Search results

1 – 10 of over 29000
Article
Publication date: 27 September 2023

Huiying (Cynthia) Hou, Daniel C.W. Ho and Yung Yau

Facilities management (FM) activities affect citizens’ health and safety, long-term urban environmental sustainability and the relationships between the built and natural…

Abstract

Purpose

Facilities management (FM) activities affect citizens’ health and safety, long-term urban environmental sustainability and the relationships between the built and natural environments of cities. This study aims to comprehend the status of smart FM tools application, how they are used to improve the delivery of FM services and the barriers to their implementation.

Design/methodology/approach

To investigate the current smart solutions that leverage the quality of FM service, a case study based on the FM practice in Hong Kong was carried out. The case study was conducted in two phases of data acquisition based on a qualitative research methodology. After conducting in-depth interviews to determine the application of smart FM tools in different types of properties and to identify the initiatives and barriers to smart FM tool application, three workshops were conducted to validate the findings and further investigate the influence of FM professionals on smart FM tools application in Hong Kong.

Findings

The findings of the case study revealed, firstly, that four types of smart FM tools – user-centric, safety and hygiene, maintenance and sustainability-oriented – are used to assist the delivery of FM services. Secondly, smart FM tools are shown to be useful in assisting FM activities. Thirdly, the existing barriers to smart FM tool application manifest differently in shopping malls, office buildings and residential buildings. Fourthly, smart FM tools are used to address the four attributes of user needs: comfort, health and wellbeing, convenience and information to occupants.

Originality/value

The value of this study lies in its focus on the industry level (FM industry) and the application process of smart FM tools in different types of property, revealing the benefits, initiatives and barriers to their future application. This study provides a comprehensive picture of the current status and elaborates the barriers to smart FM tool application, which will help FM practitioners to make strategic decisions on selecting and developing smart FM tools. Also, this study will facilitate smart FM tool application policy development.

Details

Facilities , vol. 42 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-2772

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 December 2017

Margarita Angelidou, Artemis Psaltoglou, Nicos Komninos, Christina Kakderi, Panagiotis Tsarchopoulos and Anastasia Panori

This paper investigates the potential contribution of smart city approaches and tools to sustainable urban development in the environment domain. Recent research has highlighted…

4560

Abstract

Purpose

This paper investigates the potential contribution of smart city approaches and tools to sustainable urban development in the environment domain. Recent research has highlighted the need to explore the relation of smart and sustainable cities more systematically, focusing on practical applications that could enable a deeper understanding of the included domains, typologies and design concepts, and this paper aims to address this research gap. At the same time, it tries to identify whether these applications could contribute to the “zero vision” strategy, an extremely ambitious challenge within the field of smart cities.

Design/methodology/approach

This objective is pursued through an in-depth investigation of available open source and proprietary smart city applications related to environmental sustainability in urban environments. A total of 32 applications were detected through the Intelligent/Smart Cities Open Source (ICOS) community, a meta-repository for smart cities solutions. The applications are analyzed comparatively regarding (i) the environmental issue addressed, (ii) the associated mitigation strategies, (iii) the included innovation mechanism, (iv) the role of information and communication technologies and (v) the overall outcome.

Findings

The findings suggest that the smart and sustainable city landscape is extremely fragmented both on the policy and the technical levels. There is a host of unexplored opportunities toward smart sustainable development, many of which are still unknown. Similar findings are reached for all categories of environmental challenges in cities. Research limitations pertain to the analysis of a relatively small number of applications. The results can be used to inform policy making toward becoming more proactive and impactful both locally and globally. Given that smart city application market niches are also identified, they are also of special interest to developers, user communities and digital entrepreneurs.

Originality/value

The value added by this paper is two-fold. At the theoretical level, it offers a neat conceptual bridge between smart and sustainable cities debate. At the practical level, it identifies under-researched and under-exploited fields of smart city applications that could be opportunities to attain the “zero vision” objective.

Details

Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management, vol. 9 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2053-4620

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 April 2024

Rafiu King Raji, Jian Lin Han, Zixing Li and Lihua Gong

At the moment, in terms of both research and commercial products, smart shoe technology and applications seem not to attract the same magnitude of attention compared to smart…

Abstract

Purpose

At the moment, in terms of both research and commercial products, smart shoe technology and applications seem not to attract the same magnitude of attention compared to smart garments and other smart wearables such as wrist watches and wrist bands. The purpose of this study is to fill this knowledge gap by discussing issues regarding smart shoe sensing technologies, smart shoe sensor placements, factors that affect sensor placements and finally the areas of smart shoe applications.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a review of relevant literature, this study first and foremost attempts to explain what constitutes a smart shoe and subsequently discusses the current trends in smart shoe applications. Discussed in this study are relevant sensing technologies, sensor placement and areas of smart shoe applications.

