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Keywords
One of the latest hypes in IT is the well-known Cloud
Computing paradigm. This paradigm that showed up in recent years
is a paradigm for the dynamic usage of computational power, memory and other computational resources. With respect to hypes, the author strongly believes that the
Cloud Computing paradigm has the potential to survive the hype and to become a usual technology used for the provision of IT based services. Therefore, it will be necessary to deploy Cloud Computing based infrastructures in a professional, stable and reliable way. This would lead to the idea that the Cloud Computing paradigm needs to be concerned with respect to IT Service Management, since cloud based infrastructures have to be managed differently in comparison to a usual infrastructure. This paper discusses, based on the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), as the de-facto standard for IT Service Management, whether this de-facto standard might also be able to manage Cloud Computing based infrastructures, how the according processes might change and whether ITIL supports a division of labor between the customer and the service provider
of a Cloud Computing based infrastructure.
Why Should the Q-method Be Integrated Into the Design Science Research? A Systematic Mapping Study
(2019)
The Q-method has been utilized over time in various areas, including information systems. In this study, we used a systematic mapping to illustrate how the Q-method was applied within Information Systems (IS) community and proposing towards integration of Q-method into the Design Sciences Research (DSR) process as a tool for future research DSR-based IS studies. In this mapping study, we collected peer-reviewed journals from Basket-of-Eight journals and the digital library of the Association for Information Systems (AIS). Then we grouped the publications according to the process of DSR, and different variables for preparing Q-method from IS publications. We found that the potential of the Q-methodology can be used to support each main research stage of DSR processes and can serve as the useful tool to evaluate a system in the IS topic of system analysis and design
Globalization and information technology enable people to join the movement of global citizenship and work without borders. However, different type of barriers existed that could affect collaboration in today’s work environment, in which different generations are involved. Although researchers have identified several technical barriers to intergenerational collaboration (iGOAL), the influence of cultural diversity on iGOAL has rarely been studied. Therefore, using a quantitative study approach, this paper investigates the impact of differences in cultural background on perceived technical and operational barriers to iGOAL. Our study reveals six barriers to IGC that are perceived differently by culturally diverse people (CDP) and non-CDP. Furthermore, CDP can foster IGC because CDP consider the barriers to be of less of a reason to avoid working with different generations than do non-CDP.
Why do barriers to the exchange of open knowledge resources change in public administrations? Experts in the public sector have been interviewed and outlined antecedents of change to certain barriers. The results are an initial step towards theorizing on barrier change and stepping beyond the current trend of categorizing difficulties to e-Learning and use of open knowledge resources. Categorizing only shows the range of potential challenges. Whether and how the barriers change, however, is seldom addressed in previous literature. The results presented in this study thus provide a new perspective on the phenomenon. Results are part of a longitudinal study about open e-Learning in the public sector across four European countries. They will provide fresh empirical input for discussions at the World Conference on E-Learning how to advance future research and practices in the domain
In the course of this thesis, an overview will be given on which way developers can guide
users into acting environmentally friendly without the users realizing they are being
nudged. In the last couple of years, our private and work-life have been more and more
shifted away from reality into a digital context. Since the start of the Covid – 19 pandemic
in 2019, even more aspects of everyday life have been shifted to an online context, one
of them being groceries shopping. Even though online groceries shopping is not yet
common in Germany, there is a trend toward the online purchase of groceries visible.
This can be seen as a possibility to tackle another challenge the world is facing, the
climate crisis. One reason for the climate crisis is mindless consumption and purchasing
of too much food. This paper aims to combine the need for more aware consumption
with the newly rising trend of online supermarkets. Furthermore, a supermarket will be
provided to show if the implementation of environmentally–friendly nudges is technically
possible. To eventually prove the effectiveness of a nudge, it needs to be tested.
Keywords: Nudging, Environment, Online supermarkets
Relevance & Research Question: Smartphones have become an integrated part in everyday life facilitating communication, information access, entertainment and organization anytime and anywhere. However, the omnipresence of such devices can evoke psychological dependencies and the need of being always connected resulting in discomfort when the smartphone is not accessible. While few studies have found heightened anxiety during smartphone absence (e.g. Cheever, Rosen, Carrier, & Chavez, 2014), such research is scarce. Therefore, we aimed at expanding existing research asking whether the mere imagination of smartphone absence suffices to trigger anxiety and affect user’s context evaluations.
