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The need for new heat transfer agent for many applications, namely in the consumer electronics industry, requires materials, liquids at room temperature, with high thermal conductivity. From the different possibilities, Galinstan, a eutectic alloy of Gallium, Indium, and Tin with a melting point (Tm = 283.4 K) has been proposed for many applications, namely for replacing the toxic mercury element, used for many years. It is the purpose of this paper to report thermal conductivity measurements of Galinstan, product name Gallium/Indium/Tin Eutectic (NL-011), Ga68.4In21.5Sn10. The method used was the transient hot strip (THS), using a platinum metal-film sensor, produced by PVD in ceramic substrates, and electrically insulated with a heat-shrinkable coating. The details of the data acquisition system and measuring procedure are reported. Measurements were performed between 28 °C and 103 °C (301 K to 376 K), at atmospheric pressure, with an estimated uncertainty of 6%, and compared with available literature. Data were correlated for linear interpolation. This type of sensor is applied to molten metals for the first time, proofing to concept to future applications in molten metals and molten salts at higher temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, artificial intelligence is used everywhere in the world and is becoming a key factor for innovation and progress in many areas of human life. From medicine to industry to consumer electronics, its influence is ever-expanding and permeates all aspects of our modern society. This article presents the use of artificial intelligence (prediction) for the control of three motors used for effector control in a spherical parallel kinematic structure of a designed device. The kinematic model used was the "Agile eye" which can achieve high dynamics and has three degrees of freedom. A prototype of this device was designed and built, on which experiments were carried out in the framework of motor control. As the prototype was created through the means of the available equipment (3D printing and lathe), the clearances of the kinematic mechanism were made and then calibrated through prediction. The paper also presents a method for motor control calibration. On the one hand, using AI is an efficient way to achieve higher precision in positioning the optical axis of the effector. On the other hand, such calibration would be rendered unnecessary if the clearances and inaccuracies in the mechanism could be eliminated mechanically. The device was designed with imperfections such as clearances in mind so the effectiveness of the calibration could be tested and evaluated. The resulting control of the achieved movements of the axis of the device (effector) took place when obtaining the exact location of the tracked point. There are several methods for controlling the motors of mechatronic devices (e.g., Matlab-Simscape). This paper presents an experiment performed to verify the possibility of controlling the kinematic mechanism through neural networks and eliminating inaccuracies caused by imprecisely produced mechanical parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cobalt is a key element of the lithium-ion batteries that supply energy and continuous power to several electronic equipments such as cellphones, computers, and electric vehicles. Due to the depletion of primary sources of metal extraction and limited supply, countries are now focusing on recycling secondary resources for economic and sustainable management. Though the majority of the technologies involved are focused on industrial-scale development, they lack eco-friendliness and efficiency. The dead lithium-ion batteries containing several valuable metals such as cobalt, lithium, manganese and nickel are regarded as an appealing secondary resource. Battery recycling is required not only to reduce energy consumption but also to alleviate the scarcity of rare resources and eliminate pollution from hazardous components, as the world moves toward more sustainable industries such as consumer electronics and electric vehicles. The significance of cobalt recovery from secondary resources is emphasized in this paper. From the research, it is found that the amount of cobalt is more in the spent LIBs. Hence, focus is given on the green method of leaching of the spent Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) and extracting the valuable metals such as cobalt, nickel and lithium using organic acids. The method of using organic acids as leachant is environmentally friendly, cost-effective, and has the potential to provide sustainable development in the battery industry. This initiative is aimed to stimulate people's interest in wasted LIBs recycling with organic acids and raise awareness of the benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to its excellent chemical stability, and scratch resistance, ultra-thin glass (less than 1 mm) has been widely used in the consumer electronics and photovoltaic industries. To meet the requirements of high-quality ultra-thin glass cutting, the composite cutting of ultra-thin glass based on ultrafast laser is proposed which consists of laser internal modification and surface scribing. The effects of laser pulse duration, laser pulse energy, and pulse separation rate on the laser internal modified region of ultrathin glass are studied. The cut quality of the samples under two surface groove structures is compared. The maximum edge strength of 369.07 MPa and the minimum cross-section roughness of 0.148 μm are obtained by laser composite cutting with the stamp-hole-type groove structure. • The influence of laser processing parameters on the laser internal modified layer of ultra-thin glass is investigated. • The formation rules of two surface structures, V-shaped and stamp-hole-type groove