Findings

This study outlined 13 important areas of smart shoe applications. It also uncovered that majority of smart shoe functionality are physical activity tracking, health rehabilitation and ambulation assistance for the blind. Also highlighted in this review are some of the bottlenecks of smart shoe development.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first comprehensive review paper focused on smart shoe applications, and therefore serves as an apt reference for researchers within the field of smart footwear.

Details

Sensor Review, vol. 44 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0260-2288

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 December 2020

Victor Chang, James Liddle, Qianwen Ariel Xu and Ben S. Liu

This paper describes the process of creating a retail ordering application and aims to see how to achieve this through an IDE (integrated development environment) and back-end…

3851

Abstract

Purpose

This paper describes the process of creating a retail ordering application and aims to see how to achieve this through an IDE (integrated development environment) and back-end services for smart cities. The main goals are: allow a user to create an account, allow an admin user to edit or delete an order, create a database of products, test the application and replace the current ordering system, such as a desktop-based application, with a mobile-first approach.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the Scrum method, this paper tries to develop the retail ordering application that can be used on an iOS device, such as an iPhone. Before the application design, the issues related to the software design will be researched and justified.

Findings

The proposed application has been created, and the objectives which were proposed have been met in terms of creating a user account and registering it with the database, using this to log in to the application, creating orders by taking the customer and product details and been able to view and edit these through another admin account for smart cities.

Practical implications

For customers, the mobile-based ordering system makes their shopping experience more convenient and easier. For the business, the staff's work can be more efficient, and companies are able to reduce their expenses. For the new software developers, this work demonstrated the process of creating a retail ordering application from scratch.

Originality/value

This work will be of great value to the customers, retail business as well as the new software developers. In order to establish sustainable cities and provide high-quality life to the citizens, the concept of “smart” has been widely used in urban construction. This paper contributes to the smart city area by creating a retail ordering application based on the iOS system.

Article
Publication date: 9 October 2019

Elham Ali Shammar and Ammar Thabit Zahary

Internet has changed radically in the way people interact in the virtual world, in their careers or social relationships. IoT technology has added a new vision to this process by…

6604

Abstract

Purpose

Internet has changed radically in the way people interact in the virtual world, in their careers or social relationships. IoT technology has added a new vision to this process by enabling connections between smart objects and humans, and also between smart objects themselves, which leads to anything, anytime, anywhere, and any media communications. IoT allows objects to physically see, hear, think, and perform tasks by making them talk to each other, share information and coordinate decisions. To enable the vision of IoT, it utilizes technologies such as ubiquitous computing, context awareness, RFID, WSN, embedded devices, CPS, communication technologies, and internet protocols. IoT is considered to be the future internet, which is significantly different from the Internet we use today. The purpose of this paper is to provide up-to-date literature on trends of IoT research which is driven by the need for convergence of several interdisciplinary technologies and new applications.

Design/methodology/approach

A comprehensive IoT literature review has been performed in this paper as a survey. The survey starts by providing an overview of IoT concepts, visions and evolutions. IoT architectures are also explored. Then, the most important components of IoT are discussed including a thorough discussion of IoT operating systems such as Tiny OS, Contiki OS, FreeRTOS, and RIOT. A review of IoT applications is also presented in this paper and finally, IoT challenges that can be recently encountered by researchers are introduced.

Findings

Studies of IoT literature and projects show the disproportionate importance of technology in IoT projects, which are often driven by technological interventions rather than innovation in the business model. There are a number of serious concerns about the dangers of IoT growth, particularly in the areas of privacy and security; hence, industry and government began addressing these concerns. At the end, what makes IoT exciting is that we do not yet know the exact use cases which would have the ability to significantly influence our lives.

Originality/value

This survey provides a comprehensive literature review on IoT techniques, operating systems and trends.

Details

Library Hi Tech, vol. 38 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-8831

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 June 2020

Joseck Nyaboro, Kwangsoo Park and Jaehyun Park

The study explores how the comparative tourism destination could incorporate the merits of the competitive tourism destination by implementing a socio-technical design application…

Abstract

Purpose

The study explores how the comparative tourism destination could incorporate the merits of the competitive tourism destination by implementing a socio-technical design application for smart tourism.

