The Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm is currently one of the most popular methods for rigid registration so that it has become the standard in the Robotics and Computer Vision communities. Many applications take advantage of it to align 2D/3D surfaces due to its popularity and simplicity. Nevertheless, some of its phases present a high computational cost thus rendering impossible some of its applications. In this work, it is proposed an efficient approach for the matching phase of the Iterative Closest Point algorithm. This stage is the main bottleneck of that method so that any efficiency improvement has a great positive impact on the performance of the algorithm. The proposal consists in using low computational cost point-to-point distance metrics instead of classic Euclidean one. The candidates analysed are the Chebyshev and Manhattan distance metrics due to their simpler formulation. The experiments carried out have validated the performance, robustness and quality of the proposal. Different experimental cases and configurations have been set up including a heterogeneous set of 3D figures, several scenarios with partial data and random noise. The results prove that an average speed up of 14% can be obtained while preserving the convergence properties of the algorithm and the quality of the final results.

Mobile Cloud Computing is one of today's more disruptive paradigms of computation due to its effects on the performance of mobile computing and the development of Internet of Things. It is able to enhance the capabilities of devices by outsourcing the workload to external computing platforms deployed along the network, such as cloud servers, cloudlets, or other edge platforms. The research described in this work presents a computational model of a multilayer architecture for increasing the performance of devices using the Mobile Cloud Computing paradigm. The main novelty of this work lies in defining a comprehensive model where all the available computing platforms along the network layers are involved to perform the outsourcing of the application workload. This proposal provides a generalization of the Mobile Cloud Computing paradigm which allows handling the complexity of scheduling tasks in such complex scenarios. The behaviour of the model and its ability of generalization of the paradigm are exemplified through simulations. The results show higher flexibility for making offloading decisions.

The advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), together with social commerce initiatives, collaborative economy and education, are working together to move the gears of sustainable development. All of these aspects have the potential to revolutionize social business and contribute to future sustainable development. In the past few years, the economy has seen the emergence of modern business models and innovative ideas, mainly driven by ICT. Concepts such as social commerce, collaborative economy and virtual currencies establish new business models, in which participants seek equity exchanges, trust, cooperation, and a better redistribution of incomes. Education cannot be exempted from this evolution. Education should play an important role in society since it generates and transfers new knowledge and contributes to developing appropriate competencies on this matter. The objective of this paper is to analyse the role played by these components to promote sustainable development. The research method conducted in this work is twofold. First, a conceptualization of the key terms involved in this research was. Next, a constructivist approach centred on the student was conducted to enable the creation of learning proposals to prepare students to take advantage of the possibilities offered by the progress of technology to promote sustainable development and social commerce initiatives.

Purpose Growing inequality and socioeconomic and environmental degradation concerns forces us to think about how innovative technologies can contribute to reduce this problem. This study aims to analyze the potential of social cryptocurrencies to enhance the community development and cooperation between small businesses of the near environment. The evolution of these technology-based schemes could be key factors for generating innovative social enterprises, improving the quality of life in the community; in this way generate a conceptual model to sustainable development, while being more transparent, efficient and scalable as they are supported by technological applications. Design/methodology/approach Based on an in-depth study of the relevant literature, a conceptual model was designed. The concept of social cryptocurrency is proposed as a new approach to virtual currencies for social purposes and sustainable development. Findings The key findings point out that actors such as innovation and social entrepreneurship will come together in a new generation of social currencies, extending cryptocurrency technology to social business domains. Research limitations/implications The impact of this will result in a better quality of life for society and the achievement of several sustainable development goals. However, a limitation would be that its scope depends on certain characteristics of the local environment. Furthermore, the proposed model will require validation in later phases through social experiments. Originality/value The main contribution of this paper is in structuring a formal model that, based on empirical experiences and the use of the technology that underlies cryptocurrencies, proposes a set of constituent elements and characterizes them to contribute to achievement of sustainable development.

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This paper presents a model to approach the dynamics of infectious diseases expansion. Our model aims to establish a link between traditional simulation of the Susceptible-Infectious (SI) model of disease expansion based on ordinary differential equations (ODE), and a very simple approach based on both connectivity between people and elementary binary rules that define the result of these contacts.The SI deterministic compartmental model has been analysed and successfully modelled by our method, in the case of 4-connected neighbourhood.

This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting galley proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Abstract:There are a large number of image processing applications that work with different performance requirements and available resources. Recent advances in image compression focus on reducing image size and processing time, but offer no real-time solutions for providing time/quality flexibility of the resulting image, such as using them to transmit the image contents of web pages. In this paper we propose a method for encoding still images based on the JPEG standard that allows the compression/decompression time cost and image quality to be adjusted to the needs of each application and to the bandwidth conditions of the network. The real-time control is based on a collection of adjustable parameters relating both to aspects of implementation and to the hardware with which the algorithm is processed. The proposed encoding system is evaluated in terms of compression ratio, processing delay and quality of the compressed image when compared with the standard method.

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