In recent years a new approach for the dynamic usage of computational power, memory and other
resources comes into play: the Cloud Computing paradigm. This new approach needs to be concerned with
respect to IT Service Management since cloud based infrastructures have to be managed differently from a
usual infrastructure. This paper discusses, based on the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), as the de-facto
standard for IT Service Management, what kind of processes needs to be concerned especially if a certain
service should be deployed in the cloud.
In recent years, the number of mobile devices that are available for learning scenarios has increased a lot. Different learning settings are usually supported by mobile devices. On the one hand we find mobile devices in informal learning settings, and on the other hand in formal learning settings like a usual lecture. This paper motivates the question whether the usage of mobile devices in a usual lecture is something that is wanted by the students. A first case study is provided with an platform independent prototype that gives an initial indication for preferred usage.
We are “not” too (young/old) to collaborate: Prominent Key Barriers to Intergenerational Innovation
(2019)
In this study, we analyzed the barriers to technology-supported intergenerational innovation to understand better how young and old can collaborate towards global innovations. Researchers in different disciplines have already identified various barriers to intergenerational collaboration. However, barriers are changing depending on the context of collaboration, and difficulties still exist to support intergenerational innovation in global settings. Therefore, we investigated the barriers that emerge when people work with someone decades older or younger. The results of our study have shown what barriers are influenced by age, what barriers exist only for senior and younger adults. The study theoretically contributes to deepening the Information Systems (IS) community's understanding of the barriers to intergenerational innovation that need to be considered when developing systems for global innovation
Starting with the automatic gear change, the operation of a vehicle becomes more and more abstract. In the future, we could control vehicles with single, simple commands. For such a maneuver-based vehicle control system, we investigate a head-up display design in a workshop. The aims are to identify common and distinct features of various display designs through mock-ups. First results show that different sizes of GUI elements are preferred by different states. The preferred position of GUI elements in the head-up display (HUD) is the central bottom area. We found two major interface design styles: static interfaces (all elements visible) with fixed layout and dynamic interfaces (only relevant elements visible) with fixed or adaptive layout.
Rolling mills are continually improved and opti-mized by implementing innovative technology to decrease costs and scrap. Despite of the progressive automation and experience, some important process parameters can still not be determined with sufficient accuracy. As part of the research project PIREF, the velocity of the hot rolled rod shall be measured by using im-pedance analysis to estimate the volumetric flow rate of the mate-rial. For a high accuracy measurement of the impedance, a pow-erful VNA is used. To minimize errors in the measurement, caused by e.g. temperature drift, a correction of the measurement fre-quency is needed. This must be achieved without recalibration of the VNA to avoid faulty behavior of the online control. To solve this problem, an approach based on a polynomial regression is presented in this work.
Velocity Approximation of Hot Steel Rods Using Frequency Spectroscopy of the Cross-Section Area
(2019)
In this work, an approach for velocity approximation of hot steel rods based on frequency spectroscopy is presented. For this purpose, a sensor already implemented in a rolling mill for measuring the cross-sectional area of the rolling stock is used to obtain information about the velocity of the hot rods. Moreover, the effect of forward slip is briefly discussed.
For any kind of assistant systems, the ability to interact with the human operator and taking into account his or her assumptions and expectations, is the basis for a reasonable behavior. As a consequence the human behavior have to be studied in order to generate driver models that are learned from human driving data. In this work we focus on the improvement of the immersion in driving simulation environment by developing and implementing a cheap and efficient method for head tracking. We also explain why head tracking feedback is crucial for the quality of collected behavioural data, especially for simulators with close screen distances.
The term “Cloud Computing” does not primarily specify new types of core technologies but rather addresses features to do with integration, inter-operability and accessibility. Although not new, virtualization and automation are cor features that characterize Cloud Computing. In this paper, we intend to explore the possibility of integrating cloud services with educational scenarios without re-defining neither the technology nor the usage scenarios from scratch. Our suggestion is based on certain solutions that have already been implemented and tested for specific cases.
Background:
Influential actors detection in social media such as twitter or Facebook can play a major role in gathering opinions on particular topics, improving the market
-
ing efficiency, predicting the trends, etc.
Proposed methods:
This work aims to extend our formally defined
T
measure to
present a new measure aiming to recognize the actor’s influence by the strength of
attracting new important actors into a networked community. Therefore, we propose a
model of the actor’s influence based on the attractiveness of the actor in relation to the
number of other attractors with whom he/she has established connections over time.
