Why this Cluster exists 

The unique concept of this cluster enables the establishment of a research development framework whereby we connect and grow our researchers and research. Through this cluster, we will raise the visibility of our already outstanding academics and enable UniSC researchers to collaborate and contribute to world class research.

Primary functions fulfilled:

• Bring together multidisciplinary UniSC Researcher expertise in AI, IoT, Big Data, Security and Digital Citizen Science.
• Facilitate collaboration between private, academic and public sector organisations within our region, nationally and internationally on smart computing applications.
• Enhance technological capabilities of UniSC researchers in the group themes .

Software Solutions Studio (S3)

A key role of this cluster is to develop and maintain a Software Solutions Studio (S3). The studio creates a pathway to Smart Computing research innovations, implementing technology to support research across disciplines.

S3 offers a more cost effective solution and work experience for UniSC technology students, as well as filling the gap between business as usual ITS and tech research.

Investigation of Data Quality Assurance across IoT Protocol Stack for V2I Interactions

Networking protocols have undergone significant developments and adaptations to cater for unique communication needs within the IoT paradigm. However, meeting these requirements in the context of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications becomes a multidimensional problem due to factors like high mobility, intermittent connectivity, rapidly changing topologies, and an increased number of nodes. Thus, examining these protocols based on their characteristics and comparative analyses from the literature has shown that there is still room for improvement, particularly in ensuring efficiency in V2I interactions. This study aims to investigate the most viable network protocols for V2I communications, focusing on ensuring data quality (DQ) across the first three layers of the IoT protocol stack. This presents an improved understanding of the performance of network protocols in V2I communication. The findings of this paper showed that although each protocol offers unique strengths when evaluated against the identified dimensions of DQ, a cross-layer protocol fusion may be necessary to meet specific DQ dimensions. With the complexities and specific demands of V2I communications, it's clear that no single protocol from our tri-layered perspective can solely fulfil all IP-based communication requirements given that the V2I communication landscape is teeming with heterogeneity, where a mixture of protocols is required to address unique communication demands.

Family caregiver readiness to adopt smart home technology

The aim of this study was to explore factors that influence family caregiver readiness to adopt health smart home technology for their care-dependent older adult family member. Health smart homes are designed to remotely monitor the health and wellness of community-dwelling older adults supporting independent living for as long as possible. Accordingly, if the health smart home is deployed into the home of a care-depended older adult, it can potentially support family caregivers by facilitating workforce participation and give piece of mind to the family caregiver who may not live close to the older adult. However, wider adoption of health smart home technologies into the homes of community-older adults is low, and little is known about the factors that influence the readiness of family caregivers to adopt smart home technologies for their care-dependent older adults.

Nurse-in-the-loop Smart Home Detection

Telehealth and home-based care options significantly expanded during the SARS-CoV2 pandemic. Sophisticated, remote monitoring technologies now exist that support at-home care. Advances in the research of smart homes for health monitoring have shown these technologies are capable of recognizing and predicting health changes in near-real time. However, few nurses are familiar enough with this technology to use smart homes for optimizing patient care or expanding their reach into the home between healthcare touch points. The objective of this work is to explore a partnership between nurses and smart homes for automated remote monitoring and assessing of patient health. A series of health event cases is presented to demonstrate how this partnership may be harnessed to effectively detect and report on clinically relevant health events that can be automatically detected by smart homes.

Espionage Black Book Six: Spy Tradecraft for Citizens Explained

Whether you are travelling abroad, living in troubled lands, you are the potential target of criminals or sociopaths, or just what to live a quiet life; this book will help guide you to your goal. The authors have taken a sensible approach to providing citizens with an understanding of the theory and practice of spy tradecraft. They have applied their collective operational experience in addition to their academic training to separate truth from fabrication and to distil the voluminous amount of information on spies and spying to provide you, the reader, with an explanation of spy tradecraft.