structure is studied. • High-quality cutting of ultra-thin glass is realized by using laser composite method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a system dynamics approach is introduced for the macroplanning of the selection of new product families in the consumer electronics industry in developing countries. A decision methodology structure is built that includes the impact factors of rapid technology changes and uncertainty. System dynamics models are designed to select the product family’s planning strategy, considering the different variables in marketing, product design, supply chain, and manufacturing method. The developed model is validated for a real case study of television manufacturing in Egypt. The results reveal that using system dynamics reflects the dynamics of the consumer electronics industry and can be used for its strategic planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of consumer electronic products is encouraged by innovations and has stimulated the persistent development of earphones for high-quality sound reproduction. Earbud earphone is located in the concha of the human ear facing an ear-canal. The placement of earphones in the concha plays a remarkable role in the sound pressure level response of an earphone. In this study, ten earphones were tested for frequency response and total harmonic distortion using head and torso simulator in an anechoic chamber. Three positions and two orientations of earphones in the concha were identified for measurement. Based on the responses of all earphones at all orientations and positions, it is concluded that there is a variation in the frequency response and total harmonic distortion. Even though the variation is small in magnitude, its effect on sound perception, sound exposure, and the hearing threshold is phenomenal. Based on the proposition presented in this work and the safe daily sound exposure, it has been determined that the variation in the frequency response affects the perceived loudness of sound and can cause significant differences in the daily sound exposure limit for a human being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-renewable resources form one of the boundaries of our current linear-growth model. Moving from product-oriented to product-service systems (PSS)-based business models may contribute to the circularity of resource flows while strengthening the competitive advantage of organizations. Scholars have been studying the win-win potential of circular business models from a strategic business perspective for some time. However, methods for increasing consumer participation in circular economy (CE)-linked PSSs are yet to be studied intensively. This is particularly problematic because consumers play a significant and active role in the success of closing material loops. We sought to contribute to the closure of this research gap with a case study, in which we use a mixed-method approach inspired by the outcome-driven innovation (ODI) approach. ODI aims to detect innovation potential based on the job-to-be-done theory at the fuzzy front end of innovation. This indicates user-centric connection points for new value proposition development for circular business models. In our case study of the consumer electronics industry, we exemplify how insights about consumer needs along the lifecycle of a TV can be derived. We first interviewed a sample of consumers in order to qualitatively analyze and identify the problems they currently face when trying to solve an entertainment interruption. This revealed 30 consumer needs. In a second step, we evaluated these needs in a survey to quantify their potential according to the degree of importance and satisfaction associated with each. Our analysis revealed that 11 of the 30 needs are currently not well satisfied. These needs are linked as innovation opportunities to potential PSSs, providing a foundation for customer-centric value propositions design to foster the implementation of the CE. Our study not only advances the understanding of consumer need-orientation in CE literature, but also yields valuable contributions to the methodological repertoire for customer-centric innovation management in the CE context. Additionally, it outlines directions for further research on refining ODI for the purpose of connecting individual consumer needs with societal needs. • In the Circular Economy (CE) concept, strong involvement by all stakeholders, particularly consumers, is required. • In CE literature, the methodological repertoire for customer-centric innovation management is limited. • The jobs-to-be-done theory is proposed and discussed as a useful approach in the context of CE to identify consumer needs. • A case study in the consumer electronics industry examplifies how to identify underserved needs for CE business models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible biocompatible electronic systems that leverage key materials and manufacturing techniques associated with the consumer electronics industry have potential for broad applications in biomedicine and biological research. This study reports scalable approaches to technologies of this type, where thin microscale device components integrate onto flexible polymer substrates in interconnected arrays to provide multimodal, high performance operational capabilities as intimately coupled biointerfaces. Specificially, the material options and engineering schemes summarized here serve as foundations for diverse, heterogeneously integrated systems. Scaled examples incorporate >32,000 silicon microdie and inorganic microscale light-emitting diodes derived from wafer sources distributed at variable pitch spacings and fill factors across large areas on polymer films, at full organ-scale dimensions such as human brain, over ~150 cm². In vitro studies and accelerated testing in