1,951 research outputs found
Governance Processes in Smart City Initiatives: Exploring the implementation of two Dutch Smart City Projects: TRANSFORM-Amsterdam and TRIANGULUM-Eindhoven
No full textThe Smart City concept is becoming a new urban development strategy. Dutch cities, like Amsterdam and Eindhoven, are trying to develop Smart Urban Districts, driven by European funding. In this effort Practitioners and academics notify many barriers towards successful implementation of Smart City initiatives. Apart from financial, technical, management and policy issues, more and more experts indicate governance as the key in realizing these complex projects. Therefore the aim of this thesis is to develop further insights in the governance of Smart City initiatives and the specific processes that can improve implementation. The proposed governance framework is based on the processes: collaboration, leadership and champion, partnership and participation, communication, service and application integration, data-exchange, transparency and accountability. The framework is applied for the analysis of two Dutch Smart City case studies Transform-Amsterdam and Triangulum-Eindhoven. The study concludes that collaboration is the core process of governance, mainly driven by leadership, partnership and participation, on the basis of transparency and accountability, supported by the other governance processes. No additional governance factors have been identified. The governance framework proved to be supportive in getting insight in the different processes of the specific Smart City initiatives. This framework, including the defined influencing processes, their mutual relations and the overview of success factors and barriers can be helpful to plan interventions to improve the critical factor of governance in the implementation of Smart City initiatives. The framework does not offer characteristics of maturity levels for each process.Architecture and The Built EnvironmentManagement in the Built EnvironmentUrban Development Managemen
Designing and evaluating smart domestic technologies which use infrequent interaction
No full textIn the last decade research into ubiquitous computing has begun to examine the
home environment both commercially and academically such as MIT, Samsung and
Microsoft [Taylor et al 2007] although, as yet, smart homes have yet to move into
significant reality [Davidoff et al, 2006b] due to old housing stock [Edwards &
Grinter, 2001] which will require these new technologies to be integrated into a wide
variety of legacy environments [Tolmi, 2007]. One of the reasons why the home has
become important is simply due to the number of household computer-based systems
available [Wray, 2007] making it a commercially valid exercise [Hindus, 1999] todate
this has been primarily driven by technical innovation with user needs considered
as a secondary issue [Hemmings et al. 2002; Haines et al. 2007]. However, domestic
situations do not have the same focus on efficiency nor the same sense of shared
objective as found in the workplace [Crabtree & Rodden, 2004] and must therefore be
addressed differently to identify suitable technological solutions and social needs.
Designers must understand routines, functions and social restraints within the home
[Bernhaupt et al. 2008, Edwards & Grinter, 2001], in both the development of product
concept [Gaver et al. 1999, Davidoff et al. 2006b] and the physical integration
[Haines et al. 2006, Crabtree & Rodden 2004] to deliver useful and marketable
domestic technologies. Many of the products used and proposed in these studies
above place little emphasis on the potential frequency of their real-world use and how
this might relate to behaviour and acceptance; therefore, in this study, we have begun
to investigate whether or not intermittent use requires special attention in the design
and evaluation process and whether this can be successfully anticipated and measured
within a controlled laboratory environment
Sensor networks or smart artifacts? : An exploration of organizational issues of an industrial health and safety monitoring system
No full textIndustrial health and safety is an important yet largely unexplored application area of ubiquitous computing. In this paper we investigate the relationship between technology and organization in the context of a concrete industrial health and safety system. The system is designed to reduce the number of incidents of "�vibration white finger"� (VWF) at construction sites and uses wireless sensor nodes for monitoring workers'� exposure to vibrations and testing of compliance with legal health and safety regulations. In particular we investigate the impact of this ubiquitous technology on the relationship between management and operatives, the formulation of health and safety rules and the risk perception and risk behavior of operatives. In addition, we contrast sensor-network inspired and smart artifact inspired compliance systems, and make the case that these technology models have a strong influence on the linkage between technology and organization
Design a digital experience that delivers value to smart home users: Inspire and guide people to automate their homes, so they can live a carefree life
No full textA smart home can be defined as a system of connected devices that are controlled remotely from one central place. Smart home solutions used to be for early adopters who like the novel and fun part of this new technology. Currently the smart Home market is moving to mainstream users. Hombli is a smart home brand established in 2019 in the Netherlands. The initial goal of Hombli is to address this mainstream market. They want to make smart home accessible to everyone, by offering a simple and affordable smart home solution. An analysis of the smart home market show that most smart home brands claim to offer a simple solution. Most brands also have another special focus in which they set their brand apart from the rest. The strong competition in the smart home market requires a stronger brand position for Hombli to stand out from the other brands. The new focus on the wellbeing of the user by providing “a carefree live with Hombli” is a promising new direction for Hombli. It is a unique direction in the smart home market and fits the current product portfolio. Users can create this carefree life by automating their Hombli devices using smart scenarios. However, a survey filled in by 149 current Hombli users show that only 23% say that creating scenarios is easy. Of these people 39% do not use scenarios at all. Besides these current Hombli users, also people without experience with smart home devices were analyzed using sensitizing booklets with daily assignments. The participants described their routines and used smart Hombli devices. This experiment showed that it is hard to come up with ideas for smart scenarios and that the process of adding new scenarios is difficult for some people. To make the new mission of Hombli possible, all users should be able to create scenarios that can improve their wellbeing. Therefore, the design goal for this project is to help Hombli users with little technical experience, to feel guided and in control when they add smart scenarios, so