The century-old power grids were not designed to meet modern requirements. The current need to use electricity more efficiently and to introduce "green" sources of energy is not well supported by existing grid technology. A particular problem is that detailed information about consumption of electricity is not provided to users and network operators. This is one of the prime reasons for electricity wastage. The "Smart Grid" concept is a solution to this problem. Smart Grid solutions at this moment in time are expensive to deploy. For developing countries it is particularly difficult to benefit from Smart Grid solutions. This paper proposes a system that can be used in developing economies as a way of reducing the consumption and wastage of electricity. The solution uses cell phones as an instrument to both display information and allow consumers to control appliances in their homes. This will be integrated into a larger Smart Grid application. The paper presents a concept that is still to be implemented and tested.
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BackgroundTuberculosis (TB) is the leading clinical manifestation of HIV infection and caseloads continue to increase in high HIV prevalence settings. TB treatment is prolonged and treatment interruption has serious individual and public health consequences. We assessed the feasibility of using a handheld computing device programmed with customised software and linked to a GPS receiver, to assist TB control programmes to trace patients who interrupt treatment in areas without useful street maps. In this proof of concept study, we compared the time taken to re-find a home comparing given residential addresses with a customised personalised digital assistant linked to a global positioning system (PDA/GPS) device. Additionally, we assessed the feasibility of using aerial photographs to locate homes.ResultsThe study took place in two communities in Greater Johannesburg, South Africa: Wheillers Farm, a relatively sparsely populated informal settlement, and a portion of Alexandra, an urban township with densely populated informal settlements. Ten participants in each community were asked to locate their homes on aerial photographs. Nine from Wheillers Farm and six from Alexandra were able to identify their homes. The total time taken by a research assistant, unfamiliar with the area, to locate 10 homes in each community using the given addresses was compared with the total time taken by a community volunteer with half an hour of training to locate the same homes using the device. Time taken to locate the ten households was reduced by 20% and 50% in each community respectively using the PDA/GPS device.ConclusionIn this pilot study we show that it is feasible to use a simple PDA/GPS device to locate the homes of patients. We found that in densely populated informal settlements, GPS technology is more accurate than aerial photos in identifying homes and more efficient than addresses provided by participants. Research assessing issues of, confidentiality and cost effectiveness would have to be undertaken before implementing PDA/GPS – based technology for this application. However, this PDA/GPS device could be used to reduce part of the burden on TB control programs.
A widget is a packaged interactive client-side application, commonly developed using Web standards and techniques to access data services both on the Web and host devices. The purpose of this paper is to review the widget landscape and present key characteristics and concerns of widget technologies. Various incompatibilities exist between widgets and the proprietary engines hosting them on different platforms. Incompatibilities can be classified by how different implementations handle issues related to packaging, behaviour, security and presentation. These common concerns, together with economic drivers have given rise to numerous standardisation efforts such as those being carried out by the W3C in drafting the widget family of specifications.
The advent of mobile technology, Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) and convergence of voice and data over wireless networks have led to an explosion of a wide range of mobile applications. These applications include mobile internet browsers, handheld GPS navigation systems, Location Based Services (LBS), mobile workforce management systems, and so on. While much of the underlying technology is already available, there are challenges with respect to the usability of mobile applications.This project investigates the usability of a mobile application for field data collection in a utility industry. The purpose of the investigation is to gain a better understanding of the usability requirements for a mobile field data collection application but more importantly, how to meet these requirements using appropriate usability engineering techniques. A usage-centered design approach is used to design the user interface for the field data collection application. During this model-driven design process, the usability requirements are analyzed in terms of the user requirements, field data collection tasks and the operational context of fieldwork. An Underground Utility Closure (UUC) data sourcing work employed at a telecommunications utility is used as a case study for the field data collection work. The user interface is implemented as a functional prototype on a pocket computer and evaluated for usability in a field setting. It is envisaged that the usability requirements and design guidelines presented in this project will enable software engineers to meet the design challenges of usable mobile applications for field data collection and mobile computing in general. 1 INTRODUCTIONThe advent of mobile technology (e.g. handheld computer, mobile phones, and portable GPS receivers etc.), Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) and convergence of voice and data over wireless networks (GSM, GPRS, 3G, Wireless LAN, and Bluetooth etc.) have led to an explosion of a wide range of mobile applications. These applications include mobile internet browsers, Location Based Services (LBS), mobile multimedia, "real-time" field data collection for resource management, and so on. While much of the underlying technology is already available, there are challenges with respect to the usability of mobile applications.Mobile computing is fundamentally different from their desktop counterparts. The software designers must meet these challenges and capitalize on unique characteristics of mobile devices such as a small screen, limited input mechanisms, finite power supply and network dependency etc. Not only are there differences in the technology, but also the environment and situation in which mobile applications are used.The project described in this dissertation involves an investigation into the design of usable mobile field data collection application. The purpose of the investigation is twofold. Firstly, to understand usability requirements of a mobile application for field data collection and secondly, to design software that meets t...
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