Μεταπτυχιακές εργασίες / Master Theses

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https://apothesis.hmu.gr/handle/20.500.12688/3

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3D Avatar and I-ACE in the service of the deaf people.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Τεχνολογικών Εφαρμογών (Σ.Τ.Εφ), ΠΜΣ Πληροφορική και Πολυμέσα, 2019-01-11) Kornarakis, Konstantinos; Κορναράκης, Κωνσταντίνος
Greek sign language has been recognized as the official language of the deaf in 2000. In Greece, there are about 25,000 deaf and about 40,000 Hearcans. Its dissemination is limited to the deaf and hard of hearing groups, resulting in a lack of communication with the family and society in general but also their professional rehabilitation. By using technology such as mobile phones and the computer, communication between deaf and listeners could as well improve. The community of the deaf has made enough progress to improve the education system. In antiquity, deaf were not accepted by society and were considered to be worthy of derision (the deaf of the village). The deaf community today has been able to significantly improve education with the science of linguistics and technology. However, more effective intervention in education is needed because: • There is no deaf education program in addition to the special education curriculum. • There are no guidelines for organizing, evaluating and planning educational work in deaf schools. The adoption in Greece in 1981 of the prefecture of special education and its incorporation in 1985 with prefecture 1566/1985 into a pre-primary, primary and secondary school structural system and the recognition of sign language as an official Greek language helped the deaf to communicate with each other. Also, a Presidential Decree Law protects people's needs with benefits, tax breaks, medical care, interpreting programs and rights in education, helped them not feel cut off from the rest of the world. The sign language translates the meaning of simultaneously combining the hands the orientation, the arms, the upper body and the facial expressions. It is not a representation of spoken language such as written language. Semantic language is not common to all countries. There is Japanese, English, Spanish, etc. The GSL could not be an international language for what each community has its own identity and history and is characterized by the language it uses. GSL follows a verbal and editorial structure to express any abstract meaning. It also has a set of strict grammar and editorial rules. A relevant project with the scope of I-ACE is the SYNENNOESE project. Its main objective is the development of an educational platform incorporating avatar and animation technologies and the Greek sign language for the construction of educational material. Despite the progress made last year in supporting deaf people in the legal and educational level of the state, there are still many inadequacies. The development of technology will be an important help for these people, an automatic sign language translator, would be very useful to them.
Accoustic emissions and varation of ac-conductivity in porous sandstone samples subjected to uniaxial loading.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Εφαρμοσμένων Επιστημών (Σ.Εφ.Ε), Τμήμα Μηχανικών Φυσικών Πόρων και Περιβάλλοντος Τ.Ε., 2018-06-10) Κουμουδέλη, Θεοδώρα; Koumoudeli, Theodora
In the present work, electrical ac-conductivity measurements were carried out simultaneously with AE monitoring in dry and water-saturated sandstone specimens subjected to different types of uniaxial compressive stress, up to ultimate failure. The high porosity of the specimens allows the investigation of the influence of the water concentration to the changes of the electrical conductivity and to the AE activity during compression. A strong correlation of ac-conductivity with AE activity is observed during linear and stepped uniaxial loading, due to the charge transfer caused by micro-cracks generation and propagation in the sandstone. The concentration of the pore fluid (water) determines the sign and the value of the variation of the electrical ac-conductivity.
