Widespread adoption of mobile payments has not taken place despite a decade of trials in various countries based upon a mobile phone handset that does not have the technology capabilities of today’s smart phones. However, significant technology developments have led to widespread consumer adoption of smart phones and other devices that may now provide the foundation for wider consumer adoption of mobile payments. Understanding UK consumer cultural perceptions on the new phenomenon is one of the first steps to influencing purchase behaviour. This thesis is based upon a post-positivist philosophy and a social constructionist ontology that explores UK consumer perceptions of mobile payments through human cognitive and affective responses of consumer payment behaviour as these influence attitude that leads to adoption. However, UK consumer interest in mobile payments on its own is unlikely to be enough to change payment behaviour, although meeting specific payment needs can motivate consumers to amend their payment behaviour that can lead to widespread adoption. Inductive empirical research is used to explore UK consumer perceptions of mobile payments through sequential mixed methods. A questionnaire is used as the 1st research instrument with closed questions that explore various aspects of consumer interest in the mobile payments phenomenon. The key themes identified from the numerical analysis of the questionnaire data are used to guide the semi-structured interviews. Content analysis is then undertaken on the qualitative interview data from which new knowledge on consumer perceptions of mobile payments is identified. Analysis of the empirical data suggests that UK consumers have significant technology and security concerns which negatively affect consumer interest. Despite these concerns, UK consumers demonstrate interest in the mobile payments phenomenon when perceived usefulness benefits are identified. The perceived usefulness positively influences attitude that overcomes perceived risks which can lead to amended consumer payment behaviour and widespread adoption. In addition, UK consumers have a significant lack of trust towards unknown organisations as well as new market entrants although there is an increased level of trust in mobile payments provided by UK banks as well as other established organisations. This research fills an important gap in existing literature on consumer payment behaviour as it explores UK consumer cultural perceptions of the mobile payments phenomenon using smart phones and contactless consumer devices; whereas earlier consumer payment research is based upon a mobile phone handset that does not have the technology capabilities of today’s smart phones and has an Asian and Nordic cultural focus. Furthermore, this research provides UK empirical evidence that refines and extends existing research through the use of sequential mixed methods whilst adding to the understanding of UK consumer attitudes related to UK payment instruments.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T15:56:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo3096_1.pdf: 4031500 bytes, checksum: 3cfbafa985058f2171a93b3e230c2c35 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Desde equipamentos de vigillância por vídeo a câmeras digitais e telefones celulares, a detecção de rostos e uma funcionalidade que esta rapidamente ganhando peso no projeto de interfaces de usuario mais inteligentes e tornando a interação homem-maquina cada vez mais natural e intuitiva. Com isto em mente, fabricantes de chips estão embarcando esta tecnologia na sua nova geração de processadores de sinal de imagem (ISP) desenvolvidos especificamente para uso em aparelhos celulares. O foco deste trabalho foi analisar um algoritmo para detecção de rostos para suportar a definição da arquitetura mais adequada a ser usada na solução final. Um algoritmo inicial baseado na tecnica de Cascata de Caracteristicas Simples foi usado como base para este trabalho. O algoritmo inicial, como especificado, leva quase quarenta segundos para processar um unico quadro de imagem no processador alvo, tempo este que inviabilizaria o uso desta solução. Focando na implementação de um novo ISP, o algoritmo foi completamente reescrito, otimizado e propriamente mapeado na plataforma alvo, ao ponto onde um fator de aceleração de 167x foi atingido e uma imagem de pior caso agora leva menos de 250 milissegundos para ser processada. Este numero e ainda mais baixo se for considerada a media em um conjunto maior de imagens ou um vídeo, caindo para cerca de 100 milissegundos por quadro de imagem processado. Não obstante, performance não foi o unico alvo, tambem a quantidade de memoria necessaria foi dramaticamente reduzida. Isto tem um impacto direto na area de silicio requerida pelo circuito e conseq uentemente menores custos de producao e consumo de potência, fatores criticos em um sistema para aplicações moveis. E importante ressaltar que a qualidade não foi deixada de lado e em todas as otimizações realizadas, tomou-se o cuidado de verificar que a qualidade de detecção não tinha sido impactada. Este documento apresenta a pesquisa feita e os resultados obtidos. Começa por uma breve introdução ao assunto de Visão Computacional e aos desafios de projetar uma solução de detecção de rostos. Apos esta introdução, o algoritmo que serviu como base para este trabalho e apresentado juntamente com as otimizações mais relevantes ao nivel algoritmico para melhorar a performance. Na sequência, instruções customizadas desenvolvidas para acelerar a execução do algoritmo na solução final são apresentadas e discutidas

