A Practical Introduction to Human-in-the-Loop Cyber-Physical Systems

Chapter 4HITL Technologies and Applications

In an effort to gain an understanding of the existing types of solutions and methods, we will begin by analyzing the scope of HiTLCPSs from a practical perspective, first delving into the processes of data acquisition, then considering different solutions for inferring state, and finally, different techniques for actuation. In the second part of the chapter we will look at several experimental projects and research initiatives in this field.

4.1 Technologies for Supporting HiTLCPS

4.1.1 Data Acquisition

The acquisition of data through which a human's state may be inferred is a complex process, with a multitude of possible sources of information. HiTLCPSs have previously used physical properties, such as localization (e.g. GPS positioning), vital signals (heart rate, ECG, EEG, body temperature), movement (accelerometers), and sound (voice processing) among many other types of information that can be acquired directly from the physical reality. There are also many non-physical properties that may be derived, such as communication behaviors (e.g. phone calls, SMSs) or socialization habits (e.g. social networking data, friend lists). We will discuss some examples of the use of socialization habits and social networking in Sections 4.2.3 and 11.2. Here, we focus on physical properties, since they have greater technological requirements.

Most raw physical data comes from distributed sensor architectures, which are critically important ...