Results and conclusions:
Using an empirically collected social network for the
underlying graph, we have applied the above-mentioned measure of influence in
order to determine optimal seeds in a simulation of influence maximization. We study
our extended measure in the context of information diffusion because this measure is
based on a model of actors who attract others to be active members in a community.
This corresponds to the idea of the IC simulation model which is used to identify the
most important spreaders in a set of actors.
Keywords: Actor influence, Social media networks, Twitter, IC model, Information
diffusion, Independent cascade model, T measure
In this paper we present an approach for contextual big data analytics in social networks, particularly in Twitter. The combination of a Rich Context Model (RCM) with machine learning is used in order to improve the quality of the data mining techniques. We propose the algorithm and architecture of our approach for real-time contextual analysis of tweets. The proposed approach can be used to enrich and empower the predictive analytics or to provide relevant context-aware recommendations.
In this paper we present an approach for People-to-People recommendations based on a Rich Context Model (RCM). We consider personal user information as contextual information used for our recommendations. The evaluation of our recommendation approach was performed on a social network of students. The obtained results do show a significant increase in performance while, at the same time, a slight increase in quality in comparison to a manual matching process. The proposed approach is flexible enough to handle different data types of contextual information and easy adaptable to other recommendation domains.
Recommender systems have become an important application domain related to the development of personalized mobile services. Thus, various recommender mechanisms have been developed for filtering and delivering relevant information to mobile users. This paper presents a rich context model to provide the relevant content of news to the current context of mobile users. The proposed rich context model allows not only providing relevant news with respect to the user’s current context but, at the same time, also determines a convenient representation format of news suitable for mobile devices.
For highly automated vehicles (AVs), new interaction concepts need to be developed. Even in AVs, the driver might want to intervene and override the automation from time to time. To create the possibility of control, we explore vehicle control through maneuver-based interventions (MBI). Thereby, we focus on explicit, contact-less interaction, which could be beneficial in future AV designs, where the driver is not necessarily bound to classical controls. We propose a set of freehand gestures and keywords for voice control derived in a user-centered design process. Further, we discuss properties, applicability and user impressions of both interaction modalities. Voice control seems to be an efficient way to select a maneuver and free-hand gestures could be used, if voice channel is blocked, e.g., through conversation with passengers.
Gestures are part of the interaction between humans and are currently getting more and more popular in the field of Human-Machine Interaction (HMI). First systems with mid-air gesture control are available in the automotive field of application. But it is still an open question which gestures are intuitive for the users, standards do not exist. In this paper we present a 2-step user study on expectations on touchless gestures in vehicles as part of a participatory design process.
Social networking sites (SNSs) are an integral part of our daily life. With the evermore increasing appearance of SNSs, their users spend considerable time producing of different forms everyday (e.g. text, videos, photos, links, etc.) or browsing the varieties of contents in different SNSs. In this paper, we propose an architectural perspective on a framework that provides a unified environment through which users can produce and browse different contents of SNSs from one place.
Rapid digital transformation is taking place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing organisations and higher educational institutions to change their working and learning culture. This study explores the challenges of rapid digital transformation arising during the pandemic in the higher education context. This research used the Q-methodology to understand the nine challenges that higher education encountered, perceived differently as four main patterns: (1) Digital-nomad enterprise; (2) Corporate-collectivism; (3) Well-being-oriented; and (4) Pluralistic. This study broadens the current understanding of digital transformation, especially in higher education. The nine challenges and four patterns of transformation actors serve as a starting point for organisations in supporting technological choice and strategic interventions, based on individual, group, and organisational behavioural levels. Moreover, five propositions, based on the competing concerns of these challenges, establish a framework for comprehending the ecosystem that enables rapid digital transformation. Strategies, prerequisites, and key factors during the (digital) technology development process benefit the cyber-society ecosystem. As a practical contribution, Q-methodology was used to investigate perspectives on digitalisation challenges during the pandemic.
Efficient and reliable onsite inspection methods are gaining importance as the construc-tion of PV power plants is expanding. For large PV installations, time- and cost-efficient failure detection is essential for optimized operation and maintenance. For this purpose, various optical methods as Infrared thermography (IR), Electroluminescence (EL), Pho-toluminescence (PL) and Ultraviolet Fluorescence (UVF) are employed and under con-stant development. For each method, the camera, and eventually the light source, can be handheld, or mounted on a drone, also called unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV), to achieve higher throughputs.