Sports performance enhancing substances on the darknet

Despite the efforts of anti-doping agencies to control doping in sport, the use of performance enhancing substances (PES) and methods remains an intractable issue. Potentially heightening the problem is the emergence of the darknet which provides an anonymous online method for obtaining PES. Despite numerous investigations of PES availability via the regular internet, there is currently little understanding of their availability on the darknet. The aim of this study was to conduct a descriptive analysis of the availability, quantity, cost, and forms of substances included in the 2021 WADA International Standard Prohibited List that are for sale within darknet markets within a 12-week period. A search of substances that are included on the prohibited list was conducted across various darknet trading locations. The search revealed multiple anabolic agents; peptide hormones, growth factors, related substances, and mimetics; hormone and metabolic modulators; and diuretic and masking agents available for purchase on the darknet. The search also revealed the costs, the form (pills, injectables, gels), and available quantities of PES. Given the breadth of products available, it was concluded that the procurement of PES via the darknet presents anti-doping agencies with a novel and challenging problem. Anti-doping agencies and law enforcement could develop strategies to monitor darknet activities and consult cybercrime experts as a part of their toolkit for enforcing anti-doping behaviours. Further research investigating darknet activity of athletes and support personnel is required.

Netball video analysis framework of descriptors and definitions

Using an expert consensus-based approach, a netball video analysis consensus (NVAC) group of researchers and practitioners was formed to develop a video analysis framework of descriptors and definitions of physical, technical and contextual aspects for netball research. The framework aims to improve the consistency of language used within netball investigations. It also aims to guide injury mechanism reporting and identification of injury risk factors. The development of the framework involved a systematic review of the literature and a Delphi process. In conjunction with commercially used descriptors and definitions, 19 studies were used to create the initial framework of key descriptors and definitions in netball. In a two round Delphi method consensus, each expert rated their level of agreement with each of the descriptors and associated definition on a 5-point Likert scale (1—strongly disagree; 2— somewhat disagree; 3—neither agree nor disagree; 4—somewhat agree; 5—strongly agree). The median (IQR) rating of agreement was 5.0 (0.0), 5.0 (0.0) and 5.0 (0.0) for physical, technical and contextual aspects, respectively. The NVAC group recommends usage of the framework when conducting video analysis research in netball. The use of descriptors and definitions will be determined by the nature of the work and can be combined to incorporate further movements and actions used in netball. The framework can be linked with additional data, such as injury surveillance and microtechnology data.

Telepresence robots to support tele-health during pandemics

As the world becomes older, sustainable healthy aging becomes an important goal of social development. Robotic technologies have been widely considered an effective solution to reduce the labor demand and cost in aged care, thus providing satisfiable services to the elderly while keeping the cost low. The global outbreak of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has strengthened this trend when it impacted the elderly most because (1) the elderly was generally the most vulnerable population group to pandemics, and (2) the resources available to the elderly significantly declined due to lockdown and quarantines. The observations and experience from COVID-19 inspired us to consider the impact of pandemics on sustainable healthy aging, which was largely missing in existing work, leading to the study of the use of robots in general and telepresence robots in specific to aid sustainable healthy aging. The methodology of systematic review is applied to retrieve and analyze the articles published in nine databases between 2010 and 2020. Based on the review, the paper classifies the applications of robots in pandemics into four main categories, including healthcare, social support, education, and manufacturing. Further analysis of these applications revealed the missing features and challenges in applying them to healthy aging. The discoveries and findings in this paper provide practical guidelines for the future design and development of (telepresence) robots.

Telepresence Robots in Healthcare in Developing Countries

Developing countries represent about three-quarters of the world's population and have become the main driver for the global population and economic growth. Technology entrepreneurship plays an important role for sustainable development of vulnerable social groups and element. These efforts can channel technological benefits to under-developed regions. We discuss technology entrepreneurship in developing countries, with a focus on mobile health (mHealth) and telepresence robots. Specifically, we discuss how mHealth can help aged and disadvantaged developing country populations cope with normal life difficulties and challenges-but also in the extreme case and threat of a pandemic. Using past practices and lessons in telepresence robots, we propose FLEXTRA, a flexible robot mechanism to support instant video calls, smart medicine dispensation, and remote control. We also illustrate the applications of FLEXTRA in healthcare, e.g., fighting against COVID-19.

Silvercare: a model for supporting healthy ageing services

While digital transformations are happening in all walks of society and business, there is real potential for improving the quality of life of the elderly using digital methods and tools. Digital health promises to deliver better healthcare quality cost-efficiently to more people, especially in the case of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes. It will achieve this by combining the benefits of telehealth, eHealth, data-driven personalised healthcare, and evidence-based care. This book presents a discussion of evolving digital technologies, such as smart phones and assisted living, and innovative digitally based services that are helping improve the quality and cost of healthcare for the elderly.
With its international scope and detailed coverage of relevant digital methods and tools, this book will benefit healthcare technologists, ICT developers, managers of healthcare and mobile healthcare projects, and academic researchers working in related fields.

Contact: Dr. Rania Shibl