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Population aging is considered to be one of the most significant social transformations of the twenty-first century. In this paper, we evaluate the acceptability and usability of a system designed to silently monitor the activity and condition of older adults, with a particular focus on the elderly affected by cognitive decline. The system is composed of sensors that can be hidden in various wearable objects to collect data about a user and his/her surrounding environment and transmit them to a server for further elaboration. The aim is to improve safety and independence of older adults. We conducted a survey involving elderly people, their relatives and health practitioners to better assess their needs and provide them with a technology that is as little intrusive and visible as possible. The results of our survey are promising as the majority of the respondents expressed their willingness to use the proposed technology in their everyday lives.

Cloud-based interactive multimedia applications such as virtual games and video streaming are gaining high popularity. However, giving the high bandwidth consumption, the remote execution can negatively impact the quality of the multimedia traffic. In such a realm, data travel different communication networks from the cloud to the final users crossing the last meters the home's access point (AP). In such a scenario, the quality-of-service (QoS) support is a challenging task, particularly in the home network environment, with heterogeneous applications simultaneously running and consuming the available bandwidth. To address this issue, we propose ReiLeCS, a Reinforcement Learning-based Controller and Scheduler for interactive multimedia traffic in Home Area Networks (HAN). Through reinforcement learning and the maximization of a reward function, it enables the AP to schedule the arriving multimedia traffic from the cloud according to their required QoS. Simulation results using real multimedia traffic conditions demonstrate that ReiLeCS achieves better performances compared with existing packet scheduling policies.

Wearable technology is no longer science fiction. Thanks to the growing capability in the production chain to miniaturize complex electronics, a wide variety of gadgets that can be worn or included in dresses and accessories have emerged. These smart gadgets can collect data about the physical condition of the user and/or the environment providing the basis for innovative and valuable services. The main goal of this paper is to assess this context through field experiments undertaken in a testbed comprised of sensing hardware deployed on open source boards such as Arduino. Moreover, coupled with the sensing tier, we propose a proof-of-concept deployment architecture enabling a wide range of wearable sensors to collect and transmit data to a logically centralized unit.

Immersive technology is expected to become a key player in the next wave of consumer electronics with potential applications spanning a wide variety of sectors. Yet, there are a number of technological hurdles which need to be addressed. Without speed and computation capability, interactivity cannot be ensured. More than often the constrained nature of the mobile device demands is complemented by cloud ones through the use of cloud offloading techniques. With cloud offloading, battery consumption and processing performance problems are translated into sensor data selection and network latency problems. In this context, we focus our study on some functional building blocks that can be used in conjunction and deployed in a 5G virtualized architecture to alleviate bandwidth and latency requirements of immersive application scenarios. To this end, we have created an experimental scenario exploiting real data to test our combined solution based on the field of view cut and optimized transport protocols, discussing the tradeoffs that emerge.

Even if the World Wide Web is one of the main content and service providers, unfortunately, these contents and services are not really available for everyone. People affected by impairments often have difficulties in navigating Web pages for a wide range of reasons. In this paper, we focus on people affected by dyslexia. These users experience difficulties in reading acquisition, despite normal intelligence and adequate access to conventional instruction. For this reason, we have created Help me read!, a Chrome extension that allows to change many features of a Web page. Furthermore, it allows to isolate and enlarge one word at a time. This feature is crucial as it allows people with dyslexia to focus on each single word, thus overcoming one of their main difficulties.

Proper waste sorting is crucial for both economic and environmental reasons. Yet, its effectiveness can be strongly limited when citizens do not know how to correctly separate waste, sometimes even due to different regulations depending on their municipality. We have hence devoted our efforts to the creation of a serious game able to teach people of all ages how to match the various trash cans with the corresponding type of waste. Although we have considered the city of Padua, Italy, as a case study, our application can be easily adapted to different waste sorting regulations.

The advent of broadband technology has revolutionized the fruition of multimedia contents. Moreover, the cloud is now moving the computational load from domestic devices to remote servers, enabling the provisioning of new multimedia services through the Internet. To provide a proper user experience, a low E2E latency and a high bandwidth are both required. Unfortunately, this is difficult to achieve in a shared network like the Internet. My PhD project focuses on the study and analysis of modern network protocols to identify viable solutions for a suitable user experience.

