More Like this

1. Estimating outdoor temperature from CPU temperature for IoT applications in agriculture

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3277593.3277607  

   Krintz, Chandra ; Wolski, Rich ; Golubovic, Nevena ; Bakir, Fatih ( January 2018 , International Conference on the Internet of Things)

   In the paper, we investigate using CPU temperature from small, low cost, single-board computers to predict out- door temperature in IoT-based precision agricultural settings. Temperature is a key metric in these settings that is used to in- form and actuate farm operations such as irrigation schedul- ing, frost damage mitigation, and greenhouse management. Using cheap single-board computers as temperature sensors can drive down the cost of sensing in these applications and make it possible to monitor a large number of micro-climates concurrently. We have developed a system in which devices communicate their CPU measurements to an on-farm edge cloud. The edge cloud uses a combination of calibration, smoothing (noise removal), and linear regression to make pre- dictions of the outdoor temperature at each device. We eval- uate the accuracy of this approach for different temperature sensors, devices, and locations, as well as different training and calibration durations. 

   more » « less
2. A privacy‐preserving mobile location‐based advertising system for small businesses

   https://doi.org/10.1002/eng2.12416  

   Ahmed, Ahmed Abdelmoamen ( May 2021 , Engineering Reports)

   Small‐to‐medium businesses are always seeking affordable ways to advertise their products and services securely. With the emergence of mobile technology, it is possible than ever to implement innovative Location‐Based Advertising (LBS) systems using smartphones that preserve the privacy of mobile users. In this paper, we present a prototype implementation of such systems by developing a distributed privacy‐preserving system, which has parts executing on smartphones as a mobile app, as well as a web‐based application hosted on the cloud. The mobile app leverages Google Maps libraries to enhance the user experience in using the app. Mobile users can use the app to commute to their daily destinations while viewing relevant ads such as job openings in their neighborhood, discounts on favorite meals, etc. We developed a client‐server privacy architecture that anonymizes the mobile user trajectories using a bounded perturbation strategy. A multi‐modal sensing approach is proposed for modeling the context switching of the developed LBS system, which we represent as a Finite State Machine model. The multi‐modal sensing approach can reduce the power consumed by mobile devices by automatically detecting sensing mode changes to avoid unnecessary sensing. The developed LBS system is organized into two parts: the business side and the user side. First, the business side allows business owners to create new ads by providing the ad details, Geo‐location, photos, and any other instructions. Second, the user side allows mobile users to navigate through the map to see ads while walking, driving, bicycling, or quietly sitting in their offices. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the scalability and performance of the mobile side. Our experimental evaluation demonstrates that the mobile app incurs low processing overhead and consequently has a small energy footprint.

    

   more » « less
3. SecT: A Lightweight Secure Thing-Centered IoT Communication System

   https://doi.org/10.1109/MASS.2018.00018  

   Gao, Chao ; Ling, Zhen ; Chen, Biao ; Fu, Xinwen ; Zhao, Wei ( October 2018 , 2018 IEEE 15th International Conference on Mobile Ad Hoc and Sensor Systems (MASS))

   In this paper, we propose a secure lightweight and thing-centered IoT communication system based on MQTT, SecT, in which a device/thing authenticates users. Compared with a server-centered IoT system in which a cloud server authenticates users, a thing-centered system preserves user privacy since the cloud server is primarily a relay between things and users and does not store or see user data in plaintext. The contributions of this work are three-fold. First, we explicitly identify critical functionalities in bootstrapping a thing and design secure pairing and binding strategies. Second, we design a strategy of end-to-end encrypted communication between users and things for the sake of user privacy and even the server cannot see the communication content in plaintext. Third, we design a strong authentication system that can defeat known device scanning attack, brute force attack and device spoofing attack against IoT. We implemented a prototype of SecT on a $10 Raspberry Pi Zero W and performed extensive experiments to validate its performance. The experiment results show that SecT is both cost-effective and practical. Although we design SecT for the smart home application, it can be easily extended to other IoT application domains. 

