University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology / Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

M.Sc. / We live in a modern world in which visual perception has become an absolute necessity. Navigating and walking around in a city without getting lost is a difficult enough task when using all senses, but if you are visually disabled, this becomes a near impossible task. All around us are signs, billboards, motorcars, buildings, computers, and other similar signs of modern times, which are most effectively observed visually. The next logical step in assisting the visually disabled to experience the world around them more freely, is to make more effective use of the technology that has created the shift to the visual world in the first place. It now appears possible to design a framework to incorporate not only current, but also future hardware and software into a solution to the above-mentioned problems. Such a framework has to be flexible to allow it to keep up not only with hardware, but software advances as well. Furthermore, it needs to take into account the needs of a typical blind user. One way of implementing this framework is to make use of a form of sensereplacement. Where the visual sense is impaired, technology can be used to analyze and interpret the visual world, obtain meaningful information from the scene, and then re-route this information to another sense. This dissertation is divided into three sections. The first section will provide an overview of the rest of the dissertation. It will also investigate similar research that is currently being undertaken, and provide a model for a possible solution to the above-mentioned problems. The second section will provide the background study needed to make informed decisions when implementing a prototype system. The third section will investigate the implementation of a prototype model, as well as the construction of a pilot project.

The purpose of this study is to investigate creativity, innovation and certain determining factors, which have an influence on creativity and innovation in the micro business environment and specifically in an information technology firm. The information and communications technology (ICT) sector is very dynamic and very fast paced both in the world and in South Africa. Businesses in this sector have to adapt, almost constantly, to incessantly changing technology, customer demands and macro-environmental variables. A vast amount of research exists to suggest that businesses have to adapt to and embrace change in order to survive in this environment. Creativity and innovation are central to change in the organisation. For the purposes of this study creativity is defined as an intellectual process evident in four discernible components, namely the creative person, the creative product, the creative process and the creative environment. Evidence for creativity and innovation includes novelty and usefulness of ideas and new or improved solutions to existing problems within a given context. Novelty and usefulness are therefore characteristic and typical evidence for the presence of creativity. All four components are important for the development and facilitation of creativity and innovation. The four components have a determining influence on creativity resulting in a feedback system. The study specifically focuses on creative environment and in this case - the organisational climate. Organisational climate is the observed recurring behavioural patterns and attitudes in the organisation. This climate influences creativity and innovation by supporting or inhibiting it. An organisation’s climate can also influence other psychological processes such as job satisfaction, decision-making, communication, team effort and motivation of workers across the organisation. The goal of this study was to identify and measure organisational climate factors known to have a significant, determining influence on the work environment, conducive to creativity and innovation. The organisational climate of a firm in the South African ICT sector was measured and analysed. The “Situational Outlook Questionnaire” (SOQ) was used to measure the organisational climate observable in the organisation. The SOQ is employed to assist organisations in assessing the organisational climate for its conduciveness to creativity and innovation, as well as the climate’s ability to foster and promote productivity and change within the organisation. The SOQ was developed over a period of fifty years and is proven to be a reliable and valid measuring instrument. The SOQ assesses nine dimensions that have a direct impact on a creative organisational climate. The nine dimensions are: Challenge/involvement, trust, risk-taking, playfulness/humour, freedom, conflict, debate, idea support, and idea-time. The results indicated the organisation that has been assessed has a strong climate supportive of and conducive to creativity and innovation. The organisation’s SOQ results across all dimensions, except the freedom and debate dimensions, compared very well with other innovative organisations. This could indicate that there is too much debate around decisions, resulting in too much talking before important issues are decided upon. The freedom score was also somewhat low because employees are probably not allowed to make independent decisions related to their jobs. Employees are under obligation to report to superiors before deciding important issues. This organisation’s management strives towards promoting and fostering a climate that is supportive of and conducive to creativity and innovation. This is evident in the results provided by the SOQ as well as the innovative products and services delivered to customers. / Prof. W.M. Conradie