Application of natural time analysis of seismicity in areas where thermal anomalies were observed by robust satellite techniques.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Εφαρμοσμένων Επιστημών (Σ.Εφ.Ε), Τμήμα Μηχανικών Φυσικών Πόρων και Περιβάλλοντος Τ.Ε., 2016-06-15) Ελευθερίου, Αλέξανδρος; Eleftheriou, Alexandros
Δυο μεθοδολογίες χρησιμοποιήθηκαν, οι Ισχυρές Δορυφορικές Τεχνικές (Robust SatelliteTechniques, RST) και η Ανάλυση Φυσικού Χρόνου (NaturalTimeAnalysis, NTA). Η διατριβή είναι οργανωμένη σε τρία κεφάλαια. Το πρώτο κεφάλαιο παρέχει μια σύντομη εισαγωγή για τις δύο μεθοδολογίες (ΝΤΑ και RST), καθώς και σχετικά με την εξέλιξη της τεχνολογίας των εφαρμογών τους. Στη συνέχεια, η εφαρμογή τους για τη μακροπρόθεσμη σεισμικότητα σε όλη την Ελλάδα και τα αποτελέσματα συζητούνται. Πρώτον, μια επισκόπηση των αποτελεσμάτων της RST που εφαρμόστηκεσε όλη την Ελλάδα σε μια προηγούμενη μελέτη και στη συνέχεια τα αποτελέσματα μιας νέας προτεινόμενης προσέγγισης. Ειδικότερα, όσον αφορά την προτεινόμενη προσέγγιση, 15 (~ 33%) αξιόπιστες αλληλουχίες θερμικών ανωμαλιών (SSTAs) συνέβησαν πριν και μετά τα σεισμικά γεγονότα (PRE-POST σεισμικέςSSTAs), 22 (~ 47%) SSTAsεμφανίστηκαν μόνο πριν τα σεισμικά γεγονότα (PRE σεισμικέςSSTAs), 9 (~ 20%) SSTAs συνέβησαν μόνο μετά τα σεισμικά γεγονότα (POST σεισμικέςSSTAs). Δεύτερον, η εφαρμογή του ΝΤΑ σε ισχυρά σεισμικά γεγονότα παρουσιάζονται. Τέλος, στο τελευταίο κεφάλαιο, τα αποτελέσματα τηςπολυ-παραμετρικής προσέγγισης αναλύθηκαν, δείχνοντας 73% θετικούς και 27% ψευδώς-θετικούς συναγερμούς για τις 33 περιπτώσεις που υπήρχαν και τα δύο, θερμικές ανωμαλίες και κρίσιμα σημεία πριν από τα κύρια δυνατά σεισμικά γεγονότα.
Balanced ScoreCard και εσωτερικός έλεγχος: εφαρμογή στις ελληνικές επιχειρήσεις.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Διοίκησης και Οικονομίας (Σ.Δ.Ο), ΠΜΣ Λογιστική και Ελεγκτική, 2016-10-06) Παπαναστασίου, Παντελής; Papanastasiou, Pantelis
Στην παρούσα εργασία πραγματοποιήθηκε προσπάθεια εντοπισμού της αποτελεσματικότητας του Balanced Scorecard σε έναν εξειδικευμένο τομέα της Εταιρικής διακυβέρνησης, τον Εσωτερικό Έλεγχο. Πραγματοποιήθηκε βιβλιογραφική επισκόπηση του θέματος, ούτως ώστε να τεθούν οι βάσεις, το θεωρητικό πλαίσιο και να προσεγγιστούν εννοιολογικά οι δύο άξονες της έρευνας, το Balanced Scorecard και ο Εσωτερικός Έλεγχος. Στη συνέχεια, παρουσιάστηκαν τα αποτελέσματα της πρωτογενούς έρευνας, που ως στόχο είχε τη διερεύνηση του θέματος από τη σκοπιά των στελεχών Εσωτερικού Ελέγχου Ελληνικών Εταιρειών και Οργανισμών. Το γενικό συμπέρασμά που προέκυψε ενισχύει την άποψη για τη σημαντική συνεισφορά του Balanced Scorecard ως εργαλείου μέτρησης της απόδοσης, της αξιολόγησης και της μέτρησης της αποτελεσματικότητας του Εσωτερικού Ελέγχου. Σκοπός: Μελετήθηκαν οι έννοιες του Balanced Score Card και του Εσωτερικού ελέγχου με σκοπό τον εντοπισμό του πεδίου αναφοράς της αποτελεσματικότητας των δύο εννοιών. Οι Επιχειρήσεις και οι Οργανισμοί αποτελούν την ραχοκοκαλιά της οικονομίας και ειδικότερα οι μικρομεσαίες επιχειρήσεις, οι οποίες σήμερα πλήττονται σε μεγάλο βαθμό. Ταυτόχρονα, ο όγκος και η πολυπλοκότητα των εργασιών και των απαιτήσεων είναι ιδιαίτερα μεγάλη και ο κίνδυνος σφαλμάτων αντίστοιχα ιδιαίτερα υψηλός. Προσέγγιση/ Μέθοδος: Προσεγγίσαμε το θέμα μέσω της βιβλιογραφικής και Ερευνητικής επισκόπησης αναλύοντας τόσο σε θεωρητικό όσο και σε στατιστικό επίπεδο την εφαρμογή του Balanced Score Card και του Εσωτερικού ελέγχου στις ελληνικές επιχειρήσεις. Ευρήματα: Διαπιστώθηκε ότι η εφαρμογή του Balanced ScoreCard είναι εφικτή στον Εσωτερικό έλεγχο, μάλιστα συστάθηκαν και εξειδικευμένα πλαίσια του BSC που να απαντούν στις ιδιαίτερες ανάγκες ενός τμήματος Εσωτερικού ελέγχου. Μια εφαρμογή του εν λόγω εργαλείου εγγυάται τη μέτρηση της απόδοσης του τμήματος, µε απόρροια την πιο αποτελεσματική λειτουργία του, την καλύτερη διαχείριση των συστατικών στοιχείων του και τη συμμετοχή σε μια πιο επιτυχημένη Εταιρική διακυβέρνηση. Επιπλέον θα διασφαλιστεί ο σκοπός του τμήματος για τη διενέργεια των ελέγχων µε βάση των αρχών που διέπουν τον Εσωτερικό έλεγχο, μιας και το BSC βασίζεται στα πρότυπα που συνθέτουν το τμήμα. Περιορισμοί/ Επιπτώσεις έρευνας: Η ανάδειξη του εννοιολογικού προβλήματος και τις εφαρμογής των δυο εργαλείων είναι η συνεισφορά της εργασίας. Παρόλα αυτά λόγω περιορισμένης πρόσβασης σε επιστημονικό υλικό και άρθρα, πρόσφατων τεκμηρίων ελληνικού και διεθνούς περιεχομένου, οδηγηθήκαμε στην περαιτέρω έρευνα του BSC και συγκεκριμένα τη σχέση του εργαλείου µε τον Εσωτερικό έλεγχο.
