Effects of Using Virtual Reality and Virtual Avatar on Hand Motion Reconstruction Accuracy and Brain Activity

 

Reconstruction of a hand’s motion with electroencephalography (EEG) signals is a challenging problem that has not been solved yet. Most related studies rely on a motion tracking system to record a sequence of hand coordinate values paired with biosignals, in order to train a mapping function between them. For amputees, this approach is not possible. There are also only a few studies about how different training techniques may affect the accuracy of a motion reconstruction system. A virtual avatar for presenting different upper limb motions was developed. Subjects were asked to follow the avatar’s motion, while the subject’s EEG and electromyography (EMG) signals were recorded and paired with avatar’s hand trajectory values. This task was performed under three conditions: repeating the motion by memory, repeating the motion while watching it on a screen, and repeating the motion while seeing it in virtual reality (VR). We did not find any significant difference between the three conditions in terms of correlation values. Still, we found that using both EEG and EMG at the same time led to a better result than using only one of them. Additionally, significant differences were found in the EEG activity, suggesting that even if the task (moving the arm) was the same for the three conditions, the brain dynamics were different. Specifically, we found that using the VR resulted in a higher alpha desynchronization during the motion. Finally, our results, when only EEG signals were used, were comparable with other studies that have used a motion tracking system.

View this article on IEEE Xplore

Open IoT Ecosystem for Sporting Event Management

 

By connecting devices, people, vehicles, and infrastructures everywhere in a city, governments and their partners can improve community well-being and other economic and financial aspects (e.g., cost and energy savings). Nonetheless, smart cities are complex ecosystems that comprise many different stakeholders (network operators, managed service providers, logistic centers, and so on), who must work together to provide the best services and unlock the commercial potential of the so-called Internet of Things (IoT). This is one of the major challenges that faces today’s smart city movement, and the emerging “API economy.” Indeed, while new smart connected objects hit the market every day, they mostly feed “vertical silos” (e.g., vertical apps, siloed apps, and so on) that are closed to the rest of the IoT, thus hampering developers to produce new added value across multiple platforms and/or application domains. Within this context, the contribution of this paper is twofold: (1) present the strategic vision and ambition of the EU to overcome this critical vertical silos’ issue and (2) introduce the first building blocks underlying an open IoT ecosystem developed as part of an EU (Horizon 2020) Project and a joint project initiative (IoT-EPI). The practicability of this ecosystem, along with a performance analysis, is carried out considering a proof-of-concept for enhanced sporting event management in the context of the forthcoming FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar.

View this article on IEEE Xplore

A Real-Time Bicycle Record System of Ground Conditions Based on Internet of Things

 

In recent years, bicycles have quickly become one of the major urban sports. At the same time, with the rise of Internet of Things (IoT), embedded system combine IoT devices are widely used and making computing truly ubiquitous. Although bicycles have various functions, they fail to provide cyclists with sufficient exercise-related information and post-exercise analysis. Therefore, this paper introduced a bicycle record system of ground conditions based on IoT which is combining smartphone and embedded system. The event data recorder comprised two parts, a “smartphone-based event data recorder”and “bicycle-based real-time information feedback system”. Using the event data recorder, this paper integrated and provided various types of real-time information for cyclists while they cycled to help them achieve their desired exercise results. After cycling, the cyclists could view cycling-related information through software analysis. This information included cycling routes taken, total cycling distance, and total calories burned. The event data recorder also saved information related to cycling routes, such as acceleration, deceleration, directional changes, and slope changes. By analyzing the recorded information, cyclists not only gained further insight into their exercise results but were also able to share cycling-related information through the Internet, which would benefit cyclists who had not cycled along this route before. By developing the bicycle record system, this paper aimed to provide cyclists with real-time, accurate, and complete information, enabling them to enjoy a consummate cycling environment.