simulated biofluids, together with theoretical simulations of underlying processes, yield quantitative insights into the key materials aspects. The results suggest an ability of these systems to operate in a biologically safe, stable fashion with projected lifetimes of several decades without leakage currents or reductions in performance. The versatility of these combined concepts suggests applicability to many classes of biointegrated semiconductor devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The remaining value within end‐of‐use/life hard disk drives (EoU/L HDDs) is often not optimally recovered. The improper collection and recovery of HDDs contribute not only to rising environmental and social concerns worldwide, but also to the transformation of the economy and a significant loss of value. Currently, the most preferred treatment option for used hard drives is to recover the metals with the highest recycling effectiveness, such as steel and aluminum, via a shredding‐based recycling process that results in both value and material leakages. The complexity of retrieving the remaining values within EoU/L HDDs demands a larger view of the global supply of HDDs available for recovery. The aim of this paper is to first identify the geographical patterns of transboundary global shipments of new and used HDDs between developing and developed regions, and then capture and quantify the value leakage by bringing several unique perspectives. Two analyses have been conducted. First, the loss of value due to the insufficient recovery of neodymium (Nd) at the global level is quantified. Second, the value leakage as a result of the delay on on‐time reuse of HDDs is captured. Furthermore, the central challenges toward proper recovery of HDDs, where consumer electronic industry can make significant contributions, have been identified. HDDs are well positioned to contribute important insights to the recovery of other electronic devices, so the findings from HDDs can be adopted for other types of electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the transformation of the Japanese consumer electronics industry since the late 1990s. Based on an analysis of the three largest watch companies (Seiko, Citizen, and Casio), it demonstrates that these firms shifted from technology-driven management to a new model focused on marketing (brand management and distribution) and upper-positioning targeting. The change has been only partial, however, as technological innovation remains the basis of branding and product development. This case study thus contributes to the discourse on the transformation of Japanese manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The rapid technological evolution and adoption of consumer electronics highlights a growing need for adaptive methodologies to evaluate material consumption at the intersection of technological change and increasing consumption. While dematerialization and the circular economy (CE) have both been proposed to mitigate increasing material consumption, recent research has shown that these methods may be ineffective at achieving net material use reduction: When focused on specific products, these methods neglect the effects of complex interactions among and increasing consumption of consumer electronic products. The research presented here develops and applies a material flow analysis aimed at evaluating an entire "product ecosystem," thereby including the effects of increasing consumption, product trade‐offs, and technological innovations. Results are then used to evaluate the potential efficacy of "natural" dematerialization (occurring as technology advances or smaller products substitute for larger ones) and CE (closing the loop between secondary material supply and primary material demand). Results show that material consumption by the ecosystem of electronics commonly used by U.S. households peaked in 2000. This consumption relies on increasingly diverse materials, including gold, cobalt, and indium, for whom secondary supply is still negligible, particularly given low recovery rates, often less than 1%. Potential circularity metrics of material "dilution," "dispersion," and "demand mismatch" are also evaluated, and indicate that CE approaches aimed at closing the loop on consumer electronic material still face several critical barriers particularly related to design and efficient recycling infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Establish the novel concept of extended consumer responsibility. • Conduct a multi-methodological approach for trade-in-for-upgrade programs. • Develop the syncretic value-oriented pricing strategies. Abstract Nowadays, consumers play a central role in shaping the right retailing strategy. Motivated by the popularity of trade-in-for-upgrade (TIFU) programs in consumer electronics industries, this study adopts a multi-methodological approach to comprehensively explore TIFU-related behavioral pricing and market competition challenges. Grounded upon consumer psychology and behavior theories, this study develops a generalized consumer choice behavior model which takes into account the potential effect of reference dependence choice behavior. A behavior-grounded analytical model is established. Both analytical and quantitative empirical analyses using multiple empirical data sources are conducted. One distinctive feature of the proposed model is the conceptualization of vendor-buyer collaborative value orientation (termed as syncretic value orientation in this paper) in business objective functions, where we advocate that the extended consumer responsibility (ECR) should be incorporated into the modeling and analysis. In particular, this study derives a generalized form of the analytical model to determine the syncretic value-oriented prices and trade-in rebates under TIFU market competition. The results