Big data analytics and knowledge discovery through location-based social networks (LBSN).
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Τεχνολογικών Εφαρμογών (Σ.Τ.Εφ), ΠΜΣ Πληροφορική και Πολυμέσα, 2018-09-13) Makridis, Ioannis; Μακρίδης, Ιωάννης
Current research argues that the use of social networks can be a dominant resource for acquiring valuable knowledge about tourist destinations through the collection of data from Location-Based Social Networks (LBSN). This approach can provide solutions to problems and significant benefits to enterprises and local authorities. One of the most important problems is the lack of knowledge about the visitor's opinion for a destination, as well as the fact that the visitors' behavior, needs and preferences are not visible. Nowadays, enterprises and local authorities are still using the traditional method for acquiring valuable knowledge to make strategic decisions, using data from surveys conducted using questionnaires. In this process, despite the benefits it can offer, it can be observed that it is not continuous, it is not adaptable, and the number of the participants in most of the cases is quite small compared to the total number of visitors. This thesis presents the methodology for extraction, association, analysis and visualization of data derived from Location-Based Social Networks, providing valuable knowledge about visitors’ behavior, impressions and preferences for tourist destinations. In that context, using a case study of the region of Crete (Greece) as tourist destination the overall insights of visitors are identified. Utilizing state of the art web technologies for the development of this monitoring framework, we will collect publicly available social data for the selected tourism destinations. Some of the data that need to be collected for the process of analysis are the visitors’ posts and reviews, publication’s date and time, published photos, places’ rankings, user’s profile, nationality and engagement. After the completion of data collection, the correlation and analysis are followed, presenting data visualization in a proper and efficient way to the stakeholders. Having acquired this valuable knowledge about the visitors’ behavior and preferences, the stakeholders such as local authorities, enterprises etc. can make a more efficient promotion of tourist destinations based on the needs of visitors, improvement of the existing facilities and creation of new experiences attracting the interest of more potential visitors.
