Incheon National University scientists enhance smart home security with AIoT and WiFi

The Artificial Intelligence of Things framework improves the accuracy of human activity recognition

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Incheon National University

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

The proposed framework is promising for coarse and fine human activity recognition in smart homes.

view more 

Credit: deepakiqlect from Openverse Image source link: https://openverse.org/image/be6a1d1f-2d14-4d0e-ae9b-9bf1875fc9a2

Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT), which combines the advantages of both Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things technologies, has become widely popular in recent years. In contrast to typical IoT setups, wherein devices collect and transfer data for processing at some other location, AIoT devices acquire data locally and in real-time, enabling them to make smart decisions. This technology has found extensive applications in intelligent manufacturing, smart home security, and healthcare monitoring.

In smart home AIoT technology, accurate human activity recognition is crucial. It helps smart devices identify various tasks, such as cooking and exercising. Based on this information, the AIoT system can tweak lighting or switch music automatically, thus improving user experience while also ensuring energy efficiency. In this context, WiFi-based motion recognition is quite promising: WiFi devices are ubiquitous, ensure privacy, and tend to be cost-effective.

Recently, in a novel research article, a team of researchers, led by Professor Gwanggil Jeon  from the College of Information Technology at Incheon National University, South Korea, has come up with a new AIoT framework called multiple spectrogram fusion network (MSF-Net) for WiFi-based human activity recognition. Their findings were made available online on 13 May 2024 and published in Volume 11, Issue 24 of the IEEE Internet of Things Journal on 15 December 2024.

Prof. Jeon explains the motivation behind their research. “As a typical AIoT application, WiFi-based human activity recognition is becoming increasingly popular in smart homes. However, WiFi-based recognition often has unstable performance due to environmental interference. Our goal was to overcome this problem.”

In this view, the researchers developed the robust deep learning framework MSF-Net, which achieves coarse as well as fine activity recognition via channel state information (CSI). MSF-Net has three main components: a dual-stream structure comprising short-time Fourier transform along with discrete wavelet transform, a transformer, and an attention-based fusion branch. While the dual-stream structure pinpoints abnormal information in CSI, the transformer extracts high-level features from the data efficiently. Lastly, the fusion branch boosts cross-model fusion.

The researchers performed experiments to validate the performance of their framework, finding that it achieves remarkable Cohen’s Kappa scores of 91.82%, 69.76%, 85.91%, and 75.66% on SignFi, Widar3.0, UT-HAR, and NTU-HAR datasets, respectively. These values highlight the superior performance of MSF-Net compared to state-of-the-art techniques for WiFi data-based coarse and fine activity recognition.

“The multimodal frequency fusion technique has significantly improved accuracy and efficiency compared to existing technologies, increasing the possibility of practical applications. This research can be used in various fields such as smart homes, rehabilitation medicine, and care for the elderly. For instance, it can prevent falls by analyzing the user's movements and contribute to improving the quality of life by establishing a non-face-to-face health monitoring system,” concludes Prof. Jeon.

Overall, activity recognition using WiFi, the convergence technology of IoT and AI proposed in this work, is expected to greatly improve people's lives through everyday convenience and safety!

 

***

 

Reference

 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/JIOT.2024.3400773

Authors: Junxin Chen1, Xu Xu1,2, Tingting Wang3, Gwanggil Jeon4, and David Camacho5

Affiliations:     
1School of Software, Dalian University of Technology, China

2School of Computer Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, China

3School of Computer Science and Engineering, Faculty of Innovation   Engineering, Macau University of Science and Technology, China

4College of Information Technology, Incheon National University, South Korea

5School of Computer Systems Engineering, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain
 

About Incheon National University

Incheon National University (INU) is a comprehensive, student-focused university. It was founded in 1979 and given university status in 1988. One of the largest universities in South Korea, it houses nearly 14,000 students and 500 faculty members. In 2010, INU merged with Incheon City College to expand capacity and open more curricula. With its commitment to academic excellence and an unrelenting devotion to innovative research, INU offers its students real-world internship experiences. INU not only focuses on studying and learning but also strives to provide a supportive environment for students to follow their passion, grow, and, as their slogan says, be INspired.