further reveal that involving the syncretic value in business objectives favors not only a price-leading firm's expansion of market share but also gaining additional profits with a low-price-low-rebate strategy. Utilizing a low-price-high-rebate strategy, a price follower can seize the opportunity to lead in market share when the price leader solely sets profit maximization as its goal in a competitive market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The main research questions addressed in this paper are: first, have electricity market reforms achieved lower household electricity prices and, second, has the introduction of renewable energy increased household electricity prices in deregulated markets Answers to the questions were derived using static and dynamic panel data analysis from 1991 to 2014 employing explanatory variables such as the extent of electricity market reform and the share of generation from renewable energy resources. The dynamic model suggests that a lower household electricity price is associated with the degree of electricity market reform, while the share of renewable energy in electricity generation is not statistically significant. Highlights • Household electricity prices have strong path dependency. • Lower household electricity prices are associated with electricity market reforms. • Share of renewable energy in electricity generation is not statistically significant. • Merit order effect is not observed in the current study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We study the bullwhip and inventory variance of a three-echelon closed loop supply chain (CLSC) with different number and locations of recovery options. • Having more product recovery options in the CLSC do not produce better dynamic performance. • Bullwhip effect and inventory variance for upstream supply chain members can be reduced if the product recovery options are located near the end-customer with a high return rate. • Bullwhip effect and inventory variance of the CLSCs can be reduced significantly in comparison to a traditional open loop supply chain. The hybrid closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) system, commonly observed in the consumer electronics and automotive industries, may include one or more product recovery options, such as product repair and core remanufacturing. From system dynamics perspective, one important strategic decision is how many recovery options (and in which locations) should be invested to minimise poor dynamic behaivor such as bullwhip effect. This motivates us to investigate the impact of the number and locations of recovery options on the dynamic behaviour. We adopt step and sinusoidal functions as customer demand, representing a sudden sustained shift in demand and seasonally unadjusted demand, respectively. We also consider different return rates for each echelon of the CLSC. Our simulation results indicate that the bullwhip effect and inventory variance can be significantly reduced in all CLSC scenarios in comparison to a traditional open loop supply chain. However, a increased number of product recovery options does not improve the dynamic performance of the CLSC. Moreover, the bullwhip effect and inventory variance may be reduced if product recovery options are located at downstream echelons that are closer to end customers (e.g. retailers) and have high return rates. Further, return rates play a key role in mitigating the bullwhip effect, consistent with the prior literature. Our findings provide strategic insights for managers seeking to improve their CLSCs performance from system dynamics perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the consumer electronics industry, which is said to be the main target of the proposed fair repair legislation. The legislation would mandate that all manufacturers sell spare parts to consumers and repair shops. The article suggests that legislators look to a solution in the automobile repair industry. A standardized practice is proposed to reconcile the deficit in the legislation while harmonizing consumer needs with manufacturer protection.

The huge growth of the consumer electronic industry is driving the need for achieving ultrahigh areal storage densities. 2-D magnetic recording is a promising high-density storage technology where the shingled writing technique is employed for increasing the track per inch (TPI) and achieving higher areal densities. Nevertheless, high TPI causes a reader to cover higher number of tracks, which leads to the intertrack interference (ITI); hence the system performance is severely deteriorated. Therefore, we first propose the soft-5/6 modulation code together with iterative ITI subtraction scheme. Here, the soft information encoding and decoding schemes operate based on Boolean logic circuit for using in the iterative system. Furthermore, we also propose to move the upper and lower readers closer to the center reader to avoid the ITI effect from their outer tracks, which will then be performed together with ITI subtraction scheme. Moreover, this proposed reading technique is also applied together with the soft-4/5 modulation code. The simulation results show that the proposed systems are superior to the conventional system, especially at high user density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an efficient rechargeable power source, lithium-ion batteries have dominated the consumer electronics and electric vehicle markets. Their analogues, sodium-ion batteries, are emerging as promising low-cost candidates for grid electricity storage. In the pursuit of better cathode materials for Li/Na-ion batteries, major design strategies have involved cation engineering, as represented by studies on mixed transition metals and/or Li/Na-rich layered oxides. Instead of focusing on the cation, here, we report an effective anion engineering