Categorical assessment of depression based on high level features.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Τεχνολογικών Εφαρμογών (Σ.Τ.Εφ), ΠΜΣ Πληροφορική και Πολυμέσα, 2018-04-17) Vazakopoulou, Kalliopi-Marina; Βαζακοπούλου, Καλλιόπη-Μαρίνα
Depression is one of the leading causes of ill health and disability worldwide. In the US nearly 50 million people were living with depression in 2015. According to the latest estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 300 million people worldwide are living with depression, an increase of more than 18% between 2005 and 20151. This fact seems to be confirmed by an EU Green Paper [1], which manifests that one to four civilians suffer from a mental illness at some point during their lifetime, sometimes even causing suicidal tendencies. Objective measures of depressive symptomatology could be advantageous for clinicians, in the context of a clinical decision support system. Automatic recognition of emotions through intelligent systems, established to assess facial expressions is a vital issue that needs to be addressed for understanding human behavior, interpersonal relationships, and most importantly for mental health assessment. According to the literature in the field of clinical research, facial expressions were used to assess possible deficiencies or weaknesses in emotional expression as well as in social diagnosis in psychiatric-psychological disorders [2] [3]. Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is the most common mood disorder, varying in terms of severity, impairing an individual's functionality and ability to deal with their daily routine. The figures provided by the EU Green Paper [4], [1] are alarming, as it is argued that by 2020 MDD is expected to become the main cause of disability. The aim of this dissertation is to develop a framework capable of detecting objective signs of MDD, to support the clinical care of patients. More specifically, the proposed system aims to identify signs related to MDD as portrayed in the facial expression of an individual. This has been designed within the terms of the AViD-Corpus (AVEC’14) [5], which provides audio-visual recordings annotated for the level of depression based on self-reports. The proposed framework was evaluated through experimental tests, designed to detect patterns related to depression in the facial expression. In the proposed implementation the emotions of happiness and sadness, two of the six basic emotions according to Ekman and Friesen [6], [7], are examined more carefully, as they seem to be respectively negatively and positively correlated with MDD. For example, the emotion of sadness appears to be more prominent in individuals suffering by MDD compared to that of happiness. In summary, the primary purpose of this thesis is to design and develop an application in MATLAB for facial image analysis, with the ultimate goal of detecting visual signs of depression through video recordings. As it is mentioned above, Facial expression is significant in human interaction and communication since it contains critical information regarding to emotion analysis. High level information about the facial features was extracted with the use of OpenFace toolkit [8], while special focus has been given to the AViD-Corpus (AVEC’14) for testing the developed algorithms. Subsequently, since high-level information was extracted by the facial features, the proper machine learning algorithms were selected, in order to examine the sensitivity and specificity of this proposed framework. Several classification algorithms were tested, namely: Discriminant Analysis, Random Forest Tree, Naïve Bayes, Linear and k-nearest Neighbor Classifiers. The best performing method involved the Discriminant Analysis classifier, with a runtime of approximately 4 minutes, to be precise 4,29 minutes. Additionally, by selecting an approximately 1 second-window, with Leave-One-Subject-Out cross-validation an accuracy of 72.57% was achieved for our depression assessment framework.
Categorical assessment of depression based on low level features.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Τεχνολογικών Εφαρμογών (Σ.Τ.Εφ), ΠΜΣ Πληροφορική και Πολυμέσα, 2018-06-01) Maridaki, Anna; Μαριδάκη, Άννα
Mental illness is a disease which usually causes behavior disturbances. Nowadays, mental disorders are commonplace, affecting a large number of people. There are more than 200 forms of mental illness. Depression, bipolar disorder, dysthymia and anxiety disorder are some of the most common mood disorders that are inherently related to emotions. According to the European Statistical System [1], 7.1% of the European citizens reported having chronic depression. Whereas, the World Health Organization ranks major depressive disorder as the 4th leading cause of disability worldwide. Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mood disorder involving bad mood, low self-esteem and loss of interest in normal pleasurable activities. Depression affects the way of thinking, feeling and acting in daily duties. Major depressive disorder has observable behavioral symptoms. Actually, some behavioral cues are closely associated with depression, such as body language, speech, head and face movement. In most cases, facial expressions indicate individual’s depressed feelings. Technology has the potential to assess those cues for depression diagnosis. There are numerous research groups focused on automated depression detection based on audio and visual signals analysis. Automatic recognition of human emotions have a lot of applications in Human Computer Interaction and Affective Computing field. However until now the performance of such applications is still not satisfying. The aim of this work is to develop a framework for the assessment of major depressive disorder, as a supportive application for the clinical care of patients. In so doing we utilize the dataset of the depression recognition sub-challenge of the Audiovisual Emotion Recognition challenge (AVEC), as it is the only publically available dataset consisted by video recordings that are annotated with a depression index. Algorithmic methods were developed, using MATLAB, for the detection of depression using low level image-based features. In the proposed framework, two different motion representation methods were tested, namely: a) Motion History Image (MHI), and b) Gabor Motion History Image (GMHI). Appearance-based descriptors employed were the employed, namely Local Binary Pattern (LBP), Local Phase Quantization (LPQ), and Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG). Additionally, some statistical features were utilized. Subsequently, machine learning algorithms were selected in order to define the specificity of the proposed framework. The selected classification algorithms are k-Nearest Neighbors (kNN), Random Forest, Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Naïve Bayes. For the MHI approach the best performance 81.93% achieved by appearance-based descriptor HOG, and with combination of HIST-MEAN-STD using SVM classifier for 100 selected features. The execution time for those results are 1.46 seconds and 0.15 seconds respectively. As for GMHI approach the maximum F1 score is 81.93% achieved by the combination of statistical features HIST-MEAN-STD for 10 selected features and the execution time is 0.12 seconds.
