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Sensors and actuators are found in large numbers on every production line in every industry. And each and every one of them requires data and power cabling. Not only are these cables costly to install, they are also a frequent source of failure. ABB is introducing a novel wireless proximity switch that incorporates a communication module for the power supply, signal transmission and man‐machine communication, and so has no need for cables.

The aim of the research work presented in this paper is to investigate a mechanism that can recognise high level activities (for example, going for a walk, travelling on the bus, doing evening activity, etc.) and behaviour of low entropy people (people with regular daily life routines, e.g. elderly people with dementia, patients with regular routines) in order to help them improve their health related daily life activities by using wireless proximity data (e.g. Bluetooth, Wi‐Fi).

The paper adopted a tiered approach to recognise activities and behaviour. Higher level activities are divided into sub‐activities and tasks. Separating the tasks from the raw wireless proximity data is achieved by designing task separator (TASE) algorithm. TASE takes wireless proximity data as an input and separates it into different tasks. These detected tasks and the high level daily activity plans that are made in a planning language Asbru, are then fed into the activity recogniser that compares the detected tasks with the plans and recognises the high level activities that the user is performing.

The paper provides an insight to how only wireless proximity data can be utilised to recognise high level activities and behaviour of individuals. A number of scenarios and experiments are designed to prove the validity of the proposed methodology.

This paper focussed on relatively low entropy individuals with regular routines and behavioural patterns which can be improved by increasing the level of entropies in behavioural routines.

The paper includes implications for the utilisation in health care environments for elderly people and physically impaired individuals.

This paper provides a detailed and original study of algorithms and techniques that can be used to recognise high level activities and behaviour of individuals by using only wireless proximity data.

Recognizing daily life activities and human behaviour from contextual information is a challenging task. The purpose of the research work in this paper is to develop a system that can detect indoor and outdoor daily life activities of low entropy mobile people such as elderly people and patients with regular routines using non-intrusive sensor and contextual information.

A framework is proposed that utilises a hierarchical approach in which high-level activities are divided into sub-activities and tasks and recognises the high-level outdoor and indoor activities of daily life. Tasks are recognised at lower level from sensor data and then used by the “activity recogniser” at higher level to recognise the high-level activities. For outdoor activities recognition, wireless proximity data are used, whereas for indoor activities, object usage data obtained through radio frequency identification sensors are used.

For outdoor tasks, results have shown 100 per cent recognition for experiment 1 and a decrease in recognition from 100 to 82.7 per cent, respectively, for experiment 2-9 due to increase in the entropy of individual tasks. Outdoor activity recognition ranges from 84.1 to 100 per cent. For indoor tasks, generating alternative tasks sequences approach effectively recognised the single tasks that were conducted with objects without any order. Average indoor activity recognition rate remains above 90 per cent. The reason why this approach is able to detect the activities without their distinct features is the planning capability of the Asbru that is used in the modelling of high-level activities.

The novelty of this research work is a framework that utilises different types of sensor data and recognises both indoor and outdoor daily life activities of individuals.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse if and how technology districts use proximity dimensions (such as geographical, organizational, and cognitive) as a communication resource for accessing external knowledge sources.

To achieve this purpose, the organizational and cognitive links between technology districts' actors and external ones are identified and then the new geographical boundaries of the districts are drawn. A case study related to an Italian technology district (Torino Wireless) is provided in order to identify how different research organizations located in the district use proximity dimensions for reaching knowledge sources external to the district, then re‐shaping its geographical boundaries.

The empirical study enables identification of the actors connected to the technology districts by means of geographical, organizational, and cognitive proximity, and their locations. Moreover, results show that organizational proximity is mainly adopted to link actors located near the district area. While, cognitive proximity is mainly adopted to connect actors geographically distant from the district.

As regards technology district strategic behaviour, it seems particularly crucial to exploit all the three dimensions of proximity. In particular, the technology district of Torino Wireless should increase its use of organizational proximity to be connected with external knowledge sources.

The paper proposes a methodology for identifying the external actors connected with the technology districts by means of proximity. Furthermore, the relationships between organizational and geographical proximity, and cognitive and geographical proximity are also investigated.

To provide a concise briefing on the developments in robotic welding.

The paper is based on the ABB “Open Days” held at its UK operation.

Gives information on the launch of MultiArc; the arc welding application based on its MultiMove multiple cooperating robot software that runs on the new IRC5 robot controller. Another piece of technology launched was the wireless proximity sensor, which drastically minimises cabling in a manufacturing cell. Some welding software packages were demonstrated, including VirtualArc for off‐line MIG/MAG welding parameter prediction and ArcWeld PowerPac off‐line programming and simulation. Also shown were management software for real time measurement of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), and SmartSpares, a web‐based tool for managing critical spares.

The paper provides information of value to those working or interested in developments in the robotics welding and associated industries.

This paper seeks to help marketers become familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of the current state of wireless technology that is being applied to marketing problems.

The paper first examines successful applications of wireless technology to connect marketing applications to wireless technology. A total of 11 important issues and questions are presented to help marketers know the key points in building a successful wireless application. A glossary to clarify the acronyms is presented.

The main focus is business persons as they will create the technology environment that will become the research environment. The excitement caused by new developments such as wireless has the potential to have significant impacts on marketing practice or lead to major failures. Mobile commerce (m‐commerce) driven by wireless technology is generating interest from marketers. A partnership between marketers and technology developers is needed to create a successful application. Developers are enthusiastic and speak in acronyms and may overwhelm marketers with the excitement of an application.

The paper presents new developments such as wireless technology that have the possibility of significant impacts in marketing and organizational performance that are counterbalanced by the potential of significant failures. This changing business environment will be the environment that scholars doing research in sales and service marketing must understand in order to design relevant research studies.

This research specifies the factors impacting on the success of supply chain management (SCM) systems in the organizations. This paper aims to assess the effect of knowledge sharing, the vehicular ad hoc network (VANET), radio frequency identification technology (RFID) and near field communications (NFC) and the social capabilities of information technology (IT) and information and communication technology (ICT)on the success of the SCM systems and the simplification of the SCM challenges and other factors affecting its success.

A questionnaire is designed for measuring the elements of the proposed model. The questionnaires are revised by experts with experiences in SCM. For statistical analysis, SPSS 24.0 and SMART- PLS (partial least squares) 3.2.6 software package are used. The structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis procedure is conducted in two stages. The reliability analysis and confirmatory factor for analyzing the dimensions and items are included in the first stage. The second stage involves evaluating the assumptions through the SEM.

The results have depicted that four variables (knowledge sharing, VANET, RFID and NFC, and the social capabilities of using IT) affect the success of SCM systems.

This research specifies the factors impacting on the success of SCM in the organizations. These technologies aid companies in improving their performance in the SCM and facilitating coherence and collaboration.