Ubiquitous Computing

The rise of digital photography and imaging has transformed the landscape of visual communication and culture. Events, activities, moments, objects, and people are ‘captured' and distributed as images on an unprecedented scale. Many of these are shared publicly; some remain private, others become intellectual property, and some have the potential to shape global events. In this timely introduction, the ubiquity of photography is explored in relation to interdisciplinary debates about changes in the production, distribution, and consumption of images in digital culture. Ubiquitous Photography provides a critical examination of the technologies, practices, and cultural significance of digital photography, placing the phenomenon in historical, social, and political-economic context. It examines shifts in image-making, storage, commodification, and interpretation as highly significant processes of digitally mediated communication in an increasingly image-rich culture. It covers debates in social and cultural theory, the history and politics of image-making and manipulation, the current explosion in amateur photography, tagging and sharing via social networking, and citizen journalism. The book engages with key contemporary theoretical issues about memory and mobility, authorship and authenticity, immediacy and preservation, and the increased visibility of ordinary social life. Drawing upon a range of sources and original empirical research, Ubiquitous Photography provides a comprehensive introduction to critical academic debate and concrete developments in the field of digital photography. It is essential reading for students and scholars interested in media and society, visual culture, and digital technology.

Summarizes the current state and upcoming trends within the area of fog computing Written by some of the leading experts in the field, Fog Computing: Theory and Practice  focuses on the technological aspects of employing fog computing in various application domains, such as smart healthcare, industrial process control and improvement, smart cities, and virtual learning environments. In addition, the Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication methods for fog computing environments are covered in depth. Presented in two parts—Fog Computing Systems and Architectures, and Fog Computing Techniques and Application—this book covers such important topics as energy efficiency and Quality of Service (QoS) issues, reliability and fault tolerance, load balancing, and scheduling in fog computing systems. It also devotes special attention to emerging trends and the industry needs associated with utilizing the mobile edge computing, Internet of Things (IoT), resource and pricing estimation, and virtualization in the fog environments. Includes chapters on deep learning, mobile edge computing, smart grid, and intelligent transportation systems beyond the theoretical and foundational concepts Explores real-time traffic surveillance from video streams and interoperability of fog computing architectures Presents the latest research on data quality in the IoT, privacy, security, and trust issues in fog computing Fog Computing: Theory and Practice provides a platform for researchers, practitioners, and graduate students from computer science, computer engineering, and various other disciplines to gain a deep understanding of fog computing.

Presents the state of the technology and points to future directions for semantic computing Semantic computing, a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary field, seeks to structure, design, and manipulate computer content to better satisfy the needs and intentions of users and create a more meaningful user experience. This remarkable contributed work examines the art, engineering, technology, and applications of the field. Moreover, it brings together researchers from such disciplines as natural language processing, software engineering, multimedia semantics, semantic Web, signal processing, and pattern recognition in order to provide a single source that presents the state of the technology and points to new breakthroughs on the horizon. Semantic Computing begins with an introduction that explores the concepts, technology, applications, and future of semantic computing. Next, the book is divided into four parts: Part One: Semantic Analysis Part Two: Semantic Languages and Integration Part Three: Semantic Applications Part Four: Semantic Programming and Interface As readers progress through the book, they'll learn not only the underlying science, but also the fundamental technological building blocks of semantic computing. Moreover, they'll discover a variety of cross-disciplinary solutions to current computing and communication problems. Throughout the book, references to the primary literature enable further investigation of each individual topic. Semantic Computing is ideal for industrial managers, researchers, and engineers seeking to design the next generation of computing systems in order to better meet user needs. It is also recommended as a textbook for senior undergraduate and graduate-level semantic computing courses.

“Computing Networks” explores the core of the new distributed computing infrastructures we are using today: the networking systems of clusters, grids and clouds. It helps network designers and distributed-application developers and users to better understand the technologies, specificities, constraints and benefits of these different infrastructures’ communication systems. Cloud Computing will give the possibility for millions of users to process data anytime, anywhere, while being eco-friendly. In order to deliver this emerging traffic in a timely, cost-efficient, energy-efficient, and reliable manner over long-distance networks, several issues such as quality of service, security, metrology, network-resource scheduling and virtualization are being investigated since 15 years. “Computing Networks” explores the core of clusters, grids and clouds networks, giving designers, application developers and users the keys to better construct and use these powerful infrastructures.

Kick start your journey into computing and prepare for your IC3 certification With this essential course book you'll be sending e-mails, surfing the web and understanding the basics of computing in no time. Written by Faithe Wempen, a Microsoft Office Master Instructor and author of more than 120 books, this complete guide to the basics has been tailored to provide comprehensive instruction on the full range of entry-level computing skills. It is a must for students looking to move into almost any profession, as entry-level computing courses have become a compulsory requirement in the modern world. This great resource brings readers up to speed on computing basics, and helps them achieve competency on a computer quickly and easily. The book covers everything from computer hardware and software to the underlying functionality of a computer, and helps readers gain the skills and knowledge they need to move forward in their careers, or to successfully prepare for the IC3 Exam. Learn about computer hardware, software and other basic functions Get a full introduction to Windows and Microsoft Office Create polished documents and presentations in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Word 2010 Gain an understanding of web basics, connectivity, security and privacy Written especially for students and those interested in learning more about computing, the book includes bonus questions, PowerPoint slides and bonus tasks to help put new skills into practice immediately.

Written by one of the few top internationally recognized experts in the field, this book concentrates on those topics that will remain fundamental, such as low power computing, reversible programming languages, and applications in thermodynamics. It describes reversible computing from various points of view: Boolean algebra, group theory, logic circuits, low-power electronics, communication, software, quantum computing. It is this multidisciplinary approach that makes it unique. Backed by numerous examples, this is useful for all levels of the scientific and academic community, from undergraduates to established academics.

