Designing Post COVID-19 Buildings: Approaches for Achieving Healthy Buildings

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the accessibility, social gathering, lifestyle, and working environment to be changed to reduce the infection. Coronavirus spreads between people in several different ways. Small liquid particles (aerosols, respiratory droplets) from an infected person are transmitted through air and surfaces that are in contact with humans. Reducing transmission through modified heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and building design are potential solutions. A comprehensive review of the engineering control preventive measures to mitigate COVID-19 spread, healthy building design, and material was carried out. The current state-of-the-art engineering control preventive measures presented include ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI), bipolar ionization, vertical gardening, and indoor plants. They have potential to improve the indoor air quality. In addition, this article presents building design with materials (e.g., copper alloys, anti-microbial paintings) and smart technologies (e.g., automation, voice control, and artificial intelligence-based facial recognition) to mitigate the infections of communicable diseases.

WAVELET DETAIL COEFFICIENT AS A NOVEL WAVELET-MFCC FEATURES IN TEXT-DEPENDENT SPEAKER RECOGNITION SYSTEM

Speaker recognition is the process of recognizing a speaker from his speech. This can be used in many aspects of life, such as taking access remotely to a personal device, securing access to voice control, and doing a forensic investigation. In speaker recognition, extracting features from the speech is the most critical process. The features are used to represent the speech as unique features to distinguish speech samples from one another. In this research, we proposed the use of a combination of Wavelet and Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC), Wavelet-MFCC, as feature extraction methods, and Hidden Markov Model (HMM) as classification. The speech signal is first extracted using Wavelet into one level of decomposition, then only the sub-band detail coefficient is used as the feature for further extraction using MFCC. The modeled system was applied in 300 speech datasets of 30 speakers uttering “HADIR” in the Indonesian language. K-fold cross-validation is implemented with five folds. As much as 80% of the data were trained for each fold, while the rest was used as testing data. Based on the testing, the system's accuracy using the combination of Wavelet-MFCC obtained is 96.67%. ABSTRAK: Pengecaman penutur adalah proses mengenali penutur dari ucapannya yang dapat digunakan dalam banyak aspek kehidupan, seperti mengambil akses dari jauh ke peranti peribadi, mendapat kawalan ke atas akses suara, dan melakukan penyelidikan forensik. Ciri-ciri khas dari ucapan merupakan proses paling kritikal dalam pengecaman penutur. Ciri-ciri ini digunakan bagi mengenali ciri unik yang terdapat pada sesebuah ucapan dalam membezakan satu sama lain. Penyelidikan ini mencadangkan penggunaan kombinasi Wavelet dan Mel Frekuensi Pekali Cepstral (MFCC), Wavelet-MFCC, sebagai kaedah ekstrak ciri-ciri penutur, dan Model Markov Tersembunyi (HMM) sebagai pengelasan. Isyarat penuturan pada awalnya diekstrak menggunakan Wavelet menjadi satu tahap penguraian, kemudian hanya pekali perincian sub-jalur digunakan bagi pengekstrakan ciri-ciri berikutnya menggunakan MFCC. Model ini diterapkan kepada 300 kumpulan data ucapan daripada 30 penutur yang mengucapkan kata "HADIR" dalam bahasa Indonesia. Pengesahan silang K-lipat dilaksanakan dengan 5 lipatan. Sebanyak 80% data telah dilatih bagi setiap lipatan, sementara selebihnya digunakan sebagai data ujian. Berdasarkan ujian ini, ketepatan sistem yang menggunakan kombinasi Wavelet-MFCC memperolehi 96.67%.

Peculiarities of Voice, Intonation and Speech Tone of the Actor in the Role

The purpose of the article is to study the peculiarities of the voice work during the role of the actor by studying the main aspects of the speech act implementation, the work of the registers and the speech apparatus; to carry out a comparative analysis of different types of the actor’s existence in the role and reading of the literary text. The research methodology is based on the main principles of the actor’s speech tools, the definition and comparison of different methods of voice, support, breathing, and the use of basic actor’s techniques in the process of reading a literary text by separating and embodying them during the actor’s speech act. The scientific novelty of the research is to study the main aspects of existence during artistic reading and the use of non-standard for acting voice techniques, interpreting them for use during the role. Identification of new approaches to the implementation of speech, the creative act and the latest ways to express the psycho-emotional state of the character through the use of unusual principles of the speech apparatus in ordinary life situations. Conclusions. The results of studies identify the basic principles of the human speech apparatus and the problems of voice control during the arousal of the psycho-emotional condition of the actor in the role, problems and errors in various methods and scientific works of masters in the field of stage language. Through experiments and interpretations of various approaches to working with voice, new, universal methods of speech control have been borrowed, borrowed by studying the process of reading a literary text by actors and applying these principles to the role.

Smart Home Multi-Factor Authentication Using Face Recognition and One-Time Password on Smartphone

Recently, the adoption of smart home technology has been on the rise and becoming a trend for home residents. The development of Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology drives the smart home authentication system with biometric systems such as facial recognition, fingerprint, and voice control techniques. In the context of homeowners, security is always the primary concern. However, conventional home security and the existing smart home security system have some limitations. These techniques use single-factor authentication, which provides limited protection for home security. Therefore, this project proposed a design for smart home multi-factor authentication using facial recognition and a one-time password sent to smartphones for a home security system. Rapid application development was the methodology for conducting this study. A usability evaluation suggested that the proposed smart home multi-factor authentication is acceptable, but some usability issues can be improved in the future.