IR is the most widely used optical onsite PV inspection method, as many defects can be detected by the thermal radiation (heating) of the defect component. EL and PL reveal further information on the electrical behaviour of the Si-waver. They are also widely used and take the role of a complement to IR, showing electrically active/inactive areas of the semiconductor. On the other hand, UVF focuses on the degradation of the polymeric encapsulant of the Si-cell, most commonly consisting of EVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate). The degradation of the encapsulant can lead to its discoloration, also called yellow-ing/browning, which decreases the transmittance of visual light. UVF patterns can show this yellowing as well as humidity and oxygen entrances, which can lead to effects of corrosion. Both mechanisms (discoloration and corrosion) decrease the performance of the PV cell. The discoloration cannot be directly observed on IR or EL images, as the encapsulant is neither a heat source nor electroconductive. Using IR imagery, severe discoloration might be observed indirectly, as the reduced optical transmittance leads to changes in heat transfer mechanisms concerning the cell and the encapsulant.
Similarly, as long as corrosion does not lead to inactive cell areas or heating, it most likely will not be spotted using EL, PL or IR. So, UVF can fill the niche of inspecting the state of the encapsulant and detecting its defects due to climate impacts in early stages.
While a high number of studies on IR, EL, PL and some on UVF were performed in Europe and the USA, there are not yet many studies about the application of these tech-niques in South America (i.e., in Brazil). UVF mainly depends on climate factors (irradi-ation, temperature, humidity) and the operation time/”age” of the module. The UVF im-agery method has not yet been tested in climate and system conditions of Brazil. Fur-thermore, systems in Brazil are more recently installed. All this can affect differences in the results of UVF imagery applied in Europe, the USA and Brazil.
The present work focuses on the application of UVF imaging on PV power plants in Bra-zil, the creation of an experimental setup and the proposal of proceedings for the data analysis of the acquired images. The aim is to propose a method that is suitable for large-scale inspection.
The virtual classroom continues to grow, but it is becoming more and more the norm, and it is fundamentally different from the vocational students at the Indonesian university. With the promised benefits of the virtual classroom, many challenges and difficulties come in the implementation. Although there are already successful design principles for virtual classrooms that support organizations in overcoming the challenges, the approach to implementing the design principles of virtual classroom at the vocational higher education in Indonesia is still lacking. In this study, we aim to answer the research gap and used the design sciences research by interviewing the lecturers to design the solutions. The proposed design approaches were implemented in a course and evaluated with students from two different groups. Overall, the evaluation of the proposed approaches shows1 significant results as an indicator of the benefits of the implementation of a virtual classroom for vocational students in Indonesia.
Digital transformation is a process of digitizing the working and living environment in which people are at the center of digitization. In this paper, we present a personas-based guideline for system developers on how the humanization of digital transformation integrates into the design process. The proposed guideline uses the positive personas from the beginning as a basis for the transformation of the working environment into the digital form. We used the literature research as a preliminary study for the process of wellbeing-driven digital transformation design, consisting of questions for structuring the required information in the positive personas as well as a potential method that could be integrated into the wellbeing-based design process.
As service robotics research advances rapidly, availability of objective, reproducible test specifications and evaluation criteria and also of benchmarking is more and more felt to be desirable in the community. As a first step towards benchmarking, in this paper we propose a formalization of tests - exemplified for domestic grasp&place tasks. The underlying philosophy of our approach is to confront the robot system in a black-box manner with requirements of a “rational customer”, and characterize the performance of the system in an objective way by the outcomes of a test-suite tailored to this scenario. A formalized single test description consists of a clear and reproducible specification of the robot’s task and the full context on the one hand, and a number of figures which objectively characterize the test result on the other hand. We illustrate this methodology for the domestic assistance scenario.
In recent years, hardware for the production and consumption of virtual reality content has reached level of prices that make it affordable to everyone. Accordingly schools and universities are showing increased interest in implementations of virtual reality technologies for supporting their innovative educational activities. Hence, this paper presents a flexible architecture for supporting the development of virtual reality learning scenarios conveniently deployed for educational purposes. We also suggest an example of such
educational scenario for medical purposes deployable with the suggested architecture. In addition, we developed and used a questionnaire answered by 17 medical students in order to derive additional requirements for refining such scenarios. Then, we present these efforts while aiming at deployments usable also for additional domains. Finally, we summarize and mention aspects we will address
in our coming efforts while deploying such activities.