strategy that allowed us to identify a surprisingly wide range of polyanionic complete solid solutions of alluaudite-type NaxFey(PO4)3-z(SO4)z (0 ≤ z ≤ 3). These materials exhibited tunable voltage and superior capacities, depending on the mixing ratio of the two polyanions. The existence of a continuous, wide compositional domain in a mixed-polyanion system will significantly enrich materials design strategies and contribute to the development of new cathode materials for Li/Na-ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the design of an image contrast based fluid pressure sensing scheme that employs a powerless, low-cost, pressure sensor. The sensor consists of a sealed pressure microchamber whose top surface consists of a deformable, semi-transparent, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane and its bottom surface consists of a rigid glass substrate. When the microchamber is pressurized, the membrane is deflected but the position of the glass substrate remains fixed and therefore the distance between them changes with applied pressure. Using a precision z-scanning module, the distance between the top and bottom surfaces is measured using a custom-made image contrast algorithm and the applied pressure is extracted. The image contrast is enhanced by adding food color during the fabrication of the membrane and by patterning the glass substrate with photoresist. The sensor operates over a pressure range of 0–100 mbar, with a ∼2 mbar resolution in the 0–20 mbar pressure range and ∼10 mbar resolution in the 20–100 mbar pressure range. The maximum error was measured to be less than 7% throughout its dynamic range. The novel pressure monitoring concept presented here can be used in various biomedical applications as well as in the consumer electronics industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Histogram equalization is broadly used for contrast enhancement. However, it does not take brightness preservation into account. It is not suitable for real time applications like medical, synthetics aperture radar (SAR), consumer electronic products, etc. whereas the brightness preservation is of vital importance to avoid the annoying artifacts. This paper proposes a histogram equalization based method called recursive weighted multi-plateau histogram equalization (RWMPHE). The essential idea is to segment the histogram into two or more sub histograms followed by clipping with six plateau limits. Weighting process using normalized power law modifies the clipped histogram to equalize each partition independently using histogram equalization. Recursive mean separate histogram equalization (RMSHE), recursive sub-image histogram equalization (RSIHE) and recursively separated and weighted histogram equalization (RSWHE) are methods that perform similar histogram segmentation but do not carry out clipping with weighting for histogram modification. In this paper, it is shown that RWMPHE preserve the brightness and enhances the contrast more precisely and accurately than existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is believed that this new drone policy initiative will be a boost to the Indian drone manufacturers, drone service providers, drone pilots and drone training institutes. The new drone policy is simple and open-ended and will encourage research and the establishment of more drone manufacturing start-ups making India a drone hub. [Extracted from the article]

In recent years, ensuring the reliability of databases in battery-powered mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets has gained in importance, since most mobile applications use a lightweight embedded database. Write-ahead logging (WAL) has been one of the representative techniques in embedded databases to ensure their reliability. However, this technique causes additional data write overhead. Besides, the file system provides its own reliability technique and this may therefore cause duplicate overhead. Both types of overhead lead to the performance degradation of mobile applications and have an adverse effect on the user experience. This paper proposes an efficient in-memory write-ahead logging (IMWAL) technique for the embedded databases of mobile devices adopting nonvolatile random access memory (NVRAM). When a write operation for the embedded database is invoked, IMWAL assures that the new data in a mobile application are all written to the NVRAM as a write-ahead data log. This data log is reused to update the embedded database file by remapping the memory address and therefore it reduces the additional writes. With IMWAL, write operations can resume even after crashes occur in the mobile devices and ensure the reliability of the embedded database with performance improvement. To evaluate the proposed technique, it is implemented on the in-memory file system of a real mobile platform. Its performance is evaluated against original WAL-on mode and WAL-off mode with various experiments, including various benchmarks and real mobile application workloads. The results show that IMWAL performs 14% faster than the original WAL technique for embedded databases in real mobile devices on average1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates the implementation of indoor Bluetooth communication multi-hop networks. Since the performance of such networks determines the range of applications that they can support, the performance of Bluetooth wireless multi-hop networks is a common topic of interest. Communication network models are widely used to estimate the performance of networks in many different aspects. This paper focuses on one of the aspects, i.e., the time performance of the data transportation network of a Bluetooth multi-hop home network, and provides a novel empirical model for latency in multi-hop networks with asynchronous links when links are active. The model offers