they can automate their routines. Three concepts are developed to explore different ways to create scenarios. These concepts are turned into prototypes and evaluated. The results of these user-tests can be summarized in three aspects: - Control: The user should have a clear overview of the scenarios, be able to control important settings in an easy way and scenarios should be visible at the device page. - Comfort: The design of the app should be calm, the user should feel guided through the different steps and should be able to get help when it does not understand something. - Convenience: The app should provide example scenarios which offer clear benefits to the wellbeing can be added conveniently to the app of the user. The final design combines these three requirements in one single experience. User tests of this final design show that people get inspired by the example scenario in the app and start thinking of different ways to automate their smart home devices. With this new app, Hombli can set itself apart as a brand that not just sells connected devices but cares about the wellbeing of their customers. Besides validation with users, the new app is also validated on feasibility for the company. Because developing a brand-new app from scratch requires a big investment, a better strategy is needed. The current app is based on the Tuya platform. Talks with Tuya developers explain the possibilities in changing the current app to create quick first steps in improving the experience in the current app by adding an extra section in the app with example scenarios. In a later stage, device panels can be improved to match the panels of the final design concept. After these short-term steps, Hombli should invest in developing their own services to create added functionalities to adapt to the evolving smart home market. New communication standards are in development that will make it possible to control smart devices from different brands using the same standard. The long-term strategy ensures Hombli will deliver a unique experience to users that value wellbeing by offering a carefree life with smart automations for every connected device at home.This is a combined graduation project of the masters Strategic Product Design and Design for InteractionDesign for InteractionStrategic Product Desig
Rethinking Eurasianism: the Eurasian Union Project of N.A. Nazarbaev
No full textThe article is dedicated to the analysis of basic patterns of the Eurasian Union Project of N.A. Nazarbaev. The author explains the reasons determined absence of interest from the direction of Russian leaders and governments of other CIS’s countries to the initiative of Kazakhstan President in 1990’s and the renewal of Eurasianism in 2000’s. The author also emphasizes the factors defining a special role of Kazakhstan in the processes of integration on the area of Eurasia
Compression and smart coding of offset ad gain maps for intraoral digital x-ray sensors
No full textThe response of indirect x-ray digital imaging sensors is often not homogenous on the entire surface area. In this case, calibration is needed to build offset and gain maps, which are used to correct the
sensor output. The sensors of new generation are equipped with an on-board memory, which serves to store these maps. However, because of its limited dimension, the maps have to be compressed before saving them. This step is critical because of the extremely high compression rate required.
The authors propose here a novel method to achieve such a high compression rate, without degrading the quality of the sensor output. It is based on quad tree decomposition, which performs an adaptive sampling of the offset and gain maps, matched with a RBF-based interpolation strategy.
The method was tested on a typical intraoral radiographic sensor and compared with traditional compression techniques. Qualitative and quantitative results show that the method achieves a higher
compression rate and produces images of superior quality. The method can be adopted also in different fields where a high compression rate is required
Designing interaction for smart environments: Ambient intelligence and the disappearing computer
No full textS.3-8In this keynote, the author presents selected visions of ambient intelligence and the disappearing computer and comment on the resulting challenges for designing interaction in future smart environments. Our approach is based on exploiting the affordances of real objects by augmenting their physical properties with the potential of computer-based support. Combining the best of both worlds requires an integration of real and virtual worlds resulting in hybrid worlds. In this approach, the computer "disappears" and is almost "invisible" but its functionality is ubiquitously available and provides new forms of interacting with information. The general comments are illustrated with examples taken from developing roomware components for cooperative buildings, project work in the EU-funded "Disappearing Computer" initiative, especially ambient displays and mobile devices in the "Ambient Agoras" project, and more recent developments for smart home environments
Educating communities for sustainability: living smart in the City of Fremantle, Western Australia
No full textWith human activity as the cause of many local and global environmental problems, the sustainability of a city largely depends on the choices and actions of its population. If the vision of a sustainable city is to be achieved, it is imperative that the people of that city not only have a clear understanding of the concept of sustainability, but also demonstrate support and actively contribute to this vision. A joint initiative by the City of Fremantle, the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council, the Meeting Place Community Centre and Murdoch University in Western Australia, sought to increase the Fremantle community’s contribution to sustainability through a new environmental education program.
Knowing that simply providing information is not enough to create behaviour change, the "Living Smart" program used a framework for environmental education (developed by the authors of this paper) that emphasised community development and included goal setting as a behaviour change technique. Evaluation showed that the framework used in the program was effective in increasing participants knowledge of sustainability issues and the number and frequency of positive environmental behaviours taken. By bringing together people that have similar interests and concerns, “Living Smart” has created a community of individuals who have increased their understanding of sustainability issues and are actively contributing to this vision through their own behaviour and their connection with the community
Work schedules, wages, and employment in a general equilibrium model with team production
No full textAn analysis of working hours, wages, and employment when production requires coordinating the work schedules of heterogeneous workers. The author shows that this coordination aspect of production can have important policy implications.Hours of labor ; Employment (Economic theory) ; Wages
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