Virtual Environments, Human-Computer Interfaces and Measurement Systems 

Abstract: Driver drowsiness is a major factor in most driving accidents In this paper we present a robust and intelligent scheme for driver drowsiness detection employing the fusion of eye closure and yawning detection methods In this approach, the driver's facial appearance is captured via a camera installed in the car In the first step, the face region is detected and tracked in the captured video sequence utilizing computer vision techniques Next, the eye and mouth areas are extracted from the face; and they are studied to find signs of driver fatigue Finally, in a fusion phase the driver state is determined and a warning message is sent to the driver if the drowsiness is detected Our experiments prove the high efficiency of the proposed idea

Abstract: This paper presents a new concept of low-cost, high-resolution, lightweight, compact and highly-portable tactile display. The prototype consists of an array of 8 /spl times/ 8 upward/downward independent moveable pins based on shape memory alloy (SMA) technology. Each actuator is capable of developing a 320 mN pull force at 1.5 Hz bandwidth by using simple forced-air convection. The proposed concept allows the development of 60 g weight tactile devices of compact dimensions easily carried in the user's hand. SMA active element, tactile actuator and tactile display are presented and discussed.

Abstract: In this paper, we propose and evaluate our contribution which is a new scheme of authentication. This scheme is based on a virtual three-dimensional environment. Users navigate through the virtual environment and interact with items inside the virtual three-dimensional environment. The combination of all interactions, actions and inputs towards the items and towards the virtual three-dimensional environment constructs the user's 3D password. The 3D password combines most existing authentication schemes such as textual passwords, graphical passwords, and biometrics into one virtual three-dimensional environment. The 3D password's main application is the protection of critical resources and systems.

Abstract: One of the key factors behind successful deployment of Cloud for on demand services is the optimal utilization of its virtual resources. A poorly managed cloud application may lead to huge cost which is even more than the cost of physical deployment. The most important issues in Cloud are the scalability and availability. A highly scalable deployment may lead to poor resource utilization whereas a low scalable deployment may lead to unavailability of services. This paper proposes architecture for optimal utilization of such resources considering both scalability and availability. The proposed architecture, named as Monitoring & Optimizing Virtual Resources (MOVR) architecture, manages and optimizes the usage of the resources required by a cloud application considering auto deployment, auto scaling and auto recovery of the provisioned resources for the application.