   more » « less
4. Convergence of Social Marketing and Engineering: A Lead Mitigation Study in Madagascar

   https://doi.org/10.1177/15245004231153951  

   Buerck, Adaline M. ; Khaliq, Mahmooda ; Rakotondrazaka, Rinah ; Rakotoarisoa, Lova ; Paul Barrett, Luke John ; Sommariva, Silvia ; Mihelcic, James R. ( January 2023 , Social Marketing Quarterly)

   The importance of Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects for the protection of health is embedded in the sustainable development goals. However, within the development and humanitarian fields sustainability of WASH projects is still a challenge with 30–50% of projects failing within two to five years of implementation. Though failure is not linked to any one source, a common theme speaks to a greater need for community engagement and integration of the wants and needs of the end-user in the design process. Social marketing, with its focus on the consumer and use of commercial marketing strategies to achieve behavior change is a promising approach that can be integrated into ongoing WASH initiatives to meet program outcomes and to achieve long-term sustainability.

   Primary audience includes technicians who manufacture and repair pitcher pumps. Secondary audience includes community members in Toamasina, Madagascar, who will experience a decrease in exposure to lead through their water supply.

   Decrease exposure to lead (Pb) introduced through the use of a decentralized, self-supply water system, the pitcher pump. Specifically, decrease use of leaded components in the manufacturing and repair of pitcher-pumps

   Development of the intervention followed the social marketing process including conducting a situational analysis, identification and selection of a behavioral focus and priority population, formative research, development of an integrated marketing strategy, pretesting the strategy, followed by campaign implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. An intervention focused on building a sense of community and introducing the element of professionalism for the pump manufacturers was developed, consisting of personalized one-on-one outreach to raise awareness of the health topic, followed by skill building trainings on how to make the switch to non-leaded components. This was coupled with tangible products that created a new professional network, documentation of work, and backing of work by trusted government entities.

   Using the theory of planned behavior, a pre/post-test summative evaluation was developed. Preliminary results indicate that pump technicians no longer use lead in pumps unless specifically requested by the pump owners. These results indicate a positive shift towards the use of lead-free components with project follow-up and analysis ongoing.

   Use of social marketing within the WASH sector is lacking. This paper demonstrates the integration of social marketing in an ongoing WASH project. Through a description of each step of the process, our experiences in implementing it and the lessons learned, we hope to guide future integration. Additionally, this paper demonstrates the convergence of engineers and social marketers working collaboratively on an interdisciplinary team and how this served to enhance project understanding, aid in building local partnerships and help with long-term sustainability.

    

   more » « less
5. Encrypted cloud photo storage using Google photos

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3458864.3468220  

   Koh, John S. ; Nieh, Jason ; Bellovin, Steven M. ( June 2021 , MobiSys 2021)

   null (Ed.)

   Cloud photo services are widely used for persistent, convenient, and often free photo storage, which is especially useful for mobile devices. As users store more and more photos in the cloud, significant privacy concerns arise because even a single compromise of a user's credentials give attackers unfettered access to all of the user's photos. We have created Easy Secure Photos (ESP) to enable users to protect their photos on cloud photo services such as Google Photos. ESP introduces a new client-side encryption architecture that includes a novel format-preserving image encryption algorithm, an encrypted thumbnail display mechanism, and a usable key management system. ESP encrypts image data such that the result is still a standard format image like JPEG that is compatible with cloud photo services. ESP efficiently generates and displays encrypted thumbnails for fast and easy browsing of photo galleries from trusted user devices. ESP's key management makes it simple to authorize multiple user devices to view encrypted image content via a process similar to device pairing, but using the cloud photo service as a QR code communication channel. We have implemented ESP in a popular Android photos app for use with Google Photos and demonstrate that it is easy to use and provides encryption functionality transparently to users, maintains good interactive performance and image quality while providing strong privacy guarantees, and retains the sharing and storage benefits of Google Photos without any changes to the cloud service. 

   more » « less