Website: https://www.inu.ac.kr/sites/inuengl/index.do?epTicket=LOG

 

About the author Prof. Gwanggil Jeon
Dr. Gwanggil Jeon received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering at Hanyang University. He is currently a Full Professor at Incheon National University. He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, Elsevier Sustainable Cities and Society, IEEE Access, Springer Real-Time Image Processing, Journal of System Architecture, and Wiley Expert Systems. He has received the IEEE Chester Sall Award, ACM’s Distinguished Speaker Award, the ETRI Journal Paper Award, and the Industry-Academic Merit Award from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups of Korea Minister.

---

Journal

IEEE Internet of Things Journal

DOI

10.1109/JIOT.2024.3400773 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

An AIoT Framework With Multimodal Frequency Fusion for WiFi-Based Coarse and Fine Activity Recognition

 

Researchers from South Korea reveal how gender shapes perceptions of safety in urban parking spaces

Men and women have different priorities and concerns regarding visibility in urban spaces

Seoul National University of Science & Technology

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

Virtual reality simulations of piloti parking spaces show that men prefer clear views, while women prioritize transparent barriers and minimized blind spots to ensure safety.

view more 

Credit: Dr. Kyung Hoon Lee from Korea University

Multifamily residential buildings with multiple floors are common in South Korea. These buildings usually have pilotis—support structures like pillars that elevate the building, creating an open ground floor generally used for parking vehicles. These piloti parking spaces are often risky to navigate for pedestrians and residents due to limited visibility, unclear boundaries between adjacent areas, and poor management. For instance, these spaces have blind spots that criminals could exploit, which induces fear among people.

Though evidence-based architectural design strategies can improve urban safety, few studies have examined the relationship between the architectural designs of piloti parking spaces, perceived visibility, and crime anxiety. With the rise in gender-based crimes, it is also crucial to understand how gender influences these dynamics.

In this vein, a research team including Assistant Professor So Yeon Park from the School of Architecture at Seoul National University of Science and Technology, South Korea, Professor Gisung Han from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Assistant Professor Jee Heon Rhee, Gachon University, and Professor. Kyung Hong Lee from the Korea University investigated how different architectural configurations of piloti parking spaces and surrounding streets impacted visibility and fear of crime among men and women. Dr. Park highlights, “We also propose design strategies for improving the environment of piloti parking areas and reducing users' fear of crime.” The study was made available online on November 15, 2024, in the journal Frontiers of Architectural Research.

Researchers used virtual reality (VR) to conduct simulation experiments with 85 participants. They created 28 scenarios with varying entrance, boundary, structure, and lighting configurations. Each participant navigated four scenarios and completed questionnaires integrated into the virtual environment to assess perceived visibility and safety.

“Consistent with previous studies, perceived visibility significantly reduced fear of crime for both genders. However, men and women prioritized different aspects of visibility,” says Dr. Park.

For men, any obstruction in their view of the surroundings negatively impacted their visibility. For women, architectural features like walls and side entrances, which create blind spots, negatively impacted their visibility. This is because women were more concerned with unexpected threats within their immediate vicinity than having a clear view of their surroundings.

Unlike men, women prioritized architectural features that offered both visibility and safety. They perceived transparent fences not as visual barriers but as spatial boundaries between nearby spaces and physical barriers that offered protection while allowing women to monitor their surroundings. Similarly, plant fences had a calming effect that reduced crime anxiety among women.

Personal histories also shaped the fear of crime. While men’s experiences of living in multifamily housing reduced their crime anxiety, women’s experiences of victimization increased their crime anxiety.

Thus, architects and urban planners must ensure gender-sensitive design to create safer, inclusive urban environments. Dr. Park emphasizes, “Design strategies like having unobstructed visibility can reduce crime anxiety among men, while having transparent or low-height tree fences and minimizing blind spots can mitigate women’s fear and increase surveillance.”

