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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Ling Liu's SC13 paper "Large Graph Processing Without the Overhead" featured by HPCwire.
ISTC-CC provides a listing of useful benchmarks for cloud computing.
Another list highlighting Open Source Software Releases.
Second GraphLab workshop should be even bigger than the first! GraphLab is a new programming framework for graph-style data analytics.
ISTC-CC Abstract
Architecture and Applications of Virtual Coaches
Chapter 11 in Quality of Life Technology Handbook, Richard Schulz (ed), CRC Press, 2013, pp. 197-226.
Daniel Siewiorek, Asim Smailagic, Anind Dey
Quality of Life Technology Engineering Research Center,
Carnegie Mellon University
The confluence of several new technologies enabled a new generation of always attentive personalized systems called Virtual Coaches. A Virtual Coaches continuously monitors its users activities and surroundings, detects situations where intervention would be desirable, and offers prompt assistance.
Presently available cognitive aids are simplistic, providing only scheduled reminders and rote instructions. Future virtual coaches will actually monitor user performance of activities and provide appropriate feedback and encouragement. As the user's abilities change, the coach may reduce the number of verbal cues as the subject learns, or provide increased support as needed. A care provider could upload new capabilities to the virtual coach, as required, potentially without even an office visit. Virtual coaches also provide constant and consistent observation/monitoring, even on a clinician's guidance beyond episodic patient examinations.
Virtual Coaches are the latest phase of a technology evolution over the past two decades. The advent of powerful microprocessors capable of running an operating system with real time responsiveness in small, energy efficient pages in the early 1990's enabled a new generation of personal computing systems that provided access to information any time, any where. Handheld Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) that could fit in a shirt pocket gave access to addresses, notes, and schedules via a new interface access modality featuring stylus and hand writing recognition (e.g. graffiti) and more recently touch screen and voice control (e.g. SIRI).
Another novel technology, head mounted displays, enabled revolutionary new body worn systems, termed Wearable Computers [Siewiorek, Smailagic, Starner 2008], that were always on providing instantaneous access to reference information in application areas such as complex plant operations, manufacturing, maintenance, and group collaboration.
MEMS (Mircro-electro-mechanical systems) created low cost, low energy sensors that could sense physical parameters such as acceleration, orientation, temperature, and light that, when coupled with signal processing and machine learning algorithms allowed personal systems to infer user context in Context Aware Systems.
FULL PAPER: pdf
