Machine Learning and Soil Humidity Sensing: Signal Strength Approach

The Internet-of-Things vision of ubiquitous and pervasive computing gives rise to future smart irrigation systems comprising the physical and digital worlds. A smart irrigation ecosystem combined with Machine Learning can provide solutions that successfully solve the soil humidity sensing task in order to ensure optimal water usage. Existing solutions are based on data received from the power hungry/expensive sensors that are transmitting the sensed data over the wireless channel. Over time, the systems become difficult to maintain, especially in remote areas due to the battery replacement issues with a large number of devices. Therefore, a novel solution must provide an alternative, cost- and energy-effective device that has unique advantage over the existing solutions. This work explores the concept of a novel, low-power, LoRa-based, cost-effective system that achieves humidity sensing using Deep Learning techniques that can be employed to sense soil humidity with high accuracy simply by measuring the signal strength of the given underground beacon device.

IOTs

Information technology has advanced by delivering an exponential increase in computing power. Telecommunication technology has likewise advanced communicating capabilities. Convergence of these two technologies has become possible due to the rapid advancements made in the respective technology. This convergence is termed as information and communication technology as a discipline. Many concepts are emerging in this discipline. These concepts enable business, government, and human beings to reach new realities in their required activities. Some of these concepts have created various opportunities for designing and manufacturing electronic devices. When these devices are connected to other devices and systems over the internet, this is now known as internet of things (IoT). This chapter gives a brief overview of the concepts such as cloud computing and ubiquitous and pervasive computing in the context of internet of things. Further, this chapter discusses five case illustrations with the relevance of internet of things.

Ultra-lightweight Authentication

In this chapter we provide a critical look at the state of the art in ultra-lightweight authentication protocols. We start by outlining the features of the current ubiquitous and pervasive computing environment that have motivated the development of the ultra-lightweight paradigm which uses only basic arithmetic and logical operations. We emphasize its goals and its main challenges. Then, we focus our attention on the authentication problem. We use an abstract framework for modeling the protocols proposed over the years, in order to discuss their design strategies and the security and privacy properties they aim to achieve. After that, we survey the weaknesses and the common pitfalls in both the design and the analysis of ultra-lightweight authentication protocols. Finally, we conclude the chapter by discussing some fundamental ideas and research directions.

Kickstarting Reconnection: An Approach to Legal Problems Arising from Emerging Technologies

A new model, or ‘third wave’, of computing is emerging, based on the widespread use of processors with data handling and communications capabilities embedded in a variety of objects and environments that were not previously computerised. Various terms have been used to describe this third wave, including ‘ubiquitous’ and ‘pervasive’ computing, ‘ambient intelligence’, the ‘Internet of Things’ and ‘eObjects’. With the socio-technical change brought about by this third wave comes the possibility of a disconnection between the law and the new things, activities, and relationships enabled by this new model of computing. This disconnection may lead to legal problems of uncertainty, under- or over-inclusiveness of conduct in existing law, obsolescence, or the complete absence of laws regulating new behaviour. Early and rigorous identification and categorisation of legal problems is crucial for emerging technologies, to assist in avoiding two problems: the first being the stifling of beneficial innovation by over-regulation, the second the cementing of socially undesirable outcomes when vested interests are left too long unchecked. Although the technologies in the third wave are diverse, common attributes can be identified, and from examination of these attributes significant innovations are revealed. This paper examines these innovations to assist in identifying legal problems arising from the third wave.

Urban Computing and Smart Cities Applications for the Knowledge Society

During the last years, we faced a tremendous development of mobile sensing applications powered by innovative technologies related to ubiquitous and pervasive computing, volunteered geographic information, crowdsourcing and social networks. Nowadays, we are living in the next digitally enriched generation of social media in which communication and interaction for user-generated content is mainly focused on improving the sustainability of smart cities. Thus, urban computing is defined as the technology for acquisition, integration, and analysis of big and heterogeneous data generated by a diversity of sources in urban spaces, such as sensors, devices, vehicles, buildings, and human, for tackling the major issues that cities face. Moreover, this technology is seeking ways to reduce inefficiencies and to be more agile in responding to citizens' needs in order to create smart cities. In this position paper, we address the content to describe the urban applications and the challenges for open research problems that are presented in the big cities.

Application of Mobile Cloud-Based Technologies in News Reporting

Cloud Computing is one of the most rapidly evolving technologies available today that offers the possibility of multimedia content exploitation with rich media experience. Cloud computing users have the flexibility to enjoy media content independently of time and space. Multimedia cloud computing encompasses technology, multimedia data, and community contribution, offering augmented multimodal interaction and advanced processing services to the users. Mobile multimedia resources can now be accessed through the cloud practically at anytime and from anywhere, facing contemporary demands for information access and process, thus perfectly matching to the nature of news media. Such features are very favorable in online journalism and specifically in news reporting services. This chapter presents technological and application-oriented trends in cloud-based mobile news reporting both at journalists’ (news producers) and users’ (news consumers) sides. Future and emerging perspectives, such as ubiquitous and pervasive computing, incorporating context and location-aware services in semantic interaction modes, are also described from the news-reporting point of view.