An Energy-Efficient DRAM Cache Architecture for Mobile Platforms With PCM-Based Main Memory

A long battery life is a first-class design objective for mobile devices, and main memory accounts for a major portion of total energy consumption. Moreover, the energy consumption from memory is expected to increase further with ever-growing demands for bandwidth and capacity. A hybrid memory system with both DRAM and PCM can be an attractive solution to provide additional capacity and reduce standby energy. Although providing much greater density than DRAM, PCM has longer access latency and limited write endurance to make it challenging to architect it for main memory. To address this challenge, this article introduces CAMP, a novel DRAM c ache a rchitecture for m obile platforms with P CM-based main memory. A DRAM cache in this environment is required to filter most of the writes to PCM to increase its lifetime, and deliver highest efficiency even for a relatively small-sized DRAM cache that mobile platforms can afford. To address this CAMP divides DRAM space into two regions: a page cache for exploiting spatial locality in a bandwidth-efficient manner and a dirty block buffer for maximally filtering writes. CAMP improves the performance and energy-delay-product by 29.2% and 45.2%, respectively, over the baseline PCM-oblivious DRAM cache, while increasing PCM lifetime by 2.7×. And CAMP also improves the performance and energy-delay-product by 29.3% and 41.5%, respectively, over the state-of-the-art design with dirty block buffer, while increasing PCM lifetime by 2.5×.

INTEGRATION OF BIM AND MOBILE AUGMENTED REALITY IN THE AECO DOMAIN

BIM (Building Information Modeling) is increasingly present in a wide range of applications (architecture, engineering, construction, land use planning, utility management, etc.). BIM allows better management of projects through precise planning, communication and collaboration between several stakeholders as well as facilitating the monitoring of project operations. The emergence of Augmented Reality (AR) technology allows the superposition of (2D, 3D) information directly on the physical world, so generating immersive, interactive and enriching experiences for the user. To take advantages of BIM and AR potential in the interaction and the intuitive management in AECO (Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operation) projects, we propose a BIM-based AR workflow through an application called "EasyBIM". This latter allows access and interaction with a BIM model through functionalities for measurement, data consultation, collaboration, visualization and integration of information from sensors. The application is developed for mobile platforms (tablet, smartphone), and has as input an IFC file (Industry Foundation Classes). Promising test results show that the developed solution can be easily integrated into a BIM context for several use cases: marketing, collaboration, site monitoring, facility management, etc.

You Don't Need an App—Conducting Mobile Smoking Research Using a Qualtrics-Based Approach

With the increasing availability of smartphones, many tobacco researchers are exploring smartphone-delivered mobile smoking interventions as a disseminable means of treatment. Most effort has been focused on the development of smartphone applications (apps) to conduct mobile smoking research to implement and validate these interventions. However, developing project-specific smartphone apps that work across multiple mobile platforms (e.g., iOS and Android) can be costly and time-consuming. Here, using a hypothetical study, we present an alternate approach to demonstrate how mobile smoking cessation and outcome evaluation can be conducted without the need of a dedicated app. Our approach uses the Qualtrics platform, a popular online survey host that is used under license by many academic institutions. This platform allows researchers to conduct device-agnostic screening, consenting, and administration of questionnaires through Qualtrics's native survey engine. Researchers can also collect ecological momentary assessment data using text messaging prompts with the incorporation of Amazon Web Services' Pinpoint. Besides these assessment capabilities, Qualtrics has the potential for delivering personalized behavioral interventions through the use of JavaScript code. By customizing the question's web elements in Qualtrics (e.g., using texts, images, videos, and buttons), researchers can integrate interactive web-based interventions and complicated behavioral and cognitive tasks into the survey. In conclusion, this Qualtrics-based methodology represents a novel and cost-effective approach for conducting mobile smoking cessation and assessment research.