Researchers have previously utilized the advantages of a design driven by well-being and intergenerational collaboration (IGC) for successful innovation. Unfortunately, scant information exists regarding barrier dimensions and correlated design solutions in the information systems (IS) domain, which can serve as a starting point for a design oriented toward well-being in an IGC system. Therefore, in this study, we applied the positive computing approach to guide our analysis in a systematic literature review and developed a framework oriented toward well-being for a system with a multi-generational team. Our study contributes to the IS community by providing five dimensions of barriers to IGC and the corresponding well-being determinants for positive system design. In addition, we propose further research directions to close the research gap based on the review outcomes.
This paper describes the design and development stages of a web-based framework, aiming to support the creation of mobile applications within the context of mobile learning. The suggested approach offers the opportunity to deploy and execute these applications on mobile devices. This web-based solution additionally offers the possibility to visualize the data collected by the mobile applications in a web-browser. Despite previous research efforts carried out in this domain, few of the projects have addressed these processes from a purely web-based perspective. Currently, a prototype of an authoring tool for creating mobile data collection applications is already implemented. In order to integrate and validate this solution in everyday educational settings, we are collaborating with a network of high schools. On the basis of workshops with teachers we will carry out, refinements and requirements for further enhancements will be collected and will be used to guide our coming efforts.
This paper presents an approach towards a mobile learning environment, which is flexible in terms of supported scenarios, supported devices and input channels. The approach makes use of existing and commonly used channels like SMS, Twitter or Face book to increase acceptance and ease-of-use of mobile devices in learning scenarios. Envisaged application scenarios are described along with technical details for their realization.
The presented work formulates an framework in which early prediction of drivers lane change behavior is realized. We aim to build a representation of drivers lane change behavior in order to recognize and to predict driver's intentions as a first step towards a realistic driver model. In the test bed of the Institute of Neuroinformatik, based on the traffic simulator NISYS TRS 1, 10 individuals have driven in the experiments and they performed more then 150 lane change maneuvers. Lane-offset, distance to the front car and time to contact, were recorded. The acquired data was used to train - in parallel- a recurrent neural network, a feed forward neural network and a set of support vector machines. In the followed test drives the system was able of performing a lane change prediction time of 1.5 sec beforehand. The proposed approach describes a framework for lane-change detection and prediction, which will serve as a prerequisite for a successful driver model.
The continuous evolution of learning technologies combined with the changes within ubiquitous learning environments in which they operate result in dynamic and complex requirements that are challenging to meet. The fact that these systems evolve over time makes it difficult to adapt to the constant changing requirements. Existing approaches in the field of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) are generally not addressing those issues and they fail to adapt to those dynamic situations. In this chapter, we investigate the notion of an adaptive and adaptable architecture as a possible solution to address these challenges. We conduct a literature survey upon the state of the art and state of practice in this area. The outcomes of those efforts result in an initial model of a Domain-specific architecture to tackle the issues of adaptability and adaptiveness. To illustrate these ideas, we provide a number of scenarios where this architecture can be applied or is already applied. Our proposed approach serves as a foundation for addressing future ubiquitous learning applications where new technologies constantly emerge and new requirements evolve.
We present a light-weight real-time applicable 3D-gesture recognition system on mobile devices for improved Human-Machine Interaction. We utilize time-of-flight data coming from a single sensor and implement the whole gesture recognition pipeline on two different devices outlining the potential of integrating these sensors onto mobile devices. The main components are responsible for cropping the data to the essentials, calculation of meaningful features, training and classifying via neural networks and realizing a GUI on the device. With our system we achieve recognition rates of up to 98% on a 10-gesture set with frame rates reaching 20Hz, more than sufficient for any real-time applications.
Building upon prior results, we present an alternative approach to efficiently classifying a complex set of 3D hand poses obtained from modern Time-Of-Flight-Sensors (TOF). We demonstrate it is possible to achieve satisfactory results in spite of low resolution and high noise (inflicted by the sensors) and a demanding outdoor environment. We set up a large database of pointclouds in order to train multilayer perceptrons as well as support vector machines to classify the various hand poses. Our goal is to fuse data from multiple TOF sensors, which observe the poses from multiple angles. The presented contribution illustrates that real-time capability can be maintained with such a setup as the used 3D descriptors, the fusion strategy as well as the online confidence measures are computationally efficient.