Cloud Computing: Business Trends and Technologies provides a broad introduction to Cloud computing technologies and their applications to IT and telecommunications businesses (i.e., the network function virtualization, NFV). To this end, the book is expected to serve as a textbook in a graduate course on Cloud computing. The book examines the business cases and then concentrates on the technologies necessary for supporting them. In the process, the book addresses the principles of – as well as the known problems with – the underlying technologies, such as virtualization, data communications, network and operations management, security and identity management. It introduces, through open-source case studies (based on OpenStack), an extensive illustration of lifecycle management. The book also looks at the existing and emerging standards, demonstrating their respective relation to each topic. Overall, this is an authoritative textbook on this emerging and still-developing discipline, which •Guides the reader through basic concepts, to current practices, to state-of-the-art applications. •Considers technical standards bodies involved in Cloud computing standardization. •Is written by innovation experts in operating systems and data communications, each with over 20 years’ experience in business, research, and teaching.

The absolute beginner's guide to learning basic computer skills Computing Fundamentals, Introduction to Computers gets you up to speed on basic computing skills, showing you everything you need to know to conquer entry-level computing courses. Written by a Microsoft Office Master Instructor, this useful guide walks you step-by-step through the most important concepts and skills you need to be proficient on the computer, using nontechnical, easy-to-understand language. You'll start at the very beginning, getting acquainted with the actual, physical machine, then progress through the most common software at your own pace. You'll learn how to navigate Windows 8.1, how to access and get around on the Internet, and how to stay connected with email. Clear instruction guides you through Microsoft Office 2013, helping you create documents in Word, spreadsheets in Excel, and presentations in PowerPoint. You'll even learn how to keep your information secure with special guidance on security and privacy. Maybe you're preparing for a compulsory computing course, brushing up for a new job, or just curious about how a computer can make your life easier. If you're an absolute beginner, this is your complete guide to learning the essential skills you need: Understand the basics of how your computer works Learn your way around Windows 8.1 Create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations Send email, surf the Web, and keep your data secure With clear explanations and step-by-step instruction, Computing Fundamentals, Introduction to Computers will have you up and running in no time.

The primary purpose of this book is to capture the state-of-the-art in Cloud Computing technologies and applications. The book will also aim to identify potential research directions and technologies that will facilitate creation a global market-place of cloud computing services supporting scientific, industrial, business, and consumer applications. We expect the book to serve as a reference for larger audience such as systems architects, practitioners, developers, new researchers and graduate level students. This area of research is relatively recent, and as such has no existing reference book that addresses it. This book will be a timely contribution to a field that is gaining considerable research interest, momentum, and is expected to be of increasing interest to commercial developers. The book is targeted for professional computer science developers and graduate students especially at Masters level. As Cloud Computing is recognized as one of the top five emerging technologies that will have a major impact on the quality of science and society over the next 20 years, its knowledge will help position our readers at the forefront of the field.

This book provides the most up-to-date research and development on wearable computing, wireless body sensor networks, wearable systems integrated with mobile computing, wireless networking and cloud computing This book has a specific focus on advanced methods for programming Body Sensor Networks (BSNs) based on the reference SPINE project. It features an on-line website (http://spine.deis.unical.it) to support readers in developing their own BSN application/systems and covers new emerging topics on BSNs such as collaborative BSNs, BSN design methods, autonomic BSNs, integration of BSNs and pervasive environments, and integration of BSNs with cloud computing. The book provides a description of real BSN prototypes with the possibility to see on-line demos and download the software to test them on specific sensor platforms and includes case studies for more practical applications. • Provides a future roadmap by learning advanced technology and open research issues • Gathers the background knowledge to tackle key problems, for which solutions will enhance the evolution of next-generation wearable systems • References the SPINE web site (http://spine.deis.unical.it) that accompanies the text • Includes SPINE case studies and span topics like human activity recognition, rehabilitation of elbow/knee, handshake detection, emotion recognition systems Wearable Systems and Body Sensor Networks: from modeling to implementation is a great reference for systems architects, practitioners, and product developers. Giancarlo Fortino is currently an Associate Professor of Computer Engineering (since 2006) at the Department of Electronics, Informatics and Systems (DEIS) of the University of Calabria (Unical), Rende (CS), Italy. He was recently nominated Guest Professor in Computer Engineering of Wuhan University of Technology on April, 18 2012 (the term of appointment is three years). His research interests include distributed computing and networks, wireless sensor networks, wireless body sensor networks, agent systems, agent oriented software engineering, streaming content distribution networks, distributed multimedia systems, GRID computing. Raffaele Gravina received the B.Sc. and M.S. degrees both in computer engineering from the University of Calabria, Rende, Italy, in 2004 and 2007, respectively. Here he also received the Ph.D. degree in computer engineering. He's now a Postdoctoral research fellow at University of Calabria. His research interests are focused on high-level programming methods for WSNs, specifically Wireless Body Sensor Networks. He wrote almost 30 scientific/technical articles in the area of the proposed Book. He is co-founder of SenSysCal S.r.l., a spin-off company of the University of Calabria, and CTO of the wearable computing area of the company. Stefano Galzarano received the B.S. and M.S. degrees both in computer engineering from the University of Calabria, Rende, Italy, in 2006 and 2009, respectively. He is currently pursuing a joint Ph.D. degree in computer engineering with University of Calabria and Technical University of Eindhoven (The Netherlands). His research interests are focused on high-level programming methods for wireless sensor networks and, specifically, novel methods and frameworks for autonomic wireless body sensor networks.