View this article on IEEE Xplore

Multistatic Millimeter-Wave Imaging by Multiview Portable Camera

 

The aim of this paper is to introduce the use of sparse multistatic arrays to reduce the number of elements in novel portable and muti-view millimiter-wave scanners. Thus, the complexity of these novel scanners is significantly reduced. Furthermore, sparsity is expected to enable embedding a conventional optical camera sensor inside the aperture of the scanner allowing a reduction of the scanner size. This camera sensor is used to build a complementary 3-D optical model as well as to estimate the millimeter-wave scanner position so that the imaging merging techniques can be applied. The approach is validated for concealed weapon detection by means of simulation as well as measurements, in which the scanner aperture is emulated by raster scan, showing a performance comparable to the case of dense arrays.

View this article on IEEE Xplore

Wearable and Implantable Devices and Systems

Submission Deadline: 15 June 2018

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Wearable and Implantable Devices and Systems.

Future electronics and sensing systems will be implantable and wearable. Large and ever-growing advances in developing and implementing such technologies have already exhibited the potential utility of this unique class of platforms to realize next-generation of sensing systems. Applications include wearable and implantable electronics, healthcare monitoring systems, soft robotics, as well as wireless implants. The field has started to see interesting developments in the areas of circuits and systems, involving studies related to low-power electronics, wireless sensor networks, wearable devices and sensors, real-time monitoring, connectivity of sensors and Internet of Things.

This Special Section in IEEE Access invites contributions from leading experts from both academia and industry. We believe that the novel approaches towards circuits and systems will allow readers to identify the requirements, challenges and future directions related to the burgeoning field of electronic circuits and systems for future wearable and implantable systems, from electronics to communications. Further, this Special Section will allow the biomedical researchers to identify new opportunities, which this exciting field may lead to.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Wearable and implantable sensing technologies
  • Readout circuits for wearable and implantable systems
  • Wireless power transfer/delivery
  • Low-Power circuits and sensors
  • Sensor Interfaces and A/D Converters
  • Implantable Electronics
  • Body sensor networks
  • wearable and mobile health monitoring
  • CMOS Sensors and Imaging
  • Antennas and sensors for wearables and wireless implants
  • Implantable and wearable diagnostic and therapeutic systems
  • Channel modelling for wearables and implants
  • Energy efficiency in wearable sensing systems

We also highly recommend the submission of multimedia with each article as it significantly increases the visibility, downloads, and citations of articles.

Associate Editor: Qammer H. Abbasi, University of Glasgow, UK

Guest Editors:

  1. Yejun He, Shenzhen University, China
  2. Asimina Kiourti, The Ohio State University, USA
  3. Hadi Heidari, University of Glasgow, UK
  4. Majid E. Warkiani, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
  5. Akram Alomainy, Queen Mary University of London, UK

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Ambient Intelligence Environments with Wireless Sensor Networks from the Point of View of Big Data and Smart & Sustainable Cities
  2. Mobile Multimedia for Healthcare
  3. Human-Centered Smart Systems and Technologies

IEEE Access Editor-in-Chief: Michael Pecht, Professor and Director, CALCE, University of Maryland

Paper submission: Contact Associate Editor and submit manuscript to:
http://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/ieee-access

For inquiries regarding this Special Section, please contact:  qammer.abbasi@glasgow.ac.uk

Challenges and Opportunities of Big Data Against Cyber Crime

Submission Deadline: 31 August 2018

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Challenges and Opportunities of Big Data Against Cyber Crime.

Cyber crime is growing at an unprecedented pace that greatly affects the Internet industry and the global economy. Increasingly sophisticated attack and offensive methods used by cyber criminals and the growing role of data-driven and intelligence-driven adversaries demonstrate that traditional approaches to mitigate cyber threats are becoming ineffective. Big Data has been creating a profound paradigm shift in addressing the growing cyber crime threats. The technological breakthrough in Big Data makes it possible for large-scale diversified and unstructured security data collecting, storage, aggregating, and processing across the defined scope in real time. Big Data analytics enables data-intensive solutions and threat intelligence to identify lurking malicious or at least suspicious activities from massive and/or misrepresented data sets. Modern Big Data technologies also spark automated controls for prompt response to detect cyber crime threats, such as disrupting clearly identified malware attacks.