a sharp estimation of the latency added with every hop in the communication such that electronics product designers and network managers can effectively run time-constrained applications in this type of network. The model is based on the results from experiments carried out on a real test bed. The test bed includes Bluetooth nodes and proprietary middleware at the HCI (Host Controller Interface) level of communication. The experimental results show that the time performance worsens with an increasing number of hops in the communication and additionally provide evidence of the quadratic dependence on the number of hops exhibited by the latency 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast startup of a subsystem, such as an image subsystem, is important in mobile smart devices because the startup time is directly related to the responsiveness of applications, such as a camera. This paper proposes a CPU switch method that offloads the long initialization phase from the subsystem to the fast main CPU in an application processor. By providing a consistent execution environment in the main CPU, the subsystem software can be easily ported without significant engineering costs. The evaluation results show that the proposed scheme greatly reduces the startup time of the image subsystem by up to 78%.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A system is proposed that can remotely operate consumer electronic devices by voice. It uses the mobile phone as a controller. And it uses the CELP(code excited linear prediction) parameters that are used for speech coding in mobile phones. A speaker verification function protects private information and separates the user's voice from that of people nearby who are also speaking. A CELP-based speaker verification method is used to match the audio stream by comparing the trajectories of continuous phonemes. Experimental evaluation of the speaker verification method demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed verification method.1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The computational complexity of the MPEG-2 to H.264/AVC transcoder, in particular the encoder, is technically challenging, but it can be reduced by reusing the information accessible in the decoding process. A low-latency mode decision algorithm performed in transform domain within the MPEG-2 decoder is proposed. The encoder stage contains two mutually exclusive intra prediction algorithms of block sizes 4x4 and 16x16 sharing the hardware logic. The shared intra prediction unit is supported by an on-chip memory organization. The proposed architecture is implemented on FPGA development board. Its implementation supports high throughputs that correspond to a real-time processing of a variety of video resolutions including QFHD 2160p at 30 fps. Furthermore, the minimal required frequency for CIF, SD and HD1080p resolutions are significantly reduced compared to the state of the art1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Near Field Communication (NFC) has been used for short range communications in a number of applications for consumer electronics devices. Specifically, NFC has been used in electronic payment systems. To ensure secure communications, security protocols for various NFC applications have been proposed. Recently, a conditional privacy preserving security protocol was introduced. However this paper demonstrates that the protocol is vulnerable to two impersonations attacks and then proposes a new secure pseudonym-based NFC protocol that eliminates vulnerabilities of the previous security protocol. Security and performance analysis results confirm that the proposed protocol could solve security problems of the previously introduced NFC security protocol with a marginal computational cost increase1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent consumer devices such as smartphones, smart TVs and tablet PCs adopt NAND flash memory as storage device due to its advantages of small size, reliability, low power consumption, and high performance. The unique characteristics of NAND flash memory require an additional software layer, called flash translation layer (FTL), between traditional file systems and flash memory. In order to reduce the garbage collection cost, FTLs generally try to separate hot and cold data. Previous hot and cold separation techniques monitor the storage access patterns within storage device, or exploit file system hints from host system. This paper proposes a novel clustered page-level mapping, called CPM, which can separate hot and cold data efficiently by allocating different flash memory block groups to different logical address regions. CPM can reduce the FTL map loading overhead during garbage collection and it does not require any high-cost monitoring overhead or host hint. This paper also proposes a K-associative version of CPM, called K-CPM, which allows different logical address regions to share a physical block group in order to achieve high block utilizations. Experimental results show that CPM improves the storage I/O performance by about 54% compared with a previous page-level mapping FTL, and K-CPM further improves the performance by about 19.4% compared with CPM1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various load disaggregation methods have been developed for monitoring home appliance loads to save energy in a smart home. Most of load disaggregation methods are designed to focus on the on/off events of single appliance. In reality, however, multiple appliances can be turned on/off simultaneously. Load disaggregation can be complicated by the simultaneous on/off events of multiple appliances. This paper presents a cepstrum-smoothing-based load disaggregation method to effectively deal with the simultaneous on/off events of multiple appliances. Further, a data acquisition system