Coming out of the labs, the first robots are currently appearing on the consumer market. Initially they target rather simple application scenarios ranging from entertainment to home convenience. However, one can expect, that they will capture more complex areas soon. These robots will have a higher and higher level and a broad range of functional competence, and will collaborate and interactively communicate with their human users. All this requires considerable cognitive abilities on the robot’s side and appropriate man-machine interaction technologies. Apart from further development of individual functions and technologies it is crucial to build and evaluate fully integrated systems. This paper describes our approach to construct a robotic assistance system. We present experience with an integrated technology demonstration and the exposure of the integrated system to the public.
The first robots are currently appearing on the consumer market. Initially they are targeted at rather simple applications such as entertainment and home convenience. For more complex areas, these robots will need to collaborate and interactively communicate with their human users, which requires appropriate man-machine interaction technologies and considerable cognitive abilities on the robot's side. Consumer acceptance will strongly depend on the integrated system. Thus, system integration and evaluation of the integrated system is becoming increasingly important. This paper describes our approach to construct a robotic assistance system. We present experience with an integrated technology demonstration and exposure of the integrated system to the public.
Today usually every student owns a reasonably powerful mobile device that allows to be integrated in scenarios. One of the drawbacks of the fast evolution of reasonably powerful devices, is the
heterogeneity of that these kind of devices us ually bring with them. This paper provides an overview how rich mobile learning scenarios can be implemented platform independent on the basis of HTML5 and JavaScript. The paper presents a mobile learning application based on the principles of Situated Lea
rning entirely developed in HTML5. The paper also presents the results of tests performed with the application which were aimed at finding out the difference in performance users perceived when compared with the native desktop version of the
application and the added value that mobility introduces in learning activities.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most auspicious yet controversial technologies with virtually unlimited potential to solve almost all of the existential problems humanity is facing today.1 Huge resources are poured into the development, testing and application of AI that is supposed to be utilized in almost all areas of everyday life.2 It may be used to combat genetically inherited diseases, to revolutionize the economy, to bring prosperity and equality to everyone and to counter the effects of climate change.3 With AI as the enabling technology humanity may experience a better future. Today, AI capabilities can already drastically improve analytic processing tasks and algorithmic systems and have beaten humans in games such as chess.4 Yet, AI and all of its applications bring about a myriad of ethical challenges. Revolutionary weapon systems that achieve autonomy via AI and genome-editing powered by AI are just some specific examples.5 An omnipotent AI will be either the greatest or the vilest thing that has happened to humanity in its brief existence.6 However, even today more and more computational devices are connected to each other, spurring a huge increase in global data streams that can be used to further train and enhance AI systems.
The prowess of AI for executing analytic tasks paves the way for the use of AI in more and more applications. One of these applications, that shows great promise, is the use of AI in surveillance applications.7 AI surveillance applications are proliferating at a fast rate, with a number of appli-cations already being in use today.8 These applications are aimed at accomplishing a number of policy objectives, some are in accordance with basic human laws, some are definitely not and some
1 Cf. Hawking (2018). P. 183ff
2 Cf. Hawking (2018). P. 183ff.
3 Cf. Hawking (2018). P. 183ff.
4 Cf. Burton (2015). P. 1ff.
5 Cf. Hawking (2018). P. 183ff.
6 Cf. Hawking (2018). P. 183ff.
7 Cf. Feldstein (2019). P. 1.
8 Cf. Feldstein (2019). P. 1.
2
belong in the nebulous area in between lawful and unlawful.9 But what are lawful and unlawful uses of AI surveillance systems and what are their ethical implications?
This thesis will examine the ethical implications of AI based mass surveillance systems and try to answer the first central question, if it is possible to use AI based mass surveillance applica-tions in an ethical way. Furthermore, the thesis will attempt to answer the second central ques-tion and find out how the ethical use of AI based mass surveillance systems, if this ethical use is possible, materialize. Governmental agencies will be in the focus of this discussion, as their use of the technology may have bigger ethical challenges. Yet private companies will play a part as well. In an attempt to accomplish these two aims, the thesis will inspect the basics of ethics and possible ethical theories that can be utilized to answer the questions. Normative ethics will be stud-ied first with a focus on consequentialism and utilitarianism. To gain a deeper understanding of utilitarianism, act and rule utilitarianism will be compared. Afterwards, deontological theories will be the focus of the discussion with a concentration on deontological pluralism. Next, the mentioned theories will be evaluated, discussing advantages and weak spots of the theories, to assess which theory may serve as the ethical framework of this thesis and the subsequent answer to the two main questions.