This Special Section in IEEE Access aims to present cutting-edge research in addressing cybercrime challenges in the Big Data era. We solicit theoretical and practical contributions as well as surveys with clear use cases.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Big Data forensics
  • Anti-phishing and pharming using Big Data analytics
  • Big Data architectures for cyber security
  • Criminal use of IoT in the Big Data context
  • Cryptography and Big Data
  • Privacy preserving retrieval, transmission, processing, and analysis of Big Data
  • Data-intensive detection and prevention of online identify theft
  • Access control of Big Data
  • Big Data analytics for Online Social Networks threats
  • Malware & botnets analysis using Big Data
  • Big Data techniques in intrusion detection
  • Data mining and machine learning in anti-cyber crime
  • Formal models and ontologies for online criminal behavior
  • Criminal abuse of Big Data technologies and resources
  • Steganography/steg analysis and covert/subliminal channels
  • DoS/DDoS defense using Big Data
  • Adversary-resilient Big Data technologies
  • Standardization advances in Big Data for cyber security

We also highly recommend the submission of multimedia with each article as it significantly increases the visibility, downloads, and citations of articles.

Associate Editor: Jun Huang, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China

Guest Editors:

  1. Zheng Wang, National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA
  2. Shui Yu, Deakin University, Australia
  3. Zheng Chang, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
  4. Nirwan Ansari, New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Advanced Big Data Analysis for Vehicular Social Networks
  2. Ambient Intelligence Environments with Wireless Sensor Networks from the Point of View of Big Data and Smart & Sustainable Cities
  3. Real-Time Edge Analytics for Big Data in Internet of Things

 

IEEE Access Editor-in-Chief: Michael Pecht, Professor and Director, CALCE, University of Maryland

Paper submission: Contact Associate Editor and submit manuscript to:
http://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/ieee-access

For inquiries regarding this Special Section, please contact:  xiaoniuadmin@gmail.com

Survivability Strategies for Emerging Wireless Networks

Submission Deadline: 15 April 2018

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Survivability Strategies for Emerging Wireless Networks.

Recent developments in mobile and wireless networks have paved the way to become the fabric of society and economy. The ever-increasing penetration rate of mobile telephony and wireless broadband data access, and the ubiquity of WiFi are just a few examples of the phenomenon. While multi-hop wireless networks (e.g., WiMax, LTE-A, ad hoc, sensor and mesh networks) offer many advantages such as enhanced capacity, extended communication range, deployment and operational flexibility, they usually lack provisioning for network robustness. For example, in networks with battery-powered routers, the depletion of battery power may lead to router failures that may interrupt the network information flow and reduce network connectivity. Moreover, the wireless communication medium itself is prone to various types of interference and impairments, hence causing a wireless link status to dynamically change according to the channel conditions, and possibly resulting in wireless links becoming intermittently unavailable. Besides interference and impairments, harsh surrounding environments and severe weather conditions may damage either nodes or antennas if the network is deployed outdoors as in the case of WMNs, WiMax and LTE-Advanced networks. Wireless network devices, such as base stations (BSs), relay nodes (RNs), mesh routers, and antennas, are also subject to failures through accidents, disasters, and component failures, attacks, and possibly vandalism.

These failures may have drastic effects on the users of such networks. For example, in WiMax networks, which are used to provide broadband network access to users, wireless link failures due to impairments or node failures, such as base station (BS) or relay station (RS) failures, or the failure of antennas, can disconnect users from the network. The effects of these failures can be more severe if they affect the connectivity of business users who depend on broadband wireless access to run their businesses. These problems emphasize the need for mechanisms to enhance the network survivability and availability and to sustain the flow of information in the case of failures or attacks. Network failures may cause drastic effects on network performance and hinder network operation. The capability of a network to deliver data successfully in a timely manner and continue its services despite the presence of failures and attacks is referred to as survivability and is an important characteristic which must be provisioned.