Hopefully, these insights will direct global efforts toward incorporating innovative approaches like VR in urban planning and creating safer cities for all genders.

 

***

 

Reference
DOI: 10.1016/j.foar.2024.09.005

 

About the institute Seoul National University of Science and Technology (SEOULTECH)
Seoul National University of Science and Technology, commonly known as 'SEOULTECH,' is a national university located in Nowon-gu, Seoul, South Korea. Founded in April 1910, around the time of the establishment of the Republic of Korea, SEOULTECH has grown into a large and comprehensive university with a campus size of 504,922 m2.
It comprises 10 undergraduate schools, 35 departments, 6 graduate schools, and has an enrollment of approximately 14,595 students.
Website: https://en.seoultech.ac.kr/

 

About Assistant Professor So Yeon Park
Dr. So Yeon Park is an Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, South Korea. She earned her PhD in Architecture from Korea University and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Delft University of Technology. Her expertise lies in analyzing human behavior in built environments using various methods, including VR experiments, surveys, interviews, systematic observations, and simulations. Her research provides evidence-based design strategies to enhance individuals' physical, emotional, and psychological well-being.

---

Journal

Frontiers of Architectural Research

DOI

10.1016/j.foar.2024.09.005 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Gender disparities in perceived visibility and crime anxiety in piloti parking spaces of multifamily housing: A virtual reality study

 

The link between finances and loneliness in older adults

Study reveals impact of emergency savings during COVID-19

Ohio State University

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

Older adults who didn’t have enough savings to cover emergency expenses during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic faced another surprising problem: higher levels of loneliness.

 

In a new study, researchers at The Ohio State University found that adults over the age of 65 faced increases in loneliness during the pandemic, regardless of income level or wealth.

 

But those who said they would have to use a credit card to pay off an emergency expense over time were more likely to report high levels of loneliness.

 

“Our study puts a spotlight on the potential dangers of credit card debt and how it can be directly linked to loneliness in older adults,” said Cäzilia Loibl, co-author of the study and professor and chair of consumer sciences at Ohio State’s College of Education and Human Ecology.

 

The data can’t tell why credit card debt is linked to loneliness, but the researchers do have a possible explanation, said study co-author Madeleine Drost, a research manager at Ohio State’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs.

 

“We believe that those who have this financial burden are under a lot of stress, and may not feel like it is something they can discuss with their friends and maybe even their family,” Drost said.

 

“It may lead older adults in this situation to isolate themselves and be less likely to interact with their community.”

 

The study, published online recently in the journal PLOS One, involved 7,149 adults aged 65 and older.  They participated in the Data Foundation’s COVID Impact Survey, conducted by the University of Chicago’s NORC research organization.

 

Participants were interviewed three separate times between April and June 2020. The pandemic lockdown was already in effect when participants were first interviewed, but had eased somewhat by their final interview.

 

Findings showed that, in general, higher income and wealth did not protect older adults from loneliness during those early months of the pandemic.

 

“Loneliness hit people across the economic spectrum,” Loibl said.

 

But emergency savings did make a difference. Participants were asked how they would pay an unexpected expense that costs $400. Those who said they would put it on a credit card and pay over time tended to have higher levels of loneliness than those who said they could pay the expense immediately.

 

This finding fits in with previous research that had shown that credit card debt was linked to financial stress in older adults, and financial stress with higher levels of loneliness, Drost said.

 

The study also examined how the actions taken by older adults to avoid a COVID-19 infection and the personal plans they changed due to the pandemic affected loneliness levels, when linked to their economic status.

 

Participants reported whether they washed and sanitized their hands, kept six feet of distance from those outside their household and wore a face mask.  They were also asked if they had to change personal plans because of pandemic-related restrictions.

 

“Emergency savings, income and wealth did not influence how these actions impacted loneliness,” Drost said. “The COVID-19 pandemic hurt nearly everyone in our sample to some degree.”