M.Tech. (Information technology) / This research is concerned with establishing the causes for the slow adoption of biometric authentication in the South African banking sector and constitutes exploratory research. It looks at the widely accepted means of authentication and delves deeper into why these modes may not be sufficient to protect sensitive data. The scope of the research is limited to the banking sector only. The first sections of the study establish what the biometric authentication norms are amongst international banking institutions. This is then followed by an environmental study of the South African approach-to biometric authentication. Owing to the limited number of banks in South Africa compared to developed countries, the study is limited to the four major banking institutions in.South Africa, namely ABSA, Standard Bank, Nedbank and First National Bank. An online survey was used to g·ather the required data for analysis. The general approach adopted to investigate the extent to which biometric authentication is used by the said four banks was to first measure the respondents' knowledge of biometrics and to establish the level of exposure the respondents had to the said technology. The next step was then to establish the extent to which the participating banks had investigated the use of biometric authentication. This was followed by consideration of the current use of biometric authentication and lastly, the future use and user perceptions regarding various aspects of biometric authentication in the financial services sector. A matrix that identifies the factors perceived to be impacting the adoption of biometric authentication concludes the last chapter on user perception.

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Organisations are constantly expected to be more competitive while working in an environment in which time and cost are limited, thereby preventing such organisations from taking the time required to be responsive. The supply chain provides a critical linkage between various organisations which should seek collective opportunities to improve performance. It is, therefore, important that organisations understand that conventional knowledge and methods will not serve unless there is a concerted focus on improvement of organisational performance toward fulfilling increased expectations, not just maintaining that which is comfortable. A more sustainable approach may be the introduction of supply chain best practice. An optimal supply chain is one that continuously strives to reduce unnecessary cost and eliminate waste, thereby increasing the percentage of time that may be devoted to value-adding activities. Supply chain technology principles were assessed and the application thereof, sought to understand its efficiency and effectiveness. This study was intended to identify supply chain cost dimensions with a focus on the optimal use of supply chain technology. Within the current supply chain context, the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) was explored to identify opportunities. A supply chain audit tool (SCAT) was developed which had proven to be an effective tool to analyse it’s logistics functions. Implementation of remedial tools through the SCAT could result in a leaner, cost optimal and more value-adding process. The result of conducting individual organisational improvements is expected to result in an overall improvement in the total supply chain. These supply chain cost drivers were rooted in cost, quality, safety and product performance. Recommendations on further improvements were also offered.

Small entrepreneurial businesses are widely regarded as important contributors to the economic well-being of countries all over the world as they create value for both the entrepreneur and the economy in which they operate. The value creation process in these businesses often differs from what commonly happens in larger established businesses. Resources available to the entrepreneur are normally much more restricted and decisions are often based on limited information. This thesis focuses on the value that is created by technology-based entrepreneurial businesses, the leveraging of limited resources and the decision-making orientation they adopt during this process. Given the importance of technology-based entrepreneurial businesses in contributing to economic growth and job creation in most global economies, as well as the limited previous research conducted amongst these businesses, the purpose of this study was to identify the human and social capital factors influencing value creation in technology-based entrepreneurial businesses. With this purpose in mind, the primary objective was to identify, investigate and empirically test the relationships between the various identified factors and Perceived value creation in technology-based entrepreneurial businesses, taking into account their decision-making orientation, as well as the uncertain environment under which they operate. This study uses the Resource-Based View of the business as the basis of its theoretical orientation. The literature review revealed five main categories of constructs, namely Knowledge and skills, Experience, Networks, Decision-making orientation and Perceived environmental uncertainty influencing the dependent variable Perceived value creation in technology-based entrepreneurial businesses. Knowledge and skills, Experience and Networks were identified as independent variables while Decision-making orientation was identified as the mediating variable and Perceived environmental uncertainty as the moderating variable. Six demographic variables (type of industry, age of business, number of employees, age of entrepreneur, academic qualifications of entrepreneur and the number of previous businesses started by the entrepreneur) were also identified as potential influencing factors. Various hypotheses were formulated to be tested during the empirical investigation. Each construct was clearly defined and then operationalised. Operationalisation was done by using reliable and valid items sourced from tested measuring instruments used in previous studies, as well as a number of self-generated items based on secondary sources. A structured questionnaire was made available to respondents identified by means of the convenience snowball sampling technique, and the data collected from 313 usable questionnaires was subjected to various statistical analyses. An Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFA) was conducted which confirmed the different variables, and Cronbach-alpha coefficients were calculated to confirm the reliability of the measuring instrument. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was the main statistical procedure used to test the significance of the relationships hypothesised between the various independent, mediating, moderating and dependent variables. A number of different models were tested, and the results discussed and explained. The main finding of the study was that technology-based entrepreneurial business can create financial and non-financial value by adopting a decision-making orientation in the business of co-creating the future with other stakeholders. The most important human and social capital factors that influence the decision-making orientation of these businesses are Knowledge and skills, Unstructured networks and Structured networks. The main limitations of the study were firstly the convenience snowball sampling technique used to collect responses, secondly the dependence of reporting on organisation issues by individuals, and thirdly the limited number of influencing factors included in the models. Future research should address these limitations, and could include qualitative analyses. This study has added to the empirical body of knowledge on entrepreneurship research by investigating a particularly important segment of the literature, namely technology-based entrepreneurial businesses. By identifying and developing various models that outline the most significant factors that influence perceived value creation in technology-based entrepreneurial businesses, this study offers recommendations and suggestions for managing these businesses in such a way as to improve the creation of financial and non-financial value in them. It further provides recommendations for business teaching programmes to enhance curriculums by focusing on alternatives to the format of formal business planning.