The next step will be the establishment of the AI framework. This contains the definition of AI and a distinction of terms that are commonly used in the its environment such as automation and au-tonomy. The importance of data for AI will be discussed. Afterwards, the technological basis of AI will be outlined, discussing key concepts such as machine learning and deep learning. Addi-tionally, it will be examined how an AI learns. The possible uses of AI in general will be outlined in a brief fashion, blazing the trail to discussing the moral challenges of AI. Afterwards, the current pace of AI development will be studied.
In the chapter that follows, the use of AI in surveillance technology is going to be highlighted. The possible ways of how AI can be used for surveillance purposes are reviewed here, discussing facial
9 Cf. Feldstein (2019). P. 1.
3
and behavioral recognition systems, smart cities, smart policing, communications/data driven sur-veillance and their enabling technologies. Then, the global proliferation of AI surveillance systems is going to be outlined.
Subsequently, the accordance of AI surveillance with basic human laws and rights, such as the right to privacy, will be checked to find out if the law and the international framework of human rights allow for AI surveillance or at least have restrictions that would greenlight the use of AI surveillance technology. All the aspects of the thesis, especially including the selected ethical framework, will be combined in this last section in order to enable the adaptation of a framework that allows to find out, if AI surveillance systems can be ethically permissible while also creating insights how this ethical AI surveillance system must be engineered. To finish, the thesis will end with a conclusion.
Technical Report
(2016)
This internal report discusses the theoretical and practical aspects of the cluster management framework SimpleHydra, which was developed in order to allow researchers the quick setup of classical small to mid-scale computation clusters while being as lightweight and platform independent as possible. We motivate crucial design choices with a theoretical analysis in the aspect of time and space complexity, furthermore we give a comprehensive introduction regarding the frameworks usage (which includes examples and detailed description of fundamental concepts as well as data structures). In addition to that we illustrate application scenarios with complete source code examples. Furthermore we hope that this document proves valuable not only as a development report but also as a practical manual for SimpleHydra.
RELEVANCE & RESEARCH QUESTION: Currently the effectiveness of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) systems as practice teaching methods are virtually uncharted. The proof that these systems can provide the same or better learning outcomes than a text instructed practical task could represent a significant benefit for educational activities. METHODS & DATA: To fathom the effectiveness, an experimental study with the three conditions (VR, AR and a real setup) were used to teach participant how to assemble a standard computer. Each condition was divided into two parts: part one in which participants were confronted with their specific scenario, part two in which participants had to go through a real practice after one week. The learning outcome was determined by the designation of hardware parts, a quiz that queried their function and the correct assembling of the components in addition to needed time. Apart from the mere performance, the acceptance of such application in academic context and difference in evaluation by men and women were of interest. RESULTS: Results concerning the Learning Outcome showed that participants from the VR condition outperformed those learned from the real setup ((M=10.0, SD=0.0) [virtual reality] vs. (M=8.95, SD=1.27) [control]). Furthermore, results from the assembling duration assessment demonstrated that VR Group Participants completed their tasks 6.62% faster than the control group. Regarding the identification of Hardware Parts, both groups scored a significant improvement during the post condition compared to the first test run, indicating a learning progress. However, due to the VR group achieving a better outcome in average answers and a more significant difference between the trials, the results indicate a better performance by participants assigned to the VR condition. ADDED VALUE: The results revealed that VR and AR systems could exceed text-based approach in terms of learning outcome performance. The effectiveness of the systems implicates a major benefit for the educational landscape, as learning content that is not realizable in terms of cost, distance or logistics could be designed as an immersive and engaging experience.
Mobile devices, in the form of smartphones, are endowed with rich capabilities in terms of multimedia, sensors and connectivity. The wide adoption of these devices allows using them across different settings and situations. One area in which mobile devices become more and more prominent is within the field of mobile learning. Here, mobile devices provide rich possibilities for the contextualization of the learner, by using the set of sensors available in the device. On the one hand, the usage of mobile devices enables participation in learning activities independent of time and space. Nevertheless, developing mobile learning applications for the heterogeneity of mobile devices available in the market becomes a challenge. Not only this is a problem related to form factor aspects, but also the large number of different operating systems, platforms and app infrastructures (app stores) are aspects to be considered. In this paper we present our initial efforts with regard to the development of cross-platform mobile applications to support the contextualization of learning content.