Search

The demographic change and ageing in Europe will lead to a growing number of people suffering from dementia. Consequently, costs for public health will increase because people become more and more reliant on care and gradually lose their independence and mobility. In the case of dementia, remedial measures could be provided by assistive technology to support independent living at home for as long as possible. Current assistance systems are often limited to actively raising an alert (i.e., electronic panic buttons) or location tracking. Due to this small range of functions these systems are poorly accepted by the target group. Thus, this paper reports on a selection process for a spatial data collection device allowing the development of a new so-called mobility safeguarding assistance system for people with dementia which combines features of different systems. In particular, the wearability as an everyday object is a key issue when it comes to identifying an adequate gadget for elderly people. The proposed methodology considers user requirements as well as technical requirements when it comes to finding a suitable device. Based on these requirements, several different devices were reviewed and tested in order to find most suitable potential device as part of the selection process. The device selected shows that the proposed process on how to choose the right device performed well.

This paper presents a specific approach to the design of a mobile measurement station (MMS) that will operate in a harsh environment. This paper also presents a selection process for the hardware of the MMS. The work is based on a quality engineering method called the quality function deployment and on an operations research tool called the analytic hierarchy process. These approaches have not found a widespread application in the design of measurement systems. An important part of this paper is the selection of a controller for the MMS, for which the authors describe two engineering tools for the selection procedure. Most engineering designs can benefit from using these two engineering tools for selecting components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is my seventh annual April Fool's essay. I take this yearly opportunity to assail some aspect of our business that I consider sufficiently infected with folly to warrant a […]

I finally installed a network at home. I've put that exercise off repeatedly. You can only deal with so many pockets of complexity at any one time- no point in […]

The aspects to consider when choosing an IBM PC AT-class microcomputer have increased tremendously in complexity as more choices become available. The first rule to follow in making a purchase decision is to define the computer requirements and intended uses of the system carefully; this includes the applications (word processing, spreadsheet, etc.), whether a single-user system or a LAN is required, and the peripherals needed. Users should avoid false economies: an 80286 with 1Mbyte of RAM is much less expensive than an 80386 with 4Mbytes of RAM, and both systems will run the same applications, but multitasking applications will require the more powerful system. Other rules to follow are to remember that most of the cost of a computer system is in peripherals and software; to buy a high-quality human interface; to keep compatibility in mind; and to consider software support.

The portable computer market is now a segment of its own in the computer industry, and as such it deserves its own testing methodology addressing functions in comparison to desktop computers as well as to other portables. Users buying a portable computer must consider the difficulty of adding in and on devices that are not in the basic configuration and the size and weight limitations of the machines that make it more difficult to personalize the systems. Among the portable market subclasses are transportables (powered by AC only), laptops (may use a combination of AC and battery power), notebook computers (battery powered and weighing less than five pounds), pocket computers (non-standard mass storage and keyboard but DOS compatible) and self-contained remote computers (with cellular radios or transmitters and receivers for non-wire remote operations). The testing process, including the development of the portability quotient, is described.

The execution of a quantum algorithm typically requires various classical pre- and post-processing tasks. Hence, workflows are a promising means to orchestrate these tasks, benefiting from their reliability, robustness, and features, such as transactional processing. However, the implementations of the tasks may be very heterogeneous and they depend on the quantum hardware used to execute the quantum circuits of the algorithm. Additionally, today's quantum computers are still restricted, which limits the size of the quantum circuits that can be executed. As the circuit size often depends on the input data of the algorithm, the selection of quantum hardware to execute a quantum circuit must be done at workflow runtime. However, modeling all possible alternative tasks would clutter the workflow model and require its adaptation whenever a new quantum computer or software tool is released. To overcome this problem, we introduce an approach to automatically select suitable quantum hardware for the execution of quantum circuits in workflows. Furthermore, it enables the dynamic adaptation of the workflows, depending on the selection at runtime based on reusable workflow fragments. We validate our approach with a prototypical implementation and a case study demonstrating the hardware selection for Simon's algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various portable computer models are tested to measure their performance compared to each other and to desktop computers: performance declines as weight and size decrease. The performance test results will likely be found more useful when comparing different portable models. The Toshiba T1000SE and Compaq LTE, two low-end laptops that run at the same processor speed, differ in performance as a result of standard memory supplied (1Mbyte in the T1000SE and 640Kbytes in the LTE) and the fact that Toshiba supplies DOS in ROM, which allows the T1000SE to run much faster than the LTE; similar results are found when comparing other Toshiba and Compaq models. All the portable computers tested did better when memory was increased, but the performance increase was more pronounced for the T1000SE and the Poqet PC. Users are cautioned that these tests measure performance only; other factors must also be considered when selecting a unit.

In 1983, the first computer-based documents management system (DMS) on the government organizations of Taiwan was implemented in a Wang VS85 mainframe computer by the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) of […]

According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, "ergonomics" is defined as, "of or relating to biotechnology." In other words: "a system of adapting work and working conditions (using biological and engineering […]

Conveyors, a basic and widely used class of material handling equipment, have been lumped taken for granted by management and material handling planners in too many cases. Although there are […]

Why you need a CD-ROM drive You should buy a CD-ROM. "What?" you ask. CD-ROM. Compact-disk read-only memory. You stick a CD in the disk drive, and it plays on […]

Government personnel have an even harder time than business people in justifying computer purchases. They cannot take depreciation into account, and they cannot plan to write purchases off in three to five years. Government workers must justify purchases on the basis of work load and productivity gains. The basic questions to answer when deciding which computer to buy is what does the user want to do with the computer and how much use will the computer get. Guidance is offered for: choosing a Macintosh; choosing an Intel-based machine; 8086 and 80286 machines; 80386-based systems; configuring an Intel-based system; and choosing a bus. The question of which computer is best will be answered either by the user or by the organization paying for the system. There is no one answer.

Using a mouse for computer cursor manipulation is a personal decision of the user. Microsoft Windows 3.0 is designed with mouse users in mind. Microsoft considers its own two-button mouse the one best suited for the new version of its graphical user interface. The advent of the new Windows will lead to more options in cursor control from vendors who will want to take advantage of the new market. Some new keyboards will include a built-in trackball. The author's favorite pointing device is the Isopoint device from ALPS, which is molded into the front of the space bar on a keyboard.