Browsing by Author "Oliveira, Pedro Filipe"
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- A prototype to enhance academic attendance using BLE beaconsPublication . Simas, Sily; Oliveira, Pedro Filipe; Matos, PauloThis project addresses the prototyping and application of an attendance control solution in an academic context, using Beacons. The introduction highlights the importance of effectively managing student attendance to ensure active participation in educational activities and provide insights into student engagement. BLE Beacons technology is compared to other RF signaling technologies, highlighting its advantages in terms of range, power consumption, cost, frequency, and data rate. BLE Beacon is chosen as the preferred technology due to its combination of adequate range, low power consumption, affordable cost, compatibility, security, and flexibility. The results section presents Estimote Beacons as devices used, highlighting their advanced features and techniques used, such as proximity and triangulation, to determine student presence. A visual summary of the project is presented in a flowchart that illustrates the operating processes of each stage. This solution promises to significantly improve the efficiency, safety, and quality of the academic environment, while simplifying the attendance recording process and providing valuable insights into student behavior.
- Adaptive environment system to manage comfort preferences and conflictsPublication . Oliveira, Pedro Filipe; Novais, Paulo; Matos, PauloManaging comfort preferences conflicts of the different users and locals on an Internet of Things (IoT) adaptive system is a actual problem. This paper, proposes a protocol and hierarchical rules to develop a multi-agent system to achieve an Adaptive Environment System that supports interaction between persons and physical spaces, where spaces smartly adapt to their preferences in a transparent way. And also a set of security customization’s to secure the actuators and users on space, that has been developed using a multi agent system architecture with different features to achieve a solution that supports the proposed objectives. Supported by a base architecture to achieve the full system implementation.
- Adaptive system to manage everyday user comfort preferencesPublication . Oliveira, Pedro Filipe; Novais, Paulo; Matos, PauloUrban mobility brings many challenges and opportunities, particularly regarding sustainability. It is natural that we want better living conditions, we are naturally given to consuming, even when there is no need, we increasingly want to travel, socialize, enjoy and it is not easy to accept that we will most likely have to change. It is no longer a distant future, but the present that we are living. Even in the face of successful solutions, receptivity is far from being massified and in most cases it imposes compromises in terms of comfort and quality of life, sometimes even imposing new habits and ways of being. In addition, not all of us have the same perception of the situation seriousness, or the same willingness to compromise. And this can happen for numerous reasons, namely physical or health limitations, financial limitations, different beliefs/motivations, or different ways of facing problems. It is even common that the staunchest defender of certain solutions, when faced with other equally plausible solutions, is completely insensitive or even opposed. In fact, the same individual may have different needs/preferences relatively to the place where he is or the activity he is performing, that is, preferences that vary with time and place. In a broader context of mobility, in which individuals in their daily lives move and visit different places, often with the presence of more people, the situation is even more complex, the variability of preferences increases, and it is necessary to combine preferences/needs of different individuals. Emerging technologies, within the Internet of Things (IoT) scope and smart spaces [1], allow us to aspire to capable solutions in line with the urban mobility and sustainability demands and, at the same time, to promote better conditions of comfort and well-being, without imposing sacrifices or changes in habits and considering the specificities of each individual, at different time and place. These solutions whose success depends in part on the autonomy of operation, not requiring any direct and conscious participation of people, for the ability to make the best decisions given the current context and future expectations, the context being defined by the characteristics of the environment. Including the dynamics, namely those resulting from the presence/involvement of people, but also for the transparency of action, not being evasive and, if possible, fulfilling its function without people realizing the existence of the technology/solution simply the most convenient happens. There are other factors that should not be neglected, such as those related to security and privacy. In this paper, the authors propose an architecture that considers these requirements so that, in a non-evasive way, it adapts the different spaces that the user frequents (house, work, leisure, others) to their personal preferences, such as temperature, humidity, sound, environment, etc. The architecture includes the different devices needed, to identify users, as well as the communication technologies to be used to transfer the preferences of each user to the system. The architecture