A Distributed Multi-Tier Emergency Alerting System Exploiting Sensors-Based Event Detection to Support Smart City Applications

The Need for Cybersecurity in Industrial Revolution and Smart Cities

Cities have grown in development and sophistication throughout human history. Smart cities are the current incarnation of this process, with increased complexity and social importance. This complexity has come to involve significant digital components and has thus come to raise the associated cybersecurity concerns. Major security relevant events can cascade into the connected systems making up a smart city, causing significant disruption of function and economic damage. The present paper aims to survey the landscape of scientific publication related to cybersecurity-related issues in relation to smart cities. Relevant papers were selected based on the number of citations and the quality of the publishing journal as a proxy indicator for scientific relevance. Cybersecurity will be shown to be reflected in the selected literature as an extremely relevant concern in the operation of smart cities. Generally, cybersecurity is implemented in actual cities through the concerted application of both mature existing technologies and emerging new approaches.

Performance Evaluation of Information Gathering from Edge Devices in a Complex of Smart Buildings

The use of monitoring systems based on cloud computing has become common for smart buildings. However, the dilemma of centralization versus decentralization, in terms of gathering information and making the right decisions based on it, remains. Performance, dependent on the system design, does matter for emergency detection, where response time and loading behavior become very important. We studied several design options based on edge computing and containers for a smart building monitoring system that sends alerts to the responsible personnel when necessary. The study evaluated performance, including a qualitative analysis and load testing, for our experimental settings. From 700+ edge nodes, we obtained response times that were 30% lower for the public cloud versus the local solution. For up to 100 edge nodes, the values were better for the latter, and in between, they were rather similar. Based on an interpretation of the results, we developed recommendations for five real-world configurations, and we present the design choices adopted in our development for a complex of smart buildings.

Parametric Optimization of Combined Wind-Solar Energy Power Plants for Sustainable Smart City Development

To minimize the existing risks associated with the energy production, distribution, and development of urban areas, the concept of sustainable development of smart manufacturing is being introduced everywhere. However, most of existing digital transformation technologies do not sufficiently take into account environmental, economic, and social components. It requires the development of specialized solutions that, on the one hand, contribute to the development of the urban environment, and on the other, are focused on the use of innovative technologies that have a positive effect on the environment. However, in order to provide electric power to objects of a smart urban environment, we propose using autonomous power plants with renewable energy sources (wind and sun) instead of classical central power supply. The article describes the benefits of using combined wind-solar power plants to provide electricity to smart urban environments. The article considers advantages and disadvantages of this solution. We describe the design of the combined wind-solar installation with a vertical Darier rotor and photoelectric converters located on a common supporting structure. This solution allows getting a positive synergistic effect from the use of several renewable energy sources. The presented main advantages of this solution include increasing the energy efficiency of photovoltaic converters due to the intensification of heat removal from the surface of solar cells by the wind flow from the Darier rotor. In addition, this article considers the efficient use of the area and stability of electricity output. Digital aerodynamic modeling performed the parametric optimization of the Darier rotor having three blades with NACA 0021profile. The simulation demonstrated that the blades installed at an angle of 3.8° provide the maximum value of the wind utilization coefficient. This article also considers parametric optimization of a photovoltaic installation. In particular, the optimal installation angle of photovoltaic modules for Sevastopol is 34°.

On the development of flexible mobile multi-sensor units based on open-source hardware platforms and a reference framework

For some IoT applications, mobile entities are considered as the main source of sensed data, requiring the attachment of sensor modules on them. The endowing of sensing capabilities to such mobile entities can be performed in different ways, but the adoption of a reference hardware framework can bring a series of advantages, specially in dynamic complex scenarios. This article exploits the MSensorMob2 multi-sensor hardware framework for monitoring in areas with disconnection periods, comprising sensing, transmission and reconfiguration functions. Comprehensive analyses on multiple open-source hardware platforms are conducted, assessing their costs, deployment constraints and performance issues when implementing this development framework.