is developed to obtain only the characteristic signals of appliances and to filter the noise inputted from the power supply. Test results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed cepstrumsmoothing- based load disaggregation method1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growth of the popularity of large screens in the consumer market and the enrichment of the online and offline video resources, enjoying a dynamic remote scenery at home has become an interesting application. This paper presents an intelligent screen system for the user to interactively enjoy different sceneries of remote places. Different from existing works, the system is aware of the current environment, and the weather condition in the remote scenery video is associated with that of the local place in different ways to bring the user a natural and pleasant viewing experience. Meanwhile, the system is able to transform the layout of the scenery video according to the user's position and viewing angle, making the user feel like viewing the outside scenery through a real window when walking and looking around in front of the screen. A prototype consisting of a large screen and several low-cost sensors is implemented and a series of tests are conducted. The results show that the proposed system can effectively improve the users' experience on natural scenery viewing and make the process more pleasant. The system fits for screens with various sizes and can be easily installed, making it a scalable and ease-of-use consumer device in smart home1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most promising linearization techniques, adaptive Digital Predistortion (PD) has been widely utilized in modern wireless communication systems for improving the efficiency of Power Amplifier (PA). In view of the non-stationary signal environment for the wideband PAs, an efficient indirect learning adaptive PD is proposed in the paper based on the Memory Polynomial Model (MPM). The coefficients of the proposed PD can be effectively identified by the Modified Least Mean Square (MLMS) learning algorithm. In addition, more stable convergence and lower steady-state error can be achieved simultaneously for the PAs with deep memory effects by adopting the variable step-size parameter. Theoretical analysis results regarding the learning stability, convergence behavior, and selection criteria of initial settings are derived. Simulations demonstrate that MLMS outperforms traditional LMS, Normalized LMS (NLMS), and Generalized Normalized Gradient Descent (GNGD) algorithms in terms of the Normalized Mean Square Error (NMSE) and out-of-band Power Spectral Density (PSD) under the noisy feedback condition for the wideband PAs1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laptops, smartphones and tablets are currently changing the way life. While they have been used as a tool for finding information for a while, they are now also used for multitasking. Though, little effort has been done to sort out consumer buying behavior for laptop, mobile and especially tablet electronics brand. The purpose of this paper was to examine the buying behavior of male and female consumers of Pakistan towards consumer electronics. Data were collected from four different cities of Pakistan i.e. Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Lahore through structured questionnaire. SPSS version 20.0 was used to inspect the results. To find out the preferences of the consumers while making a purchase decision we used Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Prioritization of factors was done with the help of Analytical Hierarchy Process. The paper helps management to review their advertisement campaigns and improve their electronics according to the needs of the consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Soviet microcomputer hobby movement began in the early 1980s. It passed through two main developmental stages before it melted away a decade later, leaving behind a country enchanted with microcomputing. This article traces the development of the movement and assesses its significance and place in the USSR's history of computing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper looks at the symbolic meaning of Apple, Inc., and how the brand has become a living symbol in our consumer culture. Apple functions as a projection surface for values, ideas, and aspirations on the rise in the collective today. This paper explores how a psychological connection is created to Apple's products, revealing an underlying brand mythology that seems to offer magical transcendence through technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software Product Lines (SPL) is an efficient software engineering approach for dealing with reusable components in products that not only share common features, but also support specific functionalities that satisfy a particular market segment. This approach is interesting for the consumer electronics industry, particularly for mobile device applications. Despite having a significant common core, software applications developed for that domain have to be frequently adapted to different device features, such as operating systems and screen resolution. Thus, developers need to select proper software components to suitably compose the applications for each new device in a family of devices. In this paper, an approach that is able to customize consumer electronics software applications for different devices, in a dynamic and automated way, is presented. It results in a tool called AppSpotter that composes applications by selecting software components according to the features of each target device. To check the tool?s performance, a set of experiments were realized in order to simulate different scenarios with up to 10,000 components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]