager to participate in the study. Students from different departments, different majors, and various age groups were taken part in the study. Results indicated that 61.9% of the participants are fe-males while the others are males. Additionally, 72.3% of the participants’ ages are

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between 18-22 years old. In terms of department, 49.7% of the participants are IT students. Regarding the degree, 55.6% of the participants are bachelor degree stu-dents.

3.2 Survey Structure

A questionnaire survey was organized and distributed among the students. The stu-dents’ survey consists of two sections. The first section includes the demographic data of the participants in addition to their mobile technology usage. The second section consists of eight items that represent the students’ attitudes toward the use of mobile technology in the e-Evaluation system. A five-point Likert Scale with strongly agree (5), agree (4), neutral (3), disagree (2), and strongly disagree (1) has been used to measure the (8 items).

3.3 Measurement Analysis

According to the recent studies by [3], [2], [19], a reliability test was computed for the (8 items) that characterize the students’ attitudes towards the utilization of mobile devices in e-Evaluation by calculating the Cronbach’s alpha. The research claimed that the reasonable threshold for Alpha values is 0.7 or higher. Our study showed that the Cronbach’s alpha value for the (8 items) is (Alpha = 0.925). This indicates that the variables are extremely reliable since the calculated alpha value is greater than 0.7.

4 Findings and Discussion

In addition to the illustrated descriptive statistics in the research methodology sec-tion, our results indicated that 99% of the participants own a mobile phone or tablet. Our results are very consistent with a recent study by [2] that showed the same per-centage for the same purpose in the same region. These results confirmed that stu-dents in the Arab Gulf region countries are highly interested in the utilization of mo-bile technologies for performing their tasks. Moreover, our results revealed that 94% of the students were utilizing their mobile technologies for evaluating their instructors by the end of each semester as per BUC policies. The following shows the analysis for each research question.

RQ1: Is there any significant difference among the students’ attitudes towards the use of mobile technologies for e-Evaluation in terms of gender?

An independent sample t-test was performed for examining the existence of any statistically significant difference among the students’ attitudes towards the utilization of mobile technologies (smartphone/tablet) for evaluating their instructors with regard to their gender. According to Table 1, results indicated a statistically significant dif-ference among the students with regard to their gender (p = 0.033, p <= 0.05). The differences were in favor of male students. Nevertheless, other studies like [2] and [19] didn’t show any statistical differences in terms of gender.



Table 1. Differences among the students’ attitudes with regard to gender.

Gender N Mean Std. Dev. t df Sig Male 135 3.8898 0.88389

4.997 352 0.033 Female 219 3.3664 0.99957

RQ2: Is there any significant difference among the students’ attitudes towards the

use of mobile technologies for e-Evaluation in terms of age? Means and standard deviations for the students’ age groups were computed for in-

vestigating the existence of any significant difference among the students’ attitudes towards the utilization of mobile technologies (smartphone/tablet) for evaluating their instructors with regard to their age. Moreover, a one-way analysis of variance (ANO-VA) has been computed for determining whether if any statistically significant differ-ence exists among the mean values. According to Table 2, our results revealed that there were no statistically significant differences (p = 0.693, p > 0.05) among the students’ attitudes in terms of their age and the computed F-score is (0.485). These results could be attributed to the reason that all age groups are highly motivated for evaluating their instructors using their mobile technologies.

Table 2. ANOVA results for students attitudes’ with regard to age.

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Between Groups 1.428 3 0.476

0.485 0.693 Within Groups 343.950 350 0.983 Total 345.378 353

RQ3: Is there any significant difference among the students’ attitudes towards the

use of mobile technologies for e-Evaluation in terms of degree? Means and standard deviations for the students’ degrees were measured for inves-

tigating the existence of any significant difference among the students’ attitudes to-wards the utilization of mobile technologies (smartphone/tablet) for evaluating their instructors with regard to their degree. Additionally, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been computed for determining whether if any statistically significant difference exists among the mean values. According to Table 3, our results revealed that there were no statistically significant differences (p = 0.225, p > 0.05) among the students’ attitudes in terms of their degree and the computed F-score is (1.480). These results could be referred to the fact that all students are knowledgeable about the e-Evaluation system running at BUC and they are aware of using that system using their mobile technologies regardless of their degrees.

Table 3. ANOVA results of students' attitudes with regard to degree.



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RQ4: Is there any significant difference among the students’ attitudes towards the use of mobile technologies for e-Evaluation in terms of department?

Means and standard deviations for the students’ majors in terms of departments were measured for investigating the existence of any significant difference among the students’ attitudes towards the utilization of mobile technologies (smartphone/tablet) for evaluating their instructors with regard to their departments. Furthermore, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been carried out for determining whether if any statistically significant difference exists among the mean values. According to Table 4, our results revealed that there were no statistically significant differences (p = 0.276, p > 0.05) among the students’ attitudes in terms of their department and the computed F-score is (1.295). Similarly, a recent study by [2] didn’t show any statisti-cal differences in terms of major.