Characterization of Almiros river (North eastern Crete) by using chromatography and optical spectroscopy.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Εφαρμοσμένων Επιστημών (Σ.Εφ.Ε), Τμήμα Μηχανικών Φυσικών Πόρων και Περιβάλλοντος Τ.Ε., 2017-06-10) Ζαχαριουδάκη, Δέσποινα-Ελένη; Zacharioudaki, Despoina-Eleni
This thesis studies the physicochemical status and the pollution in the surface water of Almiros river in Heraklion, Crete. The analysis was based on regular samplings throughout an entire water cycle period. Nine samplings were performed from four points among the river during nine different months. The physicochemical parameters were determined by the standard methods of analysis. The thesis has been focused on the presence of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) and Sodium Dodecyl Benzene Sulfonate (SDBS) in the surface water. The simultaneous determination of these pollutants has been achieved by high performance liquid chromatography with diode array and fluorescence detectors. Additionally, the fluorescence properties of the water constituents have been studied and have shown useful information about the quality of the river.
A cloud-based emergency system for smart enhanced living environments.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Τεχνολογικών Εφαρμογών (Σ.Τ.Εφ), ΠΜΣ Πληροφορική και Πολυμέσα, 2017-09-18) Nikoloudakis, Ioannis; Νικολουδάκης, Ιωάννης
The combination of Assisted Living (AL) and Ambient Intelligence (AmI) paradigms, has given birth to a multidisciplinary scientific/technological domain, known as the “Ambient Assisted Living” (AAL). Its aim is to improve the quality of citizen’s life through context-aware environments that can be adapted to each individual’s requirements for improving his/her daily life, especially those with physical/mental disabilities. Enhanced with state-of-the art Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs), AAL provides the means for better, safer and more secure living environments by monitoring citizen’s activities, gathering/processing and analyzing real-time data related to his health/behavior, and proactively alarming (in case of emergency) those in charge (e.g. doctors, physicians, first responders, etc.) and/or his family members. For example, people who suffer from cognitive impairment diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, cerebral palsy etc., need to be constantly monitored about their location in space, since it is very common for this kind of people to leave their premises and be unable to return. In such cases, AAL may assist persons-in-charge (e.g. house-nurses, family members, neighbors, etc.) by informing them about the patient’s exact position, or by proactively alarming first-responders (e.g. caretakers, doctors, hospital, police, etc.) in case of a potential threats/emergency. Since the majority of AAL services and applications deal with large volume of data that require fast processing and resource-demanding infrastructure for rapid analysis and response/results, typical/common home-based computing platforms become obsolete, while sophisticated installations prove to be too costly. Thus, the Cloud Computing paradigm for remote resources provision along with the Services’ Virtualization concept for assets’ elasticity and scalability arise as the driving forces in AAL deployment, due to its omnipresence and resource-rich characteristics. In this thesis, we propose such a virtualized cloud-based AAL system that enables health-cares and first-responders to constantly monitor a patient’s indoor/outdoor position and be alarmed in case of emergency. Positioning is made available through an embedded device (carried by the patient) that performs the proximity and cell identification techniques (Wi-Fi and GSM), which in turn sends the geolocation data to a Cloud-based application for further processing. In case that the patient drifts away from his/her premises, the application retrieves the closest-to-the-patient third party agents (hospital, police, volunteers, first-responders, etc.) through the Location-to-Service-Translation (LoST) protocol, and alerts them about the emergency situation via a SIP-based VoIP communication channel. Finally, a performance evaluation was performed, under controlled-conditions environment and results concerning the system’s response time were obtained.
Comparative study and experimental verification of current sensing technologies for high frequency inductive power transfer systems.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Τεχνολογικών Εφαρμογών (Σ.Τ.Εφ), ΔΠΜΣ Ενεργειακά Συστήματα, 2017-09-11) Salonikios, Konstantinos; Σαλονικιός, Κωνσταντίνος
In the work presented, a research on current sensor technologies that already exist or that can be designed in the laboratory for specific applications, was conducted. We carried out a research and a comparison of the technologies of converters from analog to digital (ADC) and isolation technologies (galvanic isolation) that can be applied to a printed circuit board (PCB). A summary table with the features of these technologies was presented, which are in a data sheet and taken into consideration during the selection of the elements. We approached the experiment by combining these technologies so that we can get the maximum results from their combined operation There is a study on the Rogowski coils, which follows the design and construction of two Rogowski coils, the Planar Rogowski Coil (PRC) and Combine Rogowski Coil (CRC). The equations, the circuits and the method of construction are presented. In addition, the circuits of a Magnetoresistive sensor (CMS 3015), a Shunt Resistor (FC4L) current sensor and a Fluxgate (CaSR-15NP) current sensor were designed, whose circuits are presented on a printed circuit board (PCB). For the design of the circuit, the Altium Designer Software was used.