A Survey of Technologies and Recent Developments for Sustainable Smart Cycling

Among the problems resulted from the continuous urbanization process, inefficient urban mobility and high pollution levels have been complex challenges that have demanded a lot of public investments and research efforts. Recently, some alternative transportation means have been leveraged as sustainable options for such challenges, which has brought bicycles to a more relevant setting. Besides the sometimes obvious benefits of adopting bikes for transportation, technologies around the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm have been advocated as important supportive tools to boost smart cycling initiatives. Actually, new technologies can be exploited to improve the efficiency of bike paths and parking spots, while reducing accidents and enhancing the cycling experience of the users. Therefore, in this highly vibrating scenario, this article facilitates the understating of current research trends and promising developments, surveying and classing recent works. Since there is a global interest for the promotion of cleaner and more sustainable solutions in large cities, this survey can be valuable when supporting new developments in this highly relevant research area.

Patient triage system for supporting the operation of dispatch centres and rescue teams

BACKGROUND

The Thai medical application for patient triage, namely Triagist, is an mHealth application designed to support the pre-hospital process. However, since the functions of the application that are necessary for the pre-hospital process have been found not to be fully developed, the addition of a back-end system has been considered to increase its performance and usability.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the ability of the previous version to effectively manage the pre-hospital process and analyse the current problems with the pre-hospital operation. Therefore, the new system was developed to support the connection of dispatch centres or operational centres to the Triagist mobile application and system evaluation.

METHOD

Design thinking methodology was used to analyse, design and develop a patient triage system to support the pre-hospital process in Thailand based on users' requirements. 68 active members of the rescue teams and emergency medical staff in Chiang Mai and Lampang provinces were recruited to test the reliability of the system based on a prototype application.

RESULTS

The new medical mobile application for patient triage in Thailand was validated for use due to containing the two essential functions of Initial Dispatch Code (IDC) geolocation and IDC management. When the system was tested by emergency staff who were responsible for using it, those with the least experience were found to use it better than their highly experienced colleagues. Moreover, in cases where the system had been implemented, it was found to determine the frequency of symptoms, the time period during which cases occurred, and the density of cases in each area.

CONCLUSION

This system, which has been developed based on the use of smart technology, will play an important role in supporting emergency services in Thailand by enhancing the efficiency of the pre-hospital process. Emergency centres will receive IDC information from the geolocation system so that they can determine patients' location without undue delay. Emergency services will be able to rapidly prepare the necessary resources and administrative tasks will be supported by linking the dispatch centre to central rescue teams.

Using Deep Learning to Detect Defects in Manufacturing: A Comprehensive Survey and Current Challenges

The detection of product defects is essential in quality control in manufacturing. This study surveys stateoftheart deep-learning methods in defect detection. First, we classify the defects of products, such as electronic components, pipes, welded parts, and textile materials, into categories. Second, recent mainstream techniques and deep-learning methods for defects are reviewed with their characteristics, strengths, and shortcomings described. Third, we summarize and analyze the application of ultrasonic testing, filtering, deep learning, machine vision, and other technologies used for defect detection, by focusing on three aspects, namely method and experimental results. To further understand the difficulties in the field of defect detection, we investigate the functions and characteristics of existing equipment used for defect detection. The core ideas and codes of studies related to high precision, high positioning, rapid detection, small object, complex background, occluded object detection and object association, are summarized. Lastly, we outline the current achievements and limitations of the existing methods, along with the current research challenges, to assist the research community on defect detection in setting a further agenda for future studies.

On the Use of Cameras for the Detection of Critical Events in Sensors-Based Emergency Alerting Systems

The adoption of emergency alerting systems can bring countless benefits when managing urban areas, industrial plants, farms, roads and virtually any area that is subject to the occurrence of critical events, supporting in rescue operations and reducing their negative impacts. For such systems, a promising approach is to exploit scalar sensors to detect events of interest, allowing for the distributed monitoring of different variables. However, the use of cameras as visual sensors can enhance the detection of critical events, which can be employed along with scalar sensors for a more comprehensive perception of the environment. Although the particularities of visual sensing may be challenging in some scenarios, the combination of scalar and visual sensors for the early detection of emergency situations can be valuable for many scenarios, such as smart cities and industry 4.0, bringing promising results. Therefore, in this article, we extend a sensors-based emergency detection and alerting system to also exploit visual monitoring when identifying critical events. Implementation and experimental details are provided to reinforce the use of cameras as a relevant sensor unit, bringing promising results for emergencies management.