Gamification as a Tool for Smart Tourism

New technologies have helped to improve the tourism sector and to develop strategies that resulted in the so-called smart destinations, underpinned and transformed by modern information and communication technologies (ICTs). Besides, tourism is a global market that continuously seeks mechanisms to grab tourists' and visitors' attention. In view of that, in recent decades, the gamification concept has acquired new definitions from different perspectives, but always associated with the idea of leisure. In tourism, gamification is related with experiences, which by using game elements and digital game design techniques (virtual reality or augmented reality, among others) improve the tourist experience and the user's engagement. This chapter addresses gamification and its influence on tourism experience, together with some gamification applications' examples that can be effective mechanisms to promote tourism businesses or tourism destinations, raising engagement and generating trust.

Realizing IoE for Smart Service Delivery

Widespread use of numerous hand-held smart devices has opened new avenues in computing. Internet of things (IoT) is the next big thing resulting in the 4th industrial revolution. Coupling IoT with data collection, storage, and processing leads to Internet of everything (IoE). This work outlines the concept of smart device and presents an IoE ecosystem. Characteristics of IoE ecosystem with a review of contemporary research is also presented. A comparison table contains the research finding. To realize IoE, an object-oriented context aware model is presented. This model is based on Unified Modelling Language (UML). A case study of a museum guide system is outlined that discusses how IoE can be implemented. The contribution of this chapter includes review of contemporary IoE systems, a detailed comparison, a context aware IoE model, and a case study to review the concepts.

Smart Blockchain

A blockchain is a digitized, decentralized, open system of records. Of late, there is a phenomenal spurt in the research and application activities of the catch-all phrase analytics, which subsumes machine learning, text mining, classical optimization, artificial intelligence, evolutionary computing, visual analytics, big data analytics, etc. in many a diverse field. Consequently, even new technology like blockchain is not left behind. This chapter presents a comprehensive survey of 33 papers that appeared between 2016 and 2018 under the theme, ‘Analytics and Blockchain', which focuses on how analytical approaches and blockchain implementation are symbiotically related to improve their overall performance in solving various real-world problems. The core idea behind the survey is to facilitate the reader to appreciate the utility of analytical methods to the design, implementation, and application of blockchain and suggesting future directions for further research.

Virtual and Augmented Reality for the Visualization of Summarized Information in Smart Cities

In this chapter, authors deal with the problem of visualizing summarized information in a complex system like a smart city. They introduce the topic of smart city in the context of the information revolution that is taking place in the world. Next, they review how this information can be visualized, highlighting immersive 3D methods such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), which are particularly suitable for these applications, since 2D information does not usually induce a focused and sustained attention. The chapter describes and shows a use case in which VR and Spatial AR (SAR) are used in a smart city system to visualize summarized information about the state and management of the city. The SAR system relies on a multi-projector mapping procedure, and therefore authors also explain the technical details that the calibration and implementation of this type of AR application requires.

The Edgard Project

As Artificial Intelligence technologies advance, their use becomes increasingly widespread, and what was once a fantasy of being able to communicate with a virtual being is now part of our everyday lives. New issues arise with every new technology, and discussions are needed to avoid significant problems. By looking at what is happening now and at the impact that AI has and will continue to have, one needs to remember history and its contradictions with a critical mind to have a more ethical approach to technology innovations. This chapter focuses on the Edgard Project, an intersection between Contemporary Art and Conversational Interface Design. Consisting of a chatbot named Edgard, the project emerges as an artistic approach to encourage critical thinking about the technology that gives him “life” and highlights the contradictions of AI through its ironic discourse and outdated interface.

Lower Memory Consumption for Data Transmission in Smart Cloud Environments With CBEDE Methodology

Smart telecoms will deliver lasting improvements to business productivity and enduring consumer benefits that raise the quality of life by enabling telecommuting, telemedicine, entertainment, access to e-government, and a wealth of other online services. And we'll need next-generation digital platforms on which telecom providers can create and deliver all kinds of services. Therefore, this chapter develops a method of data transmission based on discrete event concepts. This methodology was named CBEDE. Using the MATLAB software, the memory consumption of the proposed methodology was evaluated, presenting the great potential to intermediate users and computer systems, ensuring speed, low memory consumption, and reliability. With the differential of this research, the use of discrete events applied in the physical layer of a transmission medium, the bit itself, being this to low-level of abstraction, the results show better computational performance related to memory utilization, showing an improvement of up to 79.89%.

Scenarios for a Smart Tourism Destination Transformation

Reluctance and even resistance for the city transformation into a smart tourism destination (STD) may occur on the edge field of smart systems, even if over time, often with political changes, this resistance breaks down. This situation is occurring in Cordoba (Spain) which held the record of four inscriptions in the World Heritage Lists granted by UNESCO. The concept of smart tourism is recent. As a research domain, it is only emerging. So, few analyses and case studies were elaborated on it. This chapter shows how this reluctance is coming from stakeholders and how the transformation of Cordoba into a smart destination can be made harmoniously. Three scenarios are possible for this transformation either following actual tendencies or looking for two other paths, the green one or the intercultural one; how it could be done and its impacts on the City and the Province of Cordoba's economy, society, culture, and environment.

Leveraging IoT Framework to Enhance Smart Mobility

The planning, designing, deploying, and measuring the smart mobility concept is very important since it can impact several aspects of city life such as how and where people live and fulfil their needs and desires. Given the complexity of the problem, this chapter proposes a general IoT framework for smart mobility that could guide the development of a smart mobility system to manage communications, devices, and services, as well as applications to achieve smart mobility goals. This chapter describes the U-Bike system within the IoT framework and smart mobility paradigms, i.e., in terms of IoT framework structure and operationalization, as well as quality attributes (i.e. non-functional requirements). Recently, the U-Bike system began to be used, making it possible to estimate if it fulfils the objectives of the project. This assessment was performed using focus group method and interviews.

Average Speed of Public Transport Vehicles Based on Smartcard Data

In public transport, traveler dissatisfaction is widespread, due to long waits and travel time, or the low frequency of the service provided. Public transport providers are increasingly concerned about improving the service provided. To improve public transport, detailed knowledge of the network and its weaknesses is necessary. An easy and cheap way to achieve this information is to extract knowledge from the data daily collected in a public transport network. Thus, this chapter focuses on data analysis resulting from the smartcard-based ticketing system. The main objective is to detect patterns of average speed for all days of the week and times of the day, along with pairs of consecutive stops. To perform the analyses, the average speed was deduced from ticketing data, and clustering methods were applied. The results show that it is possible to find segments with similar patterns and identify days and times with similar patterns.

The Exploration of Autonomous Vehicles

This chapter explores the world of autonomous vehicles. Starting from the beginning, it covers the history of the automobile dating back to 1769. It explains how the first production automobile came about in 1885. The chapter dives into the history of auto safety, ranging from seatbelts to full-on autonomous features. One of the main focuses is the creation and implementation of artificial intelligent (AI), neural networks, intelligent agents, and deep Learning Processes. Combining the hardware on the vehicle with the intelligence of AI creates what we know as autonomous vehicles today.