The aim of this Special Section in IEEE Access is to collect high quality research articles that articulate recent advancements in this domain, highlight open research issues and challenges, and indicate future directions. This Special Section is expected to report on recent research and spark novel research on the wireless networks design, architecture, algorithms, and protocols for existing and prospective applications. Visionary, work-in-progress, and unpublished original research and survey articles are solicited on survivability, safety, and security aspects of wireless networks.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Survivability strategies for LTE-A, WiMax, wireless sensor, ad hoc and wireless mesh networks
  • Failure prevention, detection and diagnosis mechanisms
  • Fault tolerant network pre-planning and deployment
  • Fault tolerant resource allocation and scheduling
  • Topology management techniques for tolerating node and link failures
  • Self-Organizing Networks (SONs) and Self-healing mechanisms
  • Movement control coverage and connectivity restoration
  • Reliability and dependability of emerging wireless networks
  • Centralized and distributed monitoring and recovery algorithms
  • Survivability techniques for IoT/M2M
  • Green and energy efficient survivability techniques
  • Localized and globalized failure handling mechanisms
  • Handling single, multi, and simultaneous node and link failures
  • Optimization strategies for agile and efficient recovery
  • Testbeds and experimental studies of survivability strategies
  • Network coding-based survivability
  • Safety, security, privacy, and trust for survivability

We also highly recommend the submission of multimedia with each article as it significantly increases the visibility, downloads, and citations of articles.

Associate Editor: Muhammad Imran, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia

Guest Editors:

  1. Joel J.P.C. Rodrigues, National Institute of Telecommunications (Inatel), Brazil; Instituto de Telecomunicações, Portugal
  2. Ahmed E. Kamal, Iowa State University, USA
  3. Ejaz Ahmed, University of Malaya, Malaysia
  4. Feng Xia, Dalian University of Technology, China
  5. Irfan Awan, University of Bradford, UK

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Software Standards and Their Impact in Reducing Software Failures
  2. Mission Critical Public-Safety Communications: Architectures, Enabling Technologies, and Future Applications

 

IEEE Access Editor-in-Chief: Michael Pecht, Professor and Director, CALCE, University of Maryland

Paper submission: Contact Associate Editor and submit manuscript to:
http://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/ieee-access

For inquiries regarding this Special Section, please contact:  dr.m.imran@ieee.org

Process Memory Investigation of the Bitcoin Clients Electrum and Bitcoin Core

 

Bitcoin cryptocurrency is reportedly one widely used digital currency in criminal activities (e.g. used for online purchases of illicit drugs and paying of ransom in ransomware cases). However, there has been limited forensic research of bitcoin clients in the literature. In this paper, the process memory of two popular bitcoin clients, bitcoin Core and electrum, is examined with the aims of identifying potential sources and types of potential relevant data (e.g. bitcoin keys, transaction data and passphrases). Artefacts obtained from the process memory are also studied with other artefacts obtained from the client device (application files on disk and memory-mapped files and registry keys). Findings from this study suggest that both bitcoin Core and electrum’s process memory is a valuable source of evidence, and many of the artefacts found in process memory are also available from the application and wallet files on the client device (disk).

View this article on IEEE Xplore

Security and Trusted Computing for Industrial Internet of Things

Submission Deadline: 31 May 2018

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Security and Trusted Computing for Industrial Internet of Things.

Industrial IoT (IIoT) interconnects critical devices and sensors in essential infrastructure industries and scenarios with existing IoT applications. Generally, IIoT deployment allows organizations and users to gain invaluable insights into industrial processes and achieve high productivity gains while reducing cost. In the meantime, IIoT also exposes industrial systems and operational technology to cyber attacks, malware, hacktivism, and other security risks.

The objective of this Special Section in IEEE Access is to compile recent research efforts dedicated to strengthen the security foundations of IIoT systems. For example, topics include areas of industrial control systems, real-time access, trustworthiness of IIoT devices, secure service interoperability, resource constraints, data security, and information privacy, as well as the perspectives of system security policies and complete protection mechanisms, covering hardware, firmware, software, middleware and information assurance.