includes a multi-agent system that allows managing conflicts of preferences through a user’s hierarchy and that considers safety values for each preference, to safeguard the different actuators (air conditioning, fan coils, multimedia, etc.) present in space. It was developed, focusing on the definition of each user's preferences in a smartphone application, which allows the user's preferences to be transferred to the space, without the need to perform any interaction, they can also be passed through smartwatches, fitness bracelets and similar devices, which currently have different communication technologies such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Near Field Communication (NFC) or Wifi-Direct. It also contains a local processing solution, currently supported by a Raspberry Pi, and will be present in each space where we want to adapt to different preferences. Each of these systems constantly receives each present user preferences. Based on the multi-agent system, it calculates the optimal preferences to be applied to each space at a given time. It is also responsible for sending these to the different actuators present in the space. The multi-agent system has different layers (simulation, data acquisition, user information, actuation). Briefly, there is an agent for each user present, containing their preferences, and there is an agent that represents the pace, containing eventual constraints, such as security values and others that may exist, namely in public spaces. Each of these agents aims to represent the interests of the involved parties. For example, the agent representing the space should be focused on an efficient use of equipment, minimizing energy costs, enhancing the durability of the equipment, minimizing maintenance costs. Taking advantage of the different hierarchies, an equation was devised that meets the different preferences to define the optimal solution, which will be sent to the different actuators.
- Adaptive system to manage user comfort preferences and conflicts at everyday environmentsPublication . Oliveira, Pedro Filipe; Novais, Paulo; Matos, PauloNowadays an actual problem on IoT adaptive systems is to manage user preferences and local actuators specifications. This paper uses a multi agent system to achieve a Adaptive Environment System, that supports interaction between persons and physical spaces, where spaces smartly adapt to their user preferences in a transparent way. This work has been developed using a multi agent system architecture with different features to achieve a solution that reach all the proposed objectives.
- Aplicação de bluetooth low energy no controlo e monitorização de dispositivos de muito baixo consumoPublication . Oliveira, Pedro Filipe; Matos, PauloThis work was performed in an industrial context, a collaboration between the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança and Techwelf Ltd, a company developing control solutions for energy management. The collaboration aimed to solve a concrete problem of one of the devices that is under development at this company, aiming to strengthen the competitive advantages of the product. The challenge was to analyze the feasibility of using Bluetooth Low Energy as wireless communication solution enabling secure monitoring and control of the device from a smartphone. But ensuring maximum energy autonomy of the device, considered as critical factor, given that communication is the main cause of energy consumption. The work carried out resulted in a technical, fully functional solution, which uses the chip nRF51822 from Nordic and an Apple iPhone. The entire system has been optimized, including the Bluetooth Low Energy GATT services, in order to maximize the autonomy of the device while ensuring the reliability and security of communication. Many of the details of the work performed and the product concerned were purposely omitted as a result of the secrecy and confidentiality agreement signed by the proposer of the dissertation.
- Beacons at university campus, a mobile application to improve learning and bridge diversityPublication . Oliveira, Pedro Filipe; Matos, PauloWhen people move int its quotidian, it is important to them to receive some customized place information. Nowadays it has been difficult to work in things like advertising, notifying, indicating, tracking and many other. The purpose of this project is to implement a solution that allows the sending of information (personalized notifications) to the user, when he approaches different campus locations, using BLE devices known as beacons. To achieve this, a mobile application was developed, that helps user to access and receive information, additionally a web application has been developed for the management operations and its related things. Taking advantage of Beacon technology, we develop an application to notify interest information to the user. We have collected the information of different types of beacons and analyzed them, which will help us while configuring and developing application which will meet the objective we intended. This project represents a groundbreaking initiative in leveraging mobile technology to bridge diversity gaps and promote inclusivity within university campuses. By facilitating meaningful connections, encouraging cultural exchange, and providing resources for understanding, this innovative mobile application seeks to create an environment where all members of the campus community feel valued, respected, and empowered.