 

One possibility that the researchers investigated was that the easing of lockdown restrictions would have helped reduce the loneliness felt by older adults in the sample.  The researchers were able to measure that because the last interview was when lockdown restrictions were eased.

 

But the results didn’t find any relief for participants.

 

“The strong association of loneliness with a lack of emergency funds and COVID-19 measures did not improve for respondents in our sample after lockdowns were lifted,” Loibl said.

 

“It points to longer-lasting implications of loneliness experienced due to limited savings.”

 

While this study was done during the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers believe the findings will continue to be relevant.

 

Many older adults would benefit from financial and credit counseling that may help them now, but will be especially valuable when another emergency strikes.

 

“We need to consider our senior citizens during times of crisis, and how these situations will likely increase their loneliness, especially if they have issues like a lack of emergency savings,” Drost said.

 

Other co-authors on the study were Anastasia Snyder and Michael Betz, both associate professors of human development and family science at Ohio State.

---

Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0314042 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

The association of financial resources and loneliness among older adults during a state of emergency

FEMICIDE

Nurses worldwide experience stress, loss, and violence

More than 9,000 nurses surveyed across 35 countries share mental health challenges coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic

New York University

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

A first-of-its-kind study provides a snapshot of the substantial mental health burden on nurses around the world. Published in the journal International Nursing Review, the research documents the impact of three years of intense working conditions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our study describes how nurses are affected by stressors in their workplace and shows how the stress carries over into their home life. The personal losses from the pandemic complicate this picture as there could easily be lingering grief in a third of the workforce,” said Allison Squires, a professor at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing and the study’s lead author.

Stress and burnout among nurses working during the COVID-19 pandemic are well-documented, but most studies come from high-income countries. To address the gap in knowledge from other countries around the world, Squires founded the Global Consortium of Nursing and Midwifery Studies. The international research collaboration, which now includes nurses and other health professionals from 82 countries, is examining the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nursing workforce.

In the current study, the researchers surveyed 9,387 nurses from 35 countries between July 2022 and October 2023. They were asked about their mental health and other related factors, including loss, burnout, experiencing aggression from the public, access to mental health services, and self-care practices.

The researchers found widespread mental health challenges among nurses working during the pandemic, with rates of anxiety and depression ranging from 23% to 61%. Nurses consistently experienced more mental health symptoms at work compared to at home; the most common work-related issues were feeling tired (57%), anxiety (44%), and feeling overwhelmed (41%).

Rates of mental health issues varied widely among countries, likely reflecting cultural factors associated with psychological stressors or stigma related to mental illness. For instance, 69.9% of nurses in Brazil reported workplace-related anxiety, compared to 23.8% in Indonesia, while 80.9% of nurses in Turkey reported feeling overwhelmed at work, compared to 6.7% in Thailand.

Loss and public aggression were also identified as challenges to nurses’ mental health. Notably, 20% of nurses suffered the loss of a family member, 35% lost a friend, and 34% a coworker to COVID-19.

“The staggering personal losses of friends, family, and coworkers and their effects on nurses’ mental health should not be underestimated,” Squires and her coauthors write.

In addition, nearly half (48%) of nurses surveyed reported experiencing violence and aggression from the public due to their identity as a nurse—”an extremely concerning finding and ongoing health worker safety issue,” noted Squires.

Only 24% of nurses reported that their employers provided adequate mental health services, leaving many without support or relying on self-care strategies. Most nurses reported more frequently engaging in self-care—including exercise, spiritual practices, and leaning on family and other relationships—compared with before the pandemic.

“The increased engagement in self-care practices suggests that nurses, given the intensity of the pandemic’s working conditions, may have turned to these activities to cope with adverse mental health symptoms experienced at work,” said Squires. “However, promoting self-care will not address the scope of the problems we’ve identified; we need to develop targeted and accessible mental health support in order to foster a resilient nursing workforce.”

The researchers call on policymakers and healthcare organizations to increase mental health services available to nurses worldwide and address issues in the clinical work environment in an effort to support the psychological safety of nurses and other frontline workers.