This Special Section solicits high quality and original work on recent advances in applied cryptography, security, and trust computing for IIoT systems.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Physical layer security
  • Cellular security
  • Data certification in IoT
  • Design and implementation of lightweight cryptographic primitives
  • Secure architectures and protocol design in IoT
  • Secure M2M communications
  • Reliable interactions with network services
  • Trusted IoT platform design
  • Data assurances in IoT
  • Vulnerability detections in IoT
  • Anonymous authentication
  • Secure data search and information retrial in IoT
  • Industrial applications with privacy and security protection
  • Threats and attached detection theories
  • Intrusion detection over critical infrastructure
  • Data reliability and trust
  • Cloud-based security for IoT
  • Terminal and edge computing security
  • Security management and orchestration of NFV and SDN elements
  • Trusted computing with NFV and SDN
  • Blockchain technologies for IoT
  • Software vulnerability testing, or reverse engineering
  • Risk assessment in Io industrial IoT and applications

We also highly recommend the submission of multimedia with each article as it significantly increases the visibility, downloads, and citations of articles.

Associate Editor: Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, University of Texas at San Antonio, USA

Guest Editors:

  1. Shancang Li, University of the West of England, UK
  2. Zhiyuan Tan, Edinburgh Napier University, UK
  3. Xiangjian He, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
  4. Jiankun Hu, University of New South Wales, Australia

 

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Research Challenges and Opportunities in Security and Privacy of Blockchain Technologies
  2. The Internet of Energy: Architectures, Cyber Security, and Applications
  3. Convergence of Sensor Networks, Cloud Computing, and Big Data in Industrial Internet of Things

 

IEEE Access Editor-in-Chief: Michael Pecht, Professor and Director, CALCE, University of Maryland

Paper submission: Contact Associate Editor and submit manuscript to:
http://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/ieee-access

For inquiries regarding this Special Section, please contact:  Shancang.li@uwe.ac.uk and Raymond.Choo@utsa.edu

Cyber-Threats and Countermeasures in the Healthcare Sector

Submission Deadline: 15 April 2018

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Cyber-Threats and Countermeasures in the Healthcare Sector.

According to the guidelines issued by the United States Department of Homeland Security, the healthcare sector is considered critical infrastructure. Healthcare and the public health sector caters to the most vulnerable population in our communities and has become one of the most targeted sectors by cyber criminals. There has been a constant increase in attacks on public health infrastructure. Patient history data has substantially higher monetary value compared with other types of personal or financial data. The increase in criminal activity is underpinned by the lack of awareness among users of technology and an astronomical growth in personal healthcare devices such as personal activity monitors, personalised medical devices (e.g., insulin pumps), digitisation of patient records from paper based records, and the increasing number of connected healthcare information systems to the Internet. In this Special Section in IEEE Access, we invite leaders in the healthcare security industry to enlighten readers of the cyber-threats and countermeasures to combat the growing security problems facing the healthcare sector.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Medical Data Protection and methods of secure data governance
  • Medical Infrastructure Protection
  • Applications of Digital Forensics in Healthcare sector
  • Regulation and standards for medical device cyber protection
  • Medical devices security and post market surveillance
  • Patient and personal data safety
  • Socio-technical cybersecurity issues of using personal monitoring devices
  • Risk assessment in the healthcare and public health sector
  • Novel cryptologic solutions for the medical data
  • Cyber Security issues in assistive technologies for patient recovery
  • Cyber security issues and countermeasures in curation of medical data

We also highly recommend the submission of multimedia with each article as it significantly increases the visibility, downloads, and citations of articles.

Associate Editor: Junaid Chaudhry, Edith Cowan University, Australia

Guest Editors:

  1. Metin Gurcan, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA
  2. Craig Valli, Edith Cowan University, Australia
  3. Trish Williams, Flinders University, Australia
  4. Nasir Rajpoot, University of Warwick, UK
  5. Uvais Qidwai, Qatar University, Qatar

 

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Health Informatics for the Developing World
  2. Body Area Networks
  3. Security Analytics and Intelligence for Cyber Physical Systems

 

IEEE Access Editor-in-Chief: Michael Pecht, Professor and Director, CALCE, University of Maryland

Paper submission: Contact Associate Editor and submit manuscript to:
http://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/ieee-access

For inquiries regarding this Special Section, please contact:  Chaudhry@ieee.org