Design/methodology/approach

To address this issue researchers have conducted a case study in Egypt, because Egypt is one of the most popular tourism comparative destination. It includes two field studies and qualitative interviews conducted in Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt.

Findings

Egypt has diverse comparative advantages in terms of touristic features; however, the dysfunctional flow of information among the stakeholders was a hindrance to be a competitive destination. Based on this problem statement, the researchers synthesized “M-Tour” as a new socio-technical design application, moving toward the competitive destination from the comparative ones.

Originality/value

The present study makes two contributions. First, it theoretically conceptualizes an integrated model of how a tourism comparative destination can incorporate the competitive advantages by a socio-technical design application called M-Tour. Second, it empirically explores the tourists' latent requirements in Egypt by two field studies in order to develop a smart tourism design application as a new socio-technology.

Details

Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. 121 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-5577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 May 2016

Andréa Cacho, Luiz Mendes-Filho, Daniela Estaregue, Brunna Moura, Nélio Cacho, Frederico Lopes and Cristiano Alves

– The purpose of this paper is to describe a smart city initiative presenting a mobile tourist guide developed for Natal, Brazil.

1699

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe a smart city initiative presenting a mobile tourist guide developed for Natal, Brazil.

Design/methodology/approach

This study has employed an exploratory case study approach to gain more knowledge about a smart city initiative and a mobile tourist guide in Brazil. The city of Natal was selected for this case study since it was one of the host cities during the FIFA World Cup 2014. The collected data for this research came from government (e.g. Natal Smart City plan), academic sources (e.g. Metropole Digital Institute (IMD)), and tourists’ information from the mobile tourist guide application.

Findings

The smart city initiative of Natal, and the mobile tourist guide (named Find Natal) responsible for collecting, processing, sharing, storing and analysing the tourist behaviour were detailed in the paper. The Smart City Consortium in Natal is developing an interoperable and distributed infrastructure that is advancing the state-of-the-art in information and communication technologies (ICT) for planning and managing smart cities. The IMD implemented an application, which aims to enhance the traveller’s experience through software programs designed to leverage the infrastructure mechanisms behind the city. The data gathered by the application was analysed to show how it was used during the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Originality/value

The results show a developed ICT initiative in a Latin American country. This study offers a starting point for destinations willing to implement and deploy a smart city initiative.

Details

International Journal of Tourism Cities, vol. 2 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-5607

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 May 2023

Bruno Lot Tanko, Emmanuel A. Essah, Olakunle Elijah, Wyom Paul Zakka and Mustafa Klufallah

The Internet of Things has made the shift to the digital era possible, even though the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector has not embraced nor integrated it…

Abstract

Purpose

The Internet of Things has made the shift to the digital era possible, even though the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector has not embraced nor integrated it within the core functions compared to other sectors. The need to enhance sustainable construction with the adoption of Internet of Things in this sector cannot be overemphasized. However, the real-world applications of Internet of Things in smart buildings remain relatively unexplored in the AEC sector due to several issues related to deployment and energy-saving potentials. Given these challenges, this paper proposes to identify the present state of development and research in Internet of Things and smart buildings, identify Internet of Things clusters and applications in smart buildings.

Design/methodology/approach

Bibliometric analyses of papers from 2010 to 2023 using the Scopus database and scientometric evaluations using the VosViewer software were undertaken. The proper search keyword was identified by using the phrases “ Internet of Things” and “Smart Building”. A total of 1158 documents in all, written by 3540 different writers, representing 2285 different institutions from 97 different countries were looked at. A metasynthesis was conducted and a system of Internet of Things applications in a smart building is illustrated.

Findings

The development of IoT and Smart Buildings is done in two phases: initiation (2010–2012) and development phase (2013–2023). The IoT clusters comprised Internet of things, energy efficiency, intelligent buildings, smart buildings and automation; while the most commonly used applications were analysed and established. The study also determined the productive journals, documents, authors and countries.

Research limitations/implications

Documents published in the Scopus database from 2010 to 2023 were considered for the bibliometric analysis. Journal articles, conference papers, reviews, books and book chapters written in English language represent the inclusion criteria, while articles in press, conference reviews, letters, editorials, undefined sources and all medical and health publications were excluded.

Practical implications

The results of this study will be used by construction stakeholders and policymakers to identify key themes and applications in IoT-enabled smart buildings and to guide future research in the policymaking process of asset management.