Marimo actuated rover systems

Background The potential to directly harness photosynthesis to make actuators, biosensors and bioprocessors has been previously demonstrated in the literature. Herein, this capability has been expanded to more advanced systems — Marimo Actuated Rover Systems (MARS) — which are capable of autonomous, solar powered, movement. Results We demonstrate this ability is both a practical and viable alternative to conventional mobile platforms for exploration and dynamic environmental monitoring. Prototypes have been successfully tested to measure their speed of travel and ability to automatically bypass obstacles. Further, MARS is electromagnetically silent, thus avoiding the background noise generated by conventional electro/mechanical platforms which reduces instrument sensitivity. The cost of MARS is significantly lower than platforms based on conventional technology. Conclusions An autonomous, low-cost, lightweight, compact size, photosynthetically powered rover is reported. The potential for further system enhancements are identified and under development.

Migrating Software Towards Mobile Technologies

New paradigms such as pervasive computing, cloud computing, and the internet of things (IoT) are impacting the business world. Smartphones are at the core of these paradigms by allowing us interaction with the world around us. In light of this, it is imperative to migrate a lot of existing non-mobile software to adapt it to the new technological reality. The main challenge to achieve this goal is the proliferation of mobile platforms. An integration of ADM (Architecture Driven Modernization), cross-platform development and formal metamodeling to face this kind of migration is described. The proposal was validated with the migration of object-oriented software to different mobile platforms through the multiplatform language Haxe. A comparison of the approach with traditional migration processes and the description of existing challenges in real projects of the scientific and industrial field are included.

Adapting Agile Practices During the Evolution of a Healthcare Software Product

Agile Software Development (ASD) can be considered the mainstream development method of choice worldwide. ASD are used due to features such as easy management and embrace of changes, where change in requirements should be taken as a positive feature. However, some domain verticals, such as medical-healthcare, are classified as critical-safety system, which usually requires traditional methods. This chapter presents a practical use case describing the evolution of a software product that was conceived as a wellness software for end-users in mobile platforms to a medical-healthcare product restricted to regulatory standard recommendations. It presents the challenges and how the ASD is compatible to standards such as ISO/IEC 82304-1.

A Mobile Robot with Omnidirectional Tracks—Design and Experimental Research

This article deals with the design and testing of mobile robots equipped with drive systems based on omnidirectional tracks. These are new mobile systems that combine the advantages of a typical track drive with the advantages of systems equipped with omnidirectional Mecanum wheels. The omnidirectional tracks allow the robot to move in any direction without having to change the orientation of its body. The mobile robot market (automated construction machinery, mobile handle robots, mobile platforms, etc.) constantly calls for improvements in the manoeuvrability of vehicles. Omnidirectional drive technology can meet such requirements. The main aim of the work is to create a mobile robot that is capable of omnidirectional movement over different terrains, and also to conduct an experimental study of the robot’s operation. The paper presents the construction and principles of operation of a small robot equipped with omnidirectional tracks. The robot’s construction and control system, and also a prototype made with FDM technology, are described. The trajectory parameters of the robot’s operation along the main and transverse axes were measured on a test stand equipped with a vision-based measurement system. The results of the experimental research became the basis for the development and experimental verification of a static method of correcting deviations in movement trajectory.

Learning First Aid with a Video Game

Any citizen can be involved in a situation that requires basic first aid knowledge. For this reason, it is important to be trained in this kind of activity. Serious games have been presented as a good option to integrate entertainment into the coaching process. This work presents a video game for mobile platforms which facilitate the formation and training in the PWA (Protect, Warn, Aid) first aid protocol. Users have to overcome a series of challenges to bring theoretical concepts closer to practice. To easily change the point of view of the game play, Augmented Reality technology has been used. In order to make each game looks different, neural networks have been implemented to perform the behavior of the Non-Playable Characters autonomous. Finally, in order to evaluate the quality and playability of the application, as well as the motivation and learning of content, several experiments were carried out with a sample of 50 people aged between 18 and 26. The obtained results confirm the playability and attractiveness of the video game, the increase of interest in learning first aid, as well as the greater fixation of the different concepts dealt with in the video game. The results support that this application facilitates and improves the learning of first aid protocols, making it more enjoyable, attractive, and practical.