@proceedings {468, title = {Using Google Cloud Vision in Assistive Technology Scenarios}, journal = {IEEE Workshop on ICT solutions for eHealth 2016 (ICTS4eHealth2016)}, year = {2016}, address = {Messina, Italy}, abstract = {

Google Cloud Vision is an image recognition technology that allows you to remotely process the content of an image and to retrieve its relevant features, including image labeling, face and landmark detection, optical character recognition, and tagging of explicit content. By using specialized REST API, called Google Cloud Vision API, developers exploit such a technology within their own applications. Currently, this cloud-based tool is in limited preview and its services are accessible for trusted tester users only. From a developer{\textquoteright}s perspective, in this paper, we intend to use such software resources in order to achieve assistive technology solutions for people with disabilities. Specifically, we investigate some potential benefits of Cloud Vision tool towards the development of applications for users who are blind.

}, keywords = {API, Assistive Technology, embedded systems, Google Cloud Vision, Image Processing}, author = {D. Mulfari and A. Celesti and M. Fazio and M. Villari and A. Puliafito} } @proceedings {48, title = {Using Virtualization And noVNC to Support Assistive Technology In Cloud Computing}, journal = {Third Symposium on Network Cloud Computing and Applications (NCCA)}, year = {2014}, pages = {125{\textendash}132}, publisher = {IEEE COMPUTER SOC}, address = {Wa}, abstract = {

In this paper, we focus on how the virtualization technology can support the usage of Assistive Technology (AT) in cloud computing. AT provides software tools to people with disabilities. Unfortunately, these pieces of software are not easy to configure when a disabled user needs to occasionally use a shared computer, e.g., in an internet point, in a library, in a campus, and so on. The proposed solution allows users to access remote Virtual Machines (VMs) through an HTML5 web interface. These virtual environments meet the user{\textquoteright}s personal demand: they support both traditional desktop applications and customized AT tools. In this way, people with disabilities can use any networked computer with a web browser to manage their personal working environments. Nevertheless, achieving such a goal in a cloud computing environment is not trivial at all, because existing remote desktop client viewer applications have not been designed to support the interaction with AT software running on VMs. To achieve such an objective, we propose an open source cloud-based system including no VNC as HTML5 remote desktop proxy/client web application, Virtual Network Computing (VNC) as open source technology to access a remote VM, Oracle Virtual Box as hypervisor, and CLEVER as Virtual Infrastructure Manager (VIM) middleware.

}, keywords = {Assistive Technology, cloud computing, disabled user, HTML5, Virtualization, VNC}, issn = {978-0-7695-5168-5}, doi = {10.1109/NCCA.2014.28}, author = {D. Mulfari and A. Celesti and M. Villari and A. Puliafito} } @proceedings {49, title = {Using Virtualization And Guacamole/vnc To Provide Adaptive User Interfaces To Disabled People In Cloud Computing}, journal = {The 10th IEEE International Conference on Ubiquitous Intelligence and Computing (UIC-2013)}, year = {2013}, month = {20}, pages = {72{\textendash}79}, publisher = {IEEE COMPUTER SOC}, address = {Washington, DC}, abstract = {

Assistive Technology (AT) provides essential computer accessibility for people with disabilities. In this paper, we examine how Cloud computing can provide adaptive user interfaces to people with disabilities in order to enable them accessing AT tools in form of Software as a Service (SaaS). The proposed solution consists in creating adaptive user interfaces deploying AT tools in Virtual Machines (VMs) which users can manage through the Internet. By using an HTML5-based web interface, computer users with disabilities are able to interact with personalized virtual desktops from any networked computer by means of a web browser without having to setup additional software on the physical machine. Nevertheless, using AT software in web-accessed VMs is not so easy as well as in physical Desktops, because several issues have to be overcome. In order to address such issues, we discuss an architecture integrating Guacamole, i.e., an HTML5 remote desktop gateway, Virtual Network Computing (VNC), i.e., a technology to control a remote Desktop, Virtual Box, i.e., a virtual machine monitor (or hypervisor), and CLEVER a Virtual Infrastructure Manager (VIM) middleware.

}, keywords = {Assistive Technology, cloud computing, HTML5, Physiological, Remote desktop, Virtualization infrastructure, Web browser}, issn = {978-1-4799-2481-3}, doi = {10.1109/UIC-ATC.2013.42}, author = {D. Mulfari and A. Celesti and M. Villari and A. Puliafito} }