The technological evolution in the mobile sector has experienced an exponential growth in the last years. The number of functionalities has grown, and of course the way we use these devices has changed. Starting with calls and messages, introducing cameras, implementing Internet connectivity, and finally introducing the sensor technology, we arrive to today's smartphones. Following this trend, a popular application as gaming has extended its domain from home computers and consoles to the mobile realm. While there are many developers working on modern game genres, we devised a mobile game that join the rediscovery of ancient board games with the pleasure to play on a smart device. Through the development of the digital version of a game that was played centuries ago, we have created a very attractive tool able to raise the interest of children toward ancient history. We hence discuss here our attempt to digitally rediscover and enhance an ancient board game called "Fox and Geese"

Although much has been done in the field of accessibility, the World Wide Web is not yet for everyone. Many Internet users often find difficulties in navigating web pages. This is particularly true for people with visual impairments and blind people. In this paper, we present a review of the state of the art of the application of accessibility rules to web pages and describe which are the common problems that people with sight impairments must endure when surfing the Internet; to this aim, we use information collected during an interview with a blind user who is an expert in navigating the web using a screen reader.

The worldwide diffusion of mobile technology has opened the door to a new era of distributed sensing. Indeed, mobile sensing and wireless technology can be exploited to create new information and services that have the potential to improve our lives in many ways. This becomes even more interesting if the benefits could reach the whole community, even people with disadvantages that are often left out by the digital divide. To this aim, we have developed a system able to offer an enhanced route navigation system, while at the same time gathering quality data through smartwatches. Even more interesting, we have endowed our system with an interaction paradigm based on vibration patterns so as to guide the user without the need for looking at the device. Our proposal avoids user distraction and field trials demonstrate its effectiveness when employed by visually impaired people.

In recent years we have seen a great proliferation of smart vehicles, ranging from cars to little drones (both terrestrial and aerial), all endowed with sensors and communication capabilities. It is hence easy to foresee a future with even more smart and connected vehicles moving around, occupying space and creating an Internet of Vehicles (IoV). In this IoV, a multitude of nodes (both static and mobile) will generate a continuous multihop flow of local information to support local smart environment applications. Therefore, one interesting environment for the IoV would be in the form of 3-D mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs). Unfortunately, MANET routing protocols have generally been designed and analyzed keeping in mind a 2-D scenario; there is no guarantee on how they would support a 3-D topology of the IoV. To this end, we have considered routing protocols deemed as the state-of-the-art for classic MANETs and tested them over 3-D topologies to evaluate their assets and technical challenges.

Mobile games have come to revolutionize the mobile handset and gaming industry, pushing chip vendors to compete in order to provide better and better graphics capabilities by means of dedicated processors. This capability coupled with the sensing and communication ability offered by smartphones, provides the developers with the building blocks for innovative gaming solutions. In particular, multiplayer mobile games could exploit context and proximity information, providing an added value to the gaming experience. In this context, we present the design and analysis of a modern mobile and multiplayer version of the classic Pong game. In addition to the classic interaction model through remote server(s), players could interact and play locally by exploiting ad-hoc connectivity offered by the Wi-Fi Direct technology.

Many enchanting cultural heritage locations are hidden from tourists, especially when considering countries full of historic attractions. Tourists tend to consider only mainstream monuments and towns, neglecting wonderful little jewels along their travel itinerary. However, this is generally not their fault, as travelers cannot be aware of all the surrounding beauties when visiting a new region. To this aim, we discuss and analyze here PhotoTrip, an interactive tool able to autonomously recommend charming, even if not mainstream, cultural heritage locations along travel itineraries. PhotoTrip is able to identify these points of interest by gathering pictures and related information from Flickr and Wikipedia and then provide the user with suggestions and recommendations. An important technical challenge for this kind of services is the ability to provide only the most relevant pictures among the many available for any considered itinerary. To this aim, we have exploited social networks, crowdsourcing and gamification to involve users in the process of improving the response quality of our system.