“Given our findings, it is not surprising that we see nurses moving within the nursing workforce to lower stress roles, leaving their positions or countries for better working conditions, or leaving the profession altogether,” said Squires. “This poses a threat to health system sustainability worldwide, and the impact is likely to affect the most vulnerable systems that were already stretched and stressed to their limits prior to the pandemic.”

“This study supports what ICN has been reporting since the pandemic: we are seeing alarmingly high levels of stress and burnout in nurses across the world,” said Pamela Cipriano, president of the International Council of Nurses (ICN). “This is causing some nurses to leave the profession, which added to the aging workforce, will only exacerbate an already severe global shortage of nurses. We need governments to invest in nursing and improve working conditions and salaries in order to retain the nurses they have and attract more to the profession. ICN has published evidence to show that investing in nurses saves money, strengthens economies and saves lives.”

---

Journal

International Nursing Review

DOI

10.1111/inr.13099 

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

A descriptive analysis of nurses’ self-reported mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic: An international study

 

Satire more damaging to reputations than direct criticism

Satire may dehumanize targets, make them more subject to ridicule, study finds

American Psychological Association

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

WASHINGTON - In our digital times as we are inundated with YouTube videos, memes and social media, satire is everywhere, but it can be more damaging to people's reputations than direct criticism, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. 

Seemingly innocuous satire may be more harmful than direct criticism because it can dehumanize people and reduce them to caricatures, the study found. The research was published online in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.   

“Most people think satire is just humorous and playful, but dehumanization exists on a spectrum and can include things like forgetting that others have complex emotions and feelings,” said lead researcher Hooria Jazaieri, PhD, an assistant professor of management at Santa Clara University. “We can take a small piece of humorous criticism and make generalizations about other aspects of a person, which may or may not be true.”    

In one experiment, 1,311 participants viewed YouTube videos that were either satirical or critical of some famous athletes, musicians, TV personalities, or business figures. For example, some videos featured former NFL quarterback Tom Brady’s suspension over the “Deflategate” scandal or Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg about the Cambridge Analytica personal data sharing scandal. 

Participants who viewed either the satirical or critical videos viewed them as equally critical of the targets, but the viewers of the satirical videos had more negative perceptions about the target's reputation.

A similar experiment with 373 participants using memes about Gwyneth Paltrow's skiing accident and lawsuit had similar findings.

In another experiment, 299 participants viewed a satirical meme, a critical meme, or just a photo of soccer manager Jose Mourinho, who had been fired several times from different teams. Both the satirical and critical memes were more damaging than the photo, but participants who viewed the satirical meme had the most negative perceptions of Mourinho.

While satire is often aimed at celebrities, it can be just as damaging for reputations of lesser-known or even fictitious people, according to the study. Specifically, another experiment that replaced Mourinho’s name and photo with the fictitious “Steve Randall” in the same memes had similar findings, with the satirical meme wielding the most reputational damage.

A final experiment found that imagining a brief positive interaction with the targets of satire or criticism can lessen negative perceptions of their reputations by humanizing them.

“Humor, laughter and even criticism have positive benefits and serve important functions in society,” Jazaieri said. “Hopefully, when someone is a target of satire, we will notice if we are engaging in some kind of dehumanization or assumptions about the person that may not be true.”

The researchers opted to focus on non-political figures to extend the field of research on satire. Previous studies about satire have primarily focused on political figures and shown mixed results, with some studies finding satire is harmless while others finding it to be harmful to politicians’ reputations.

This study focused on videos and memes so the findings may not extend to satire expressed only in text or audio, such as articles or podcasts. The findings also may not generalize to minors because only adults were included in the study. 

Article: “Softening the Blow or Sharpening the Blade: Examining the Reputational Effects of Satire,” Hooria Jazaieri, PhD, Santa Clara University, and Derek D. Rucker, PhD, Northwestern University, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, published online Feb. 10, 2025.

Contact: Hooria Jazaieri, PhD may be contacted at hjazaieri@scu.edu.

 

---

Journal

Journal of Experimental Psychology