Converting 2D motion into 3D world coordinates in the case of soccer players video.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Τεχνολογικών Εφαρμογών (Σ.Τ.Εφ), ΠΜΣ Πληροφορική και Πολυμέσα, 2018-07-17) Charalapaki, Eirini; Χαραλαμπάκη, Ειρήνη
One of many important tasks in computer vision applications is real time object detection and tracking. Motion information and visual features, such as shape, color and texture, can be used to extract information from a video, to track and detect objects. Classical tracking algorithms work accurately in perfectly arranged conditions. Although, to efficiently tracking objects is a difficult task due to the variety of the conditions met. Significant problems occurred in computer vision systems, especially under the presence of noise, scene illumination, object shape variation and total or partial occlusion. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a method for effective object tracking and detection in complex scenes, such as sports game. In sports, the constant movement and the unexpected change of the velocity, is a common thing. Furthermore, sport players can frequently leave or enter camera’s field of view, but also occlude each other. A robust solution could combine temporal motion information and statistical analysis of the visual features. The proposed approach would be able to efficiently track targets in motion in real scenes.
CTS physiotherapy using exergames and the Leap Motion sensor.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Τεχνολογικών Εφαρμογών (Σ.Τ.Εφ), ΠΜΣ Πληροφορική και Πολυμέσα, 2017-09-12) Tsilidi, Diana; Τσιλίδη, Ντιάνα
There has been extended research regarding the negative effect of using computers and playing video games, but in recent years researchers suggest that video games, that motivate players to move, especially the games that require the use of sensors and generally motion sensing input devices, can be useful tools for encouraging healthy physical activity. The goal of the current thesis is to study new ways to exploit the advances of the technology and especially the progress made in the field of motion sensing input devices for the development of therapeutic physiotherapy applications. Additionally, the thesis includes an implementation of physical therapy exercises for the treatment of the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) in the form of Unity3D games. CTS is a condition, afflicting a high percent of the population, that affects the functionality of the wrist and the fingers. The motion sensor that was chosen for the development of the games is the Leap Motion sensor, as its accuracy makes it the most appropriate tool for the tracking of hands and fingers.
Design an efficient router for network on chip design.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Τεχνολογικών Εφαρμογών (Σ.Τ.Εφ), ΠΜΣ Πληροφορική και Πολυμέσα, 2018-10-30) Christoforakis, Ioannis; Χριστοφοράκης, Ιωάννης
The increased demand for on-chip communication bandwidth as a result of the multi-core trend has made packet switched networks-on-chip (NoCs) a more compelling choice for the communication backbone in next-generation systems [1]. However, NoC designs have much power, area, and performance trade-offs in topology, buffer sizes, routing algorithms and flow control mechanisms—hence the study of new NoC designs can be very time-intensive. In this thesis, we explore the design space of FPGA-based NoC router. A packet switched NoC router is implemented on Xilinx FPGA devices using parameterized VHDL models. To reduce the area and increase the speed, novel techniques are employed such as utilizing both edges of the clock. The buffer size of Virtual Channels (VCs) can be configured in terms of number of flits depending on the designer’s needs. The router employs minimal number of control fields in the packet while header and data can be sent together in one flit. Credit based flow control is used to accelerate the packet transfers. The proposed router design is evaluated based on area, frequency, and latency. Implementation results show that it is comparable and even superior to widely referenced, previously proposed on-chip routers.
Design and development of a “Property Management System” software suite for hotels.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Τεχνολογικών Εφαρμογών (Σ.Τ.Εφ), ΠΜΣ Πληροφορική και Πολυμέσα, 2018-07-19) Moraitis, Panagiotis; Μωραΐτης, Παναγιώτης
Following the rise of computers and the internet in the past two decades, the shift towards mobile devices in the late 2000s and more recently the growth of cloud services and cloud computing, the landscape of the hospitality business has shifted dramatically. The bulk of room sales has moved away from telephone or walk-in customers, and traditional travel agents, to online travel agents, global distribution systems and the hotel’s own website. A modern hotel unit must adapt to these new standards, or risk falling behind its competitors. A hotel nowadays needs to be connected to several online sales channels, while at the same time, maintaining a strong online presence of its own. The use of a modern PMS (Property Management System) can assist towards that end, by providing the necessary work structure, much needed automation and connectivity. In this thesis, we explore these advancements in the hospitality business in detail, while, at the same time, having a comprehensive look into what a PMS provides and what benefits its use brings to a hotel. The main focus of this thesis however, is the design and development of a brand new cloud-based PMS, using the latest available technologies and laying out its creative and development processes in detail.