The aim of this research was to establish the optimum processing conditions and parameters for producing nonwoven fabrics best suited for application in disposable and protective wear for surgical gowns, drapes and laboratory coats. Carded and crosslapped webs, of three basic weights (80, 120, and 150g/m2), from greige (unscoured and unbleached) cotton, viscose and polyester fibres, were hydroentangled, using three different waterjet pressures (60, 100 and 120 bars), on a Fleissner Aquajet hydroentanglement machine. An antibacterial agent (Ruco-Coat FC 9005) and a fluorochemical water repellent agent (Ruco Bac-AGP), were applied in one bath using the pad-dry-cure technique, to impart both antibacterial and water repellent properties to the fabrics, SEM photomicrographs indicating that the finished polymers were evenly dispersed on the fabric surface. The effect of waterjet pressure, fabric weight and type and treatment on the structure of the nonwoven produced, was evaluated by measuring the relevant characteristics of the fabrics. As expected, there was an interrelationship between fabric weight, thickness, and density, the fabric thickness and mass density increasing with fabric weight. An increase in waterjet pressure decreased the fabric thickness and increased the fabric density. The water repellent and antibacterial treatment increased the fabric weight and thickness. The antimicrobial activity of the fabrics was assessed by determining the percentage reduction in Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli bacteria population. The maximum percent reduction at 24hrs contact time for both bacteria ranged from 99.5 to 99.6 percent for all the fabric types. The standard spray test ratings for the three treated fabrics ranged from 80-90 percent, whereas that of the untreated water repellent fabric was zero, while the contact angles for all the fabric types exceeded 90 degrees, indicating good resistance to wetting. It was found that the tensile strength of the fabric in the cross-machine direction was higher than that in the machine direction, for both the treated and untreated fabrics, with the tensile strengths in both the MD and CD of the treated fabrics were greater than that of the untreated fabrics, the reverse being true for the extension at break. An increase in waterjet pressure increased the tensile strength but decreased the extension at break, for both the treated and untreated fabrics. The finishing treatment decreased the mean pore size of all the fabrics, the mean pore size decreasing with an increase in fabric weight and waterjet pressure. An increase in waterjet pressure and fabric weight decreased the air and water vapour permeability, as did the finishing treatment, although the differences were not always statistically significant. The polyester fabrics had the highest water and air permeability. Hence low weight fabrics of 80 g/m2, which were hydroentangled at low water jet pressures of 60 bars, were suitable for use in this study due to their higher air and water vapour permeability as well as higher pore size distribution. These group of fabrics thus meet the requirements for surgical gowns, drapes, nurses’ uniforms and laboratory coats.

Obtaining low-latency results from window-aggregate queries can be critical to certain data-stream processing applications. Due to a DSMS's lack of control over incoming data (typically, because of delays and bursts in data arrival), timely results for a window-aggregate query over a data stream cannot be obtained with guarantees about the results' accuracy. In this thesis, I propose a technique, which I term prodding, to obtain early result estimates for window-aggregate queries over data streams. The early estimates are obtained in addition to the regular query results. The proposed technique aims to maximize the contribution to a result-estimate computation from all the stateful operators across a multi-level query plan. I evaluate the benefits of prodding using real-world and generated data streams having different patterns in data arrival and data values. I conclude that, in various DSMS applications, prodding can generate low-latency estimates to window-aggregate query results. The main factors affecting the degree of inaccuracy in such estimates are: the aggregate function used in a query, the patterns in arrivals and values of stream data, and the aggressiveness of demanding the estimates. The utility of the estimates obtained using prodding should be optimized by tuning the aggressiveness in result-estimate demands to the specific latency and accuracy needs of a business, considering any available knowledge about patterns in the incoming data.

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