- Behaviour analysis in smart spacesPublication . Oliveira, Pedro Filipe; Matos, Paulo; Novais, PauloWe are on a new era of interaction between persons and physical spaces. Users want that those spaces smartly adapt to their preferences in a transparent way. This paper describes the process of planning, reasoning and modeling of a Smart Environment with domestic and industrial application, taking advantage of emerging wearable devices on the market (smart watches, fitness trackers, etc.) and newer wireless communication technologies (NFC, BLE, Wi-Fi Direct). Enabling in a noninvasive way for the user, optimize the efficiency, comfort, and safety at the environments. This approach can be applied in home automation, public spaces and also incorporated at industrial level, to help build smart and autonomous factories.
- BLEGen — a code generator for bluetooth low energy servicesPublication . Oliveira, Pedro Filipe; Matos, PauloThe BLEGen is a retargeting generation code tool to implement Bluetooth Low Energy services. Based on a specification of the main characteristics of the BLE services, the BLEGen is able to produce all the necessary C code to implement the services for the chosen microchip. The specifications are written using a domain specific language, which was designed to allow a very compact, easy to understand, highly focused on the BLE standard concepts and fully independent of the details and constraints of the target microchip. The BLEGen was conceived based on the builder design pattern to be a retargeting tool. This means that it is able to generate code for distinct target microchips, using the correspondent BLE software stack and taking advantage of the concrete microchip architecture. The BLEGen allows the implementation of new BLE services, reducing significantly the development time and the level of expertise, since it avoids a long learning period to understand the BLE stack used by each manufacturer and the microchip architecture. At this paper, it is presented the motivation, the domain specific language defined to describe the BLE services, the architecture of the BLEGen and the solutions adopted to make it a retargeting tool.
- Challenges in smart spaces: aware of users, preferences, behaviours and habitsPublication . Oliveira, Pedro Filipe; Novais, Paulo; Matos, PauloThere are new opportunities for research in the field of smart environments that should be explored. The concepts of smart homes and home automation, are currently in growing expansion in the scientific and research point of view, as the market demands for better solutions in this field. Users want that those spaces smartly adapt to their preferences in a transparent way. This paper describes the process of planning, reasoning and modeling of a Smart Environment, using emerging wearable devices on the market (smart watches, fitness trackers, etc.) and newer technologies like NFC, BLE and Wi-Fi Direct. Enabling the user to optimize the efficiency, comfort, and safety at the environments.
- Code generator for bluetooth low energy servicesPublication . Oliveira, Pedro Filipe; Matos, PauloThe Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is an important part of the revolution that started around the internet of things, namely to connect smartphones to all kind of devices, like watches. The BLE is a service--oriented architecture, where one of the devices assumes the role of server (also designated by central) and the other assumes the role of slave (also designated by central). The server is the device that contains the data and the slave, the one that requests data to the server. The smartphones typically play the central role, motorizing and controlling one or more peripheral devices. The BLE standard includes a set of profiles, each one defining a service, and the idea was to promote a normalize set of services, that should be supplied by the hardware manufacturers, to promote the fast adoption of the BLE technology by the software developers community, namely the developers of the Android, iOS, Windows Phone and others mobile devices operating systems. As consequence, it was quite fast to the market be invaded by a significant number of software applications, even when most of the smartphones, tablets and computers available on the market are not yet prepared for this technology. But the expectations are very high and the number of profiles included on the standard is restricted and, of course, does not cover all the necessities. The implementation of new services is not a simple task. The technology is too fresh (there are few examples, documentation, support and experts available on the market); the implementation is very dependent of the chip characteristics and resources; the BLE specification is not very accessible and uses a wide range of technologies; the available implementations of the BLE stack use very distinct architectures, implying distinct ways of implement the services; and all the code is implemented at a very low level, with all the natural constrains and difficulties common to this level. Confronted with all these problems, the authors of the paper implemented a code generator to assist on the development of BLE services. Presently, the generator, which is a prototype, produces C code for only one family of chips, the nRF51 -- one of the most used BLE chips of the market. But the code generator architecture, based on the builder design pattern, ensures that the expansion of the generator, to produce code for other chips, is possible and not difficult to do. The implementation details of this generator are explained along this paper.