Search results for " computing"

Reflections on Technology and Human Sciences: rediscovering a common thread through the analysis of a few epistemological features of fuzziness

2013

A number of reasons, both historical and philosophical, has caused Technology and Human Sciences to be perceived as disjoint domains. In opposi- tion, we claim that there exists a strong methodological affinity between these apparently disconnected fields of knowledge. Our view is further corroborated by new hints from Information Sciences, in which new scientific concepts and tools such as fuzziness have emerged. Comparing the ways in which both Technology and Literature offer a model of reality we shall see that their approaches preserve a strong connection with the “description” of the pieces of reality they aim to model, against the Galileian hard sciences’ approach of making bold hypot…

On the Evaluation of Images Complexity: A Fuzzy Approach (revised and expanded)

2006

The inherently multidimensional problem of evaluating the complexity of an image is of a certain relevance in both computer sci- ence and cognitive psychology. Computer scientists usually analyze spa- tial dimensions, to deal with automatic vision problems, such as feature- extraction. Psychologists seem more interested in the temporal dimension of complexity, to explore attentional models. Is it possible, by merging both approaches, to define an more general index of visual complexity? We have defined a fuzzy mathematical model of visual complexity, using a specific entropy function; results obtained by applying this model to pictorial images have a strong correlation with ones from an exp…

Un algoritmo evolutivo per il posizionamento di agenti su spazi geometrici di forme arbitrarie

2014

Explicandum vs Explicatum and Soft Computing

2010

The aim of this paper is twofold. First af all I want to present some old ideas revisited in the light of some of the many interesting new developments occurred in the course of these last ten years in the field of the foundations of fuzziness. Secondly I desire to present a tentative general framework in which it is possible (or at least it is possible FOR ME) to compare different attitudes and different approaches to the clarification of the conceptual problems arising from fuzziness and soft computing.

mCLT: an application for collaborative learning on a mobile telephone

2005

Mobile technologies offer new opportunities for distance learning and enable people to collaborate anywhere. This paper introduces an innovative mobile platform for computer-supported collaborative learning in which traditional methodologies of collaboration have been improved, based on 3rd-generation mobile telephones. Students can collect and share live data immediately, anywhere and at any time. This enables them to play an active role in the knowledge-building process. The mCLT is potentially an application for ubiquitous collaborative learning.

The quest for bandwidth estimation techniques for large-scale distributed systems

2010

In recent years the research community has developed many techniques to estimate the end-to-end available bandwidth of an Internet path. This important metric can be potentially exploited to optimize the performance of several distributed systems and, even, to improve the effectiveness of the congestion control mechanism of TCP. Thus, it has been suggested that some existing estimation techniques could be used for this purpose. However, existing tools were not designed for large-scale deployments and were mostly validated in controlled settings, considering only one measurement running at a time. In this paper, we argue that current tools, while offering good estimates when used alone, migh…

Large-Scale Available Bandwidth Measurements: Interference in Current Techniques

2011

The end-to-end available bandwidth of an Internet path is a desirable information that can be exploited to optimize system performance. Several tools have been proposed in the past to estimate it. However, existing measurement techniques were not designed for large-scale deployments. In this paper we show that current tools do not properly work where multiple probing processes share a portion of a path. We provide experimental evidence to quantify the impact of mutual interference between measurements. We further analyze the characteristics of popular tools, quantifying (i) the impact of mutual interference, (ii) the total overhead imposed to the network and (iii) the intrusiveness of the m…

Coexistence between IEEE802.15.4 and IEEE802.11 through cross-technology signaling

2017

When different technologies use the same frequency bands in close proximity, the resulting interference typically results in performance degradation. Coexistence methods exist, but these are often technology specific and requiring technology specific interference detection methods. To remove the root cause of the performance degradation, devices should be able to negotiate medium access even when using different technologies. To this end, this paper proposes an architecture that allows crosstechnology medium access by means of a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) scheme. In order to achieve cross-technology synchronization, which is required for the TDMA solution, an energy pattern beacon…

Coloring-based resource allocations in ad-hoc wireless networks

2011

It is well known that CSMA/CA protocols exhibit very poor performance in case of multi-hop transmissions, because of inter-link interference due to imperfect carrier sensing. We propose to control such an interference by preallocating temporal slots in which different sets of network nodes are allowed to contend for the channel access. The approach is based on distributed coloring algorithms with limited signaling overhead that can be customized as a function of the network topology and traffic load.

Logical Consensus for Distributed Network Agreement

2008

In this paper we introduce a novel consensus mechanism where agents of a network are able to share logical values, or Booleans, representing their local opinions on e.g. the presence of an intruder or of a fire within an indoor environment. Under suitable joint conditions on agents? visibility and communication capability, we provide an algorithm generating a logical linear consensus system that is globally stable. The solution is optimal in terms of the number of messages to be exchanged and the time needed to reach a consensus. Moreover, to cope with possible sensor failure, we propose a second design approach that produces robust logical nonlinear consensus systems tolerating a maximum n…