Developmental Dyslexia (DD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting reading acquisition. DD cannot be diagnosed before starting the primary school; thereby, one of the main challenges is to obtain an early DD identification even during preschool years. Achieving this goal could help children at risk for DD to limit the impact of this disorder. To this aim, we have created a digital system composed of various serious games designed for predicting the risk of DD in preschoolers and potentially training specific skills impaired in this learning disability. Our set of serious games are designed to be accessible from any device, a computer with mouse and keyboard, but also a tablet with touch interface for younger children.

ClimbTheWorld is a serious game to promote physical activity, by asking users to climb stairs, simulating the climbing of a real building. In this paper, we describe the complete redesign of the game to improve its persuasion capability, by adding collaboration and competition between users, and micro-goals to encourage the user to do not give up. Our experiments show that the game is really effective in incentivizing people in taking stairs, in particular singleplayer modes increased the average amount of stairsteps made of about 61%, while multiplayer modes of about 64%.

The widespread adoption of mobile technology has opened the door to a new era for the public health sector. The ability to collect, share and access community health related data are key factors that have made mobile health an appealing addon to medicine practitioners and researchers. Mobile sensing and wireless communications can be exploited to create new information and services that could help prevent health risks, benefiting the community as a whole. As a proof of concept, we have developed an augmented reality application offering an enhanced pedestrian route navigation system, while at the same time gathering quality data through the devices. Thanks to this application we are able to enrich geographical maps on the web with historical data about brightness and noise levels, and to provide pedestrians with an improved navigation.

In this paper we analyze frameworks for mobile cross-platform development according to their influence on energy consumed by the developed applications. We consider the use of different smartphones sensors, e.g., GPS, accelerometer, etc., and features, e.g., acquiring video or audio from the environment. In particular, we have studied how the amount of required energy for the same operation changes according to the used framework. We use an hardware and software tool to measure energy consumed by the applications developed natively, as a web application or using two frameworks, Titanium and PhoneGap. Our experiments have shown that frameworks have a significant impact on energy consumption which greatly increases compared to an equal native application. Moreover, the amount of consumed energy is not the same for all frameworks.

In this paper we present Xplane, a software layer for fast development of applications running in separate, independent windows in multi-touch interactive tabletops. Our framework supports gestures recognition and communication between different windows or applications. Moreover, it is based on web technologies to abstract from hardware and software configuration.

Web 2.0 is evolving and offering services based on the wide popularity of smartphones and the possibility of gathering data ubiquitously from these mobile devices; this new paradigm is often referred to as Web2. In this paper, we hence present and discuss a Web2 application designed to enable users to interact with remote smartphones' cameras to receive a video generated in real time. In essence, users can individuate on a map which mobile cameras are available in a location of interest and request the remote user to generate and send back a short video of the surrounding environment or event. We discuss technical issues related to implementing such a service and the solutions we devised to address them. Finally, we also present experimental results we obtained from a preliminary testbed evaluation that encourages the prosecution of this work.

In this paper we discuss issues concerning the consistent retrieval of parts of multimedia presentations from multimedia repositories. We introduce a class of multimedia presentations made of independent and synchronized media and discuss retrieval requirements of presentation fragments. Then we discuss a retrieval model capable of reconstructing the fragments of a presentation from the atomic components returned by the execution of queries to multimedia presentation repositories. The retrieval model is based on an automaton that formally describes the presentation states entered by the events that trigger media playback. Retrieving a consistent fragment corresponds to building a new presentation with all the media related to the retrieved ones, with their original structural and synchronization relationships.

This paper discusses some issues related to authoring and navigating World Wide Web documents composed of continuous and non-continuous media, based on a video or audio narration to which static or dynamic documents are attached. The discussion stems from a model able to describe synchronization among media elements and media behavior depending on user interaction. A prototype implementation addressing SMIL as a target language is described.

Querying and searching the Web is an important research field which has drawn a number of concepts from databases and information retrieval fields, but has added its own models, requirements and techniques. Multimedia information adds another dimension to the problem, when information is globally conveyed by different media which are archived and delivered separately, and must be coordinated and synchronized. In this paper we discuss some issues about information retrieval in synchronized multimedia presentations. We introduce a class of multimedia presentations made of independent and synchronized media, and discuss how retrieval requirements can be defined. Then we discuss the need of a model for retrieving and browsing multimedia data in a way capable of integrating atomic media objects in coherent presentations.