Design and development of effective and customizable serious game platform based on learning profile.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Τεχνολογικών Εφαρμογών (Σ.Τ.Εφ), ΠΜΣ Πληροφορική και Πολυμέσα, 2017-12-01) Charitakis, Stavros; Χαριτάκης, Σταύρος
The robust growth of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and its massive usage in every aspect of human life has made a tremendous impact on the learning procedure, leading to new concerns over the need to reform the educational system to embody such technologies. Therefore, a resurgence of interest has occurred in how to use serious games as assistance to pedagogical activities over the last years. Serious games though must be designed for individuals to provide a personalized experience and increase perceived value for learners. However, creating such games is not an easy task, requiring an expertise from a wide variety of fields such as game and software developers, educational specialists, game testers and teachers. Platforms that enable collaboration for creating tailored-made third party serious games are now the top of the international research agenda and there are yet no significant exemplars available. According to the above we have designed and developed the IOLAOS platform, which aims to facilitate the collaboration of user roles in order to (a) enable educational experts to codify learning styles and preferences into game creation, (b) share information and instructions with game developers to make their games adaptable (c) allow teachers to create their own virtual classes, monitoring game learning sessions and customizing their learner’s game experience based on their profile, (d) offer learners a unique game educational experience and (e) permit game testers to constantly evaluate the whole procedure and provide feedback for the reliability of the platform. This thesis describes the design and the development of IOLAOS platform, which will contribute to the educational domain by enhancing the effectiveness of serious games.
Design and development of user-friendly authoring tool for location based treasure hunts.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Τεχνολογικών Εφαρμογών (Σ.Τ.Εφ), ΠΜΣ Πληροφορική και Πολυμέσα, 2018-10-23) Charalampakos, Orestis; Χαραλαμπάκος, Ορέστης
Location based games can be a very attractive way to make the participants discover new places, learn about their history, or just play around! In a treasure hunt, riddles guide the players from point to point. The creator determines the content and the scope of the game, set the riddles and the places that must be found. Physical playground, mixed with the use of mobile technology can create location-based games with rich content, digital and physical. Creators of such games are not programmers, may have not knowledge of developing app-game with theirs content. An authoring tool for location-based games must be used by those people to create their games. This tool must be user-friendly, so the creator can easily design a game with his content. This master thesis refers at the development of a web-platform authoring tool for location-based scavenger hunt games. There are two main sections in this project a) the web platform for the design of a game and overview a gameplay, b) a mobile app for the gameplay. The platform provides to the creator an interactive map. By clicking on this map, the creator is setting a point in the requested area. There are four types of point, the starting point, the point of interest, the help point and the ending point. The digital content of a point-riddle is text, image, video, URLs. The game will be consisted by those different spots of interest. Through overview a coordinator can supervise a specific gameplay of a game. The mobile app is used to present the designed games. A user can select the game through the app and create an instance of a game or participate in an already created instance. The app support team gameplay. This authoring tool can be also used by teachers for creating location-based treasure hunts with rich content for educational purposes.
Design and implementation of e-commerce application with display system of products in social networks.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Τεχνολογικών Εφαρμογών (Σ.Τ.Εφ), ΠΜΣ Πληροφορική και Πολυμέσα, 2020-06-05) Boutsakis, Matthaios; Μπουτσάκης, Ματθαίος
E-commerce applications are beneficial either for buying or selling products through Internet. Users from every place in the world can enter to an e-commerce application at any time and buy online products both quickly and efficiently. Users’ purchases can be delivered to their place of residence or even buy them from available branches of the e-shop application. Due to these advantages, a store that makes such application can undoubtedly raise the number of its customers. From the very first beginning of Internet history, many internet technologies were developed because they had as a purpose to make online activities and transactions as fast as possible. As a result, new web technologies were developed in order to make Internet faster and efficient for the users and also accessible to everyone. For this purpose, we focused on the growth of Rich Internet Applications. Such applications make most of the work on client’s side, while they make all the transfers with the server side in such a transparent way that they give the impression to the end user that they are desktop applications. The purpose of this thesis proves that this possibility of friendly applications can be extended to e-commerce applications too. So an e-commerce application will be designed and implemented and it will contain payment system. The customer can pay with the following ways: PayPal, pay on delivery, cash and deposit. It consists of two web applications: a customer interface system and a management system of products, customers and orders. The implementation will be done in Java language, with Google Web Toolkit which is a web development tool for Rich Internet Applications. System will also offer the possibility to the administrator of the e-commerce application to display selected products from the application through periodic posts to Facebook. The automated posts will take place in time frames that will be determined through a special interface of the application. Finally, it will include summary comparative research among RestFB, Spring Social Facebook and Facebook4J and it will choose the most suitable API for the implementation of the Facebook interface. MYSQL is used as a database. Therefore, the basic questions that we want to answer with this thesis work are how well GWT can respond in the implementation of e-commerce application and how well Social Media can respond for the promotion of e-commerce products.