Appliance Control with IOT-Arduino of Voice Command Detection for Mobility Impaired People

People with physical mobility disabilities experience limited ability to perform daily routine. Integration between home appliances and Internet of Thing (IoT) can be used to support these people. The technology allows tasks to be performed much more easily and enable access to applications and services that would be a challenge with existing digital user interfaces. However, the developed system that is commercially available is costly and equipped with highly specific interfaces which may require considerable technical competency to conduct system interfacing. The purpose of this study is to develop a low cost IOT system for voice-enabled lamp control by utilizing Google Assistant that is available in commercial Android based mobile devices, allowing user to operate lighting appliances without moving. Personal assistance using Google platform embedded with Arduino microcontroller, ESP8266-based NodeMCU development board and integrated Blynk application allow for remote monitoring capability. The system is remotely controlled from a tablet or smartphone to assist disabled people with restricted mobility, in particular those with lower limb disabilities. The system had been tested and demonstrated that the lamp control can be easily accessed by voice command that is then validated using voice pitch analyzer. Test result indicated that capability of the integrated voice control system is verified up to a maximum distance of 24.5 meter, making it a potential implementation in any customized smart home or room system for people with mobile disability.

Smart Wheelchair with Voice Control for Physically Challenged People

A wheel chair is a mechanically operated device that allows the user to move about independently. This minimizes the user's personal effort and force required to move the wheelchair wheels. Furthermore, it allows visually or physically handicapped people to go from one location to another. Voice commands and button controls can be used to operate wheelchairs. In recent years, there has been a lot of interest in smart wheelchairs. These gadgets are very handy while traveling from one location to another. The devices can also be utilized in nursing homes where the elderly have difficulties moving about. For individuals who have lost their mobility, the gadgets are a godsend. Different types of smart wheelchairs have been created in the past, but new generations of wheelchairs are being developed and utilized that incorporate the use of artificial intelligence and therefore leave the user with a little to tamper with. The project also intends to develop a comparable wheel chair that has some intelligence and so assists the user in his or her mobility.

Coordinated intelligent manipulator based on exoskeleton

Manipulators have a wide range of applications in telemedicine, deep-sea exploration, remote explosive-removal and prosthesis for the disabled. Based on exoskeleton and voice control, a coordinated intelligent manipulator was proposed in this paper. The main design scheme, attitude angle data acquisition and data processing methods were given, and the final test results were obtained.

Autonomous Mars Rover Design using SOLIDWORKS and User Interface development via Internet of Things

In this paper, an autonomous Mars Rover is designed using the software SOLIDWORKS and a mechanical model is developed with in-depth simulations to analyse the functions of the vehicle. Furthermore, a graphical user interface is also developed based on the principles of Internet of Things using Node-Red to control and monitor the rover remotely. The red planet, i.e.; Mars, has been the centre of attraction for over 2 decades now, with astrophysicists and engineers working in unison to build devices and launch shuttle programs to understand and learn about the planet and gather more intelligence. This paper proposes the detailed development of a 6-wheeled rover that could explore the terrains of Mars, featuring a stereo vision system that could provide live video coverage and a robotic arm that can facilitate investigation of the surface, in an attempt to contribute to and fulfil the human race’s mission to Mars. It employs multiple onboard sensors that can acquire necessary data pertaining to the environmental conditions and actuators that enable functionality, with the sensors and actuators integrated onto a control system based on microcontrollers and microprocessors such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi. The rover also has a provision of a payload bay in its rear which enables it to carry loads. The SOLIDWORKS tool from Dassault systèmes is used to design and model the rover and carry out static analysis and motion studies. The GUI developed in the further sections allows overall voice control for the user and makes the task of monitoring the rover a much simpler task by eliminating the complexity that rises due to multiple control platforms. Keywords: Mars Rover, Graphical User Interface (GUI), Chassis, Mastcam, Actuators, Internet of Things (IoT), Nitinol, Payload

Edge Container for Speech Recognition

Containerization has been mainly used in pure software solutions, but it is gradually finding its way into the industrial systems. This paper introduces the edge container with artificial intelligence for speech recognition, which performs the voice control function of the actuator as a part of the Human Machine Interface (HMI). This work proposes a procedure for creating voice-controlled applications with modern hardware and software resources. The created architecture integrates well-known digital technologies such as containerization, cloud, edge computing and a commercial voice processing tool. This methodology and architecture enable the actual speech recognition and the voice control on the edge device in the local network, rather than in the cloud, like the majority of recent solutions. The Linux containers are designed to run without any additional configuration and setup by the end user. A simple adaptation of voice commands via configuration file may be considered as an additional contribution of the work. The architecture was verified by experiments with running containers on different devices, such as PC, Tinker Board 2, Raspberry Pi 3 and 4. The proposed solution and the practical experiment show how a voice-controlled system can be created, easily managed and distributed to many devices around the world in a few seconds. All this can be achieved by simple downloading and running two types of ready-made containers without any complex installations. The result of this work is a proven stable (network-independent) solution with data protection and low latency.

Natural Speech Signal Recognition Algorithm

Speech recognition technologies are becoming more and more part of our lives, providing a convenient way to control a variety of electronic devices - voice control. One of the current problems that is solved in the development of such control systems is the problem of insufficient accuracy of voice command recognition. Improvements are being made to increase reliability, independence from individual voice characteristics, and reduce the negative impact of background noise on recognition quality. The paper presents an algorithm for recognizing and processing user intentions using a neural network built on the principle of understanding natural language and processing audio signals for use in the user support system.