Originality/value

The study utilised bibliometric analysis, scientometrics and metasynthesis to investigate Internet of things applications in smart buildings. The study identified Internet of things clusters and applications for smart building design and construction.

Details

Built Environment Project and Asset Management, vol. 13 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2044-124X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 August 2021

Farhad Khosrojerdi, Okhaide Akhigbe, Stéphane Gagnon, Alex Ramirez and Gregory Richards

The purpose of this study is to explore the latest approaches in integrating artificial intelligence and analytics (AIA) in energy smart grid projects. Empirical results are…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore the latest approaches in integrating artificial intelligence and analytics (AIA) in energy smart grid projects. Empirical results are synthesized to highlight their relevance from a technology and project management standpoint, identifying several lessons learned that can be used for planning highly integrated and automated smart grid projects.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic literature review leads to selecting 108 research articles dealing with smart grids and AIA applications. Keywords are based on the following research questions: What is the growth trend in Smart Grid projects using intelligent systems and data analytics? What business value is offered when AI-based methods are applied? How do applications of intelligent systems combine with data analytics? What lessons can be learned for Smart Grid and AIA projects?

Findings

The 108 selected articles are classified according to the following four research issues in smart grids project management: AIA integrated applications; AI-focused technologies; analytics-focused technologies; architecture and design methods. A broad set of smart grid functionality is reviewed, seeking to find commonality among several applications, including as follows: dynamic energy management; automation of extract, transform and load for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems data; multi-level representations of data; the relationship between the standard three-phase transforms and modern data analytics; real-time or short-time voltage stability assessment; smart city architecture; home energy management system; building energy consumption; automated fault and disturbance analysis; and power quality control.

Originality/value

Given the diversity of issues reviewed, a more capability-focused research agenda is needed to further synthesize empirical findings for AI-based smart grids. Research may converge toward more focus on business rules systems, that may best support smart grid design, proof development, governance and effectiveness. These AIA technologies must be further integrated with smart grid project management methodologies and enable a greater diversity of renewable and non-renewable production sources.

Details

International Journal of Energy Sector Management, vol. 16 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6220

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 April 2023

Sadia Samar Ali, Shahbaz Khan, Nosheen Fatma, Cenap Ozel and Aftab Hussain

Organisations and industries are often looking for technologies that can accomplish multiple tasks, providing economic benefits and an edge over their competitors. In this…

1087

Abstract

Purpose

Organisations and industries are often looking for technologies that can accomplish multiple tasks, providing economic benefits and an edge over their competitors. In this context, drones have the potential to change many industries by making operations more efficient, safer and more economic. Therefore, this study investigates the use of drones as the next step in smart/digital warehouse management to determine their socio-economic benefits.

Design/methodology/approach

The study identifies various enablers impacting drone applications to improve inventory management, intra-logistics, inspections and surveillance in smart warehouses through a literature review, a test of concordance and the fuzzy Delphi method. Further, the graph theory matrix approach (GTMA) method was applied to ranking the enablers of drone application in smart/digital warehouses. In the subsequent phase, researchers investigated the relation between the drone application's performance and the enablers of drone adoption using logistic regression analysis under the TOE framework.

Findings

This study identifies inventory man agement, intra-logistics, inspections and surveillance are three major applications of drones in the smart warehousing. Further, nine enablers are identified for the adoption of drone in warehouse management. The findings suggest that operational effectiveness, compatibility of drone integration and quality/value offered are the most impactful enablers of drone adoption in warehouses. The logistic regression findings are useful for warehouse managers who are planning to adopt drones in a warehouse for efficient operations.

Research limitations/implications

This study identifies the enablers of drone adoption in the smart and digital warehouse through the literature review and fuzzy Delphi. Therefore, some enablers may be overlooked during the identification process. In addition to this, the analysis is based on the opinion of the expert which might be influenced by their field of expertise.

Practical implications

By considering technology-organisation-environment (TOE) framework warehousing companies identify the opportunities and challenges associated with using drones in a smart warehouse and develop strategies to integrate drones into their operations effectively.

Originality/value

This study proposes a TOE-based framework for the adoption of drones in warehouse management to improve the three prominent warehouse functions inventory management, intra-logistics, inspections and surveillance using the mixed-method.

Details

Benchmarking: An International Journal, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-5771

Keywords

Access

Year

All dates (29492)

Content type

Article (29492)
1 – 10 of over 29000