Developing an ontology exploration application for mobile devices.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Τεχνολογικών Εφαρμογών (Σ.Τ.Εφ), ΠΜΣ Πληροφορική και Πολυμέσα, 2019-07-19) Damianakis, Alexandros; Δαμιανάκης, Αλέξανδρος
In this study, we developed an innovating Android application in order to display data from OWL ontologies. Using some tested technologies for Android development the application became stable and usable. Moreover, we created some new algorithms in order to decode, store and handle OWL ontologies at mobile devices. The first chapter is the introduction of our study. We summarize the structure of the project and we mention the general approach of our concept. At the second chapter exists a demonstration of the related work. All articles, tutorials, and applications that we found and they are related to our topic. We learned what technologies have been used and helped us to find the important issues of that kind of applications. The next chapter includes the main concept of the application. Is presented the system architecture, is analyzed the basic functions of application and is mentioned the used software tools. It is an analytic demonstration of all application operations. The fourth chapter has the usability evaluation of the application. It includes some experiments of user interaction with the application and some performance results that help us to gain some useful conclusions.d Finally, the last chapter is about the total conclusion of our project and some suggestions for future work at related topics.
"Dinotopia" a visual serious game. An application for education purposes.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Τεχνολογικών Εφαρμογών (Σ.Τ.Εφ), ΠΜΣ Πληροφορική και Πολυμέσα, 2018-09-12) Smyrnakis, Athanasios; Σμυρνάκης, Αθανάσιος
Games in education have always been a tool for increasing motivation and interest of the students. What is presented here is a serious game with a purpose to motivate the student to learn about paleontology. The game is developed for Android OS, which nowadays is the most well-established platform for mobile devices. Through a virtual world with visual dinosaur’s models, students are able to move around and “meet” with some of the most known spices of Mesozoic era by using various interaction abilities of the game such as moving, eating, sleeping and even attacking that probably make these models more realistic. The present thesis develops a virtual game for the Android OS based platform dedicated for the elementary kids who wish to explore and learn about a lost world that no longer exist: The world of dinosaurs. The actual purpose of this game is not just the interaction of the students with the dinosaurs but the knowledge that would be acquired through the interaction with their figures. Learning through fun could be the actual description of this work which is trying to meet some of the educational standards of learning and educating such as basic information’s of these ancient animals. Through gaming experience students would be able to distinguish the shape, the body anatomy, and the way these dinosaurs used to move and react. Of course, this game can’t replace the books or any teaching methods. This serious game proposes is to prod the students to learn more about this ancient period of time. The developed game is not entirely completed to be given to schools for learning. Instead, it is an example of how serious games with lots of afford can be developed by individuals or groups and make students to be inspired to learn through entertainment. This game as a basic pattern and a pilot for further development.
Effects of heavy metal stress on Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: A comprehensive study.
(Τ.Ε.Ι. Κρήτης, Σχολή Εφαρμοσμένων Επιστημών (Σ.Εφ.Ε), Τμήμα Μηχανικών Φυσικών Πόρων και Περιβάλλοντος Τ.Ε., 2018-06-01) Αθανασιάδης, Κυριάκος; Athanasiadis, Kiriakos
In marine and freshwater ecosystems, unicellular photosynthetic organisms are being considered as members of great importance for the early detection of potential hazards. Moreover, microalgae are in the base of the food chain and the exposure to potential pollutants such as heavy metal pollution is crucial for any ecosystem because they can transport the pollution to higher organisms in the food chain and can cause a major inhibition of photosynthesis. On these scores, biochemical and molecular biology biomarkers should be seriously take part in any environmental assessment program in order to give the best and most effective results. In this work, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was chosen to be exposed in several sub – lethal levels of Cd2+, Ni2+ and Pb2+ pollution and the effects of the metal exposure on cell growth rates, on the levels of certain metabolites and on specific enzyme activities were determined.