Table 4. ANOVA results of students' attitudes with regard to department.



5 Conclusion and Future Work

Mobile-based assessment is one of the emerging technologies that attract many scholars to examine its effectiveness due to the wide spectrum of its features like portability, interactivity, flexibility, and ubiquity. Based on the surveyed literature, we noticed that there is a lack of studying the students' attitudes towards the utilization of mobile technologies in the context of e-Evaluation in the Gulf region countries. Al Buraimi University College (BUC) is one of the evolving colleges in Oman that is keen to provide reliable technologies to their staff and students; one of such technolo-gies is the e-Evaluation system. Consequently, this creates a need for investigating the students' attitudes towards the utilization of mobile technologies in the e-Evaluation system of instructors at BUC. The data was collected through the use of a question-naire survey from BUC. The total number of participants is 354 students. Findings indicated that 99% of the participants own a mobile phone or tablet.

Results indicated a statistically significant difference among the students in terms of their gender where the differences were in favor of male students. On the other side, results revealed no statistically significant differences among the students’ atti-tudes in terms of their age, degree, and department. In accordance with the descriptive statistics, our results revealed that 94% of the students were using their mobile tech-nologies for evaluating their instructors by the end of each semester as per the college policies. Accordingly, the non-significant differences could be attributed to the reason that almost all of the students are highly knowledgeable about the e-Evaluation sys-tem running at BUC and they are aware of using that system using their mobile tech-nologies irrespective of their age, degree, and department.



This study is limited to only four factors; namely gender, age, degree, and depart-ment. As a future work, we are interested in incorporating other factors like level of students (low, medium, and high), passed credit hours, and mobile technology owner-ship for better understanding these attitudes regarding the usage of mobile technolo-gies in the e-Evaluation system of educators.

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[19] Al-Emran, M., & Malik, S. I. (2016). The Impact of Google Apps at Work: Higher Educa-tional Perspective. International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM), 10(4), 85-88. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v10i4.6181

7 Authors

Mostafa Al-Emran (corresponding author) is a PhD student in Computer Sci-ence. He has graduated from The British University in Dubai with a distinction level along with the top Academic Excellence Award with MSc in Informatics (Knowledge and Data Management). His main research interest includes: M-Learning, Knowledge Management, Educational Technology and Text Mining.

Said A. Salloum is currently a master student of Informatics (Knowledge and Data Management) at The British University in Dubai. He is currently the Director of Computer Center at University of Fujairah. Salloum is an Oracle expert since 2013 along with various recognized international certificates that are issued by Oracle.

Article submitted 12 March 2017. Published as resubmitted by the authors 26 April 2017.


iJIM − Vol. 11, No 5, 2017

ImprintiJIM – International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologieshttp://www.i-jim.org

Editor-in-ChiefMichael E. Auer, IAOE, Vienna, Austria

Associate Editor-in-ChiefArthur Walter Edwards, Universidad de Colima, Mexico

Regional Associate EditorsAbdallah Yusuf Al-Zoubi, Associated Editor Middle East Rhena Delport, Associated Editor Africa Arthur Walter Edwards, Associated Editor Latin America Tzu-Chien Liu, Associated Editor Asia Jeanne Schreurs, Associated Editor Western Europe Doru Ursutiu, Associated Editor Eastern Europe Mudasser Fraz Wyne, Associated Editor North America

Art Director and Web MasterSebastian Schreiter, Vallon Pont d’Arc, France

Editorial BoardA. Y. Al-Zoubi, Princess Sumaya University for Technology Amman, Jordan Rhena Delport, University of Pretoria, South Africa Arthur Walter Edwards, Universidad de Colima, Mexico, Mexico Hyo-Joo Han, Georgia Southern UniversityMarkus Feisst, University of Applied Sciences Offenburg, Germany Miguel Angel Garcia-Ruiz, University of ColimaDr. Kinshuk, Athabasca University CanadaAdamantios Koumpis, ALTEC Software S.A., GreeceTzu-Chien Liu, National Central University, Taiwan Hiroaki Ogata, Tokushima University, Japan Andreas Pester, Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Austria Raul Aquino Santos, University of Colima, Mexico Jeanne Schreurs, University of Hasselt, Belgium Doru Ursutiu, University Transilvania of Brasov, Romania Mudasser Fraz Wyne, National University, USA

IndexingInternational Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies is indexed inElsevier Scopus, INSPEC, Ulrich, DOAJ, EBSCO, Google Scholar, and DBLP.

Publication FrequencyBimonthly (January, March, May, July, September, November)

PublisherInternational Association of Online Engineering (IAOE)Kirchengasse 10/200A-1070 WIENAustria

Publishing Housekassel university press GmbHDiagonale 10D-34127 KasselGermany

· international journal: interactive mobile technologies jim 5.2017 guest editorial special...

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