The phenomenon of rapid increment of the mobile phones can be utilized through supporting patients, such as those who have tuberculosis, for treatment adherence. This utilization will enable these patients to directly communicate their needs and requirements or receive health information such as reminder messages from healthcare facilities. However, the current mobile interventions, such as text messaging and speech reminder systems have limited use for people with low literacy levels. To overcome these challenges, this study proposed that the mobile graphic-based reminders be used to support tuberculosis patients to improve compliance with treatment regimens, especially for semi-literate and illiterate patients. A review of the literature and initial investigation study were carried out. The findings from the review were useful in understanding both the current practice of tuberculosis treatment regimens and the patients' needs and requirements. These findings, in addition, were referred in the choices of the components of the mobile graphic-based reminders to be implemented. A visual aid for communication theory was applied to the design and development of graphic-based reminder prototypes. An application prototype was implemented for the Android platform. Experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of an application prototype in supporting tuberculosis treatment. To measure the effect, the recovery rate was measured based on the effect of: (1) the graphic-based reminder group versus the control group; and (2) the graphic-based reminder group versus the speech-based reminder group. Data was collected using application event logs, interviews, field notes and audio recordings. It was found that treatment adherence of patients in the graphic-based group was higher than in the speech-based or in the control groups. It was further noted that the number of reminder responses in the graphic-based group was higher than in the speech-based group. Additionally, it was observed that patients in the graphic-based group responded sooner after receiving reminder messages compared to those in the speech-based group. The qualitative feedback also indicated that most patients not only found graphic-based reminders more useful to supporting their treatment than speech-based reminders and traditional care but believed that the application met their needs. This study provides empirical evidence that graphic-based reminders, designed for and based on patients' needs and requirements, can support the treatment of tuberculosis for patients of all literacy levels.

Surveillance cameras are integral in assisting law enforcement by collecting video information that may help officers detect people for whom they are looking. While surveillance cameras record the area covered by the camera, unlike humans, they cannot "understand" what is happening. My research uses multiple curvilinear regression models to accurately place differentially corrected GPS points with submeter accuracy onto a camera image. Optimal results were achieved after splitting the image into four zones with the focus on calibrating each area separately. This resulted in adjusted R2 values as high as 99.8 percent, indicating that high quality GPS points can form a good manual camera calibration. To ascertain whether or not a lesser quality GPS point associated with a social media application would allow location of the person sending the message, I used an iPhone 5s to do a follow up. Using the zone-based calibration equations on GPS point locations from an iPhone 5s show that the locations collected are less accurate than differentially corrected GPS locations, but there is still a decent chance of being able to locate the correct person in an image based off that person's location. That chance, however, depends on the population density inside the image. Pedestrian density tests show that about 70-80 percent of the phone locations in a low-density environment could be used to locate the correct person that sent a message while 30-60 percent of the phone locations could be used in that manner in a high-density environment. / Master of Science

This dissertation develops an analytic framework to undertake cell design in a cellular system. The cell is modeled in a broader sense than ever done before. In our analytical model, we incorporated the use of guard channels, queueing of new calls, and hybrid channel allocation. A numerically stable and efficient solution to a queueing system with two arrival streams having reserved and borrowable servers has been developed. This queueing system is used to model the cell behavior. The model provides valuable insights into the behavior of the cell, and this in turn has been used to devise an efficient stochastic optimization algorithm for determining the minimum number of channels required by the cell. Our techniques are stable, easy to implement for practical systems and produce optimized solutions quickly. This is particularly useful because we expect that future designs of cellular systems may execute such algorithms on cell-site processors. / Ph. D.

Throughout the developing world, the mobile phone has been heralded as a tool that can empower and lift women out of vulnerable situations. While many scholars and development professionals believe that phones empower women, some contend that phones amplify disparities for people who are not well-positioned in society. To better understand how the diffusion of phones has impacted women, this thesis examines the relationship between mobile phones and socially constructed gender-based inequalities in agro-pastoralist Maasai communities in northern Tanzania. Grounded in perspectives from scholarship on women's empowerment and rural liveihoods, I ask: (1) how do women access and use phones?; and (2) how are women's phone uses embedded in existing social relations? This research relies on semi-structured interviews and household surveys conducted in the summer of 2018 to identify Maasai women's perspectives on phones, social relations, and power. Through inductive and deductive qualitative content analysis, findings indicate that phone access is fluid. There are a multitude of relationships between phones and empowerment, and these relationships are not only a function of a woman's personal choice and characteristics, but often more importantly her position in the household, the household norms her husband controls, and her husband's attributes. These results help show how women's empowerment in patriarchal societies, which may be afforded by new technologies, is guarded by men and subject to their discretions. This study highlights the importance of engaging men and women in discussions of and interventions surrounding women's empowerment. / Master of Science / Mobile phones are used throughout the world, even in rural, developing areas. Both men and women are adopting cell phones that can provide access to greater amounts and different types of information that was previously inaccessible. Some development professionals and scholars argue that mobile phones are a tool that can empower marginalized communities, like women. Others contend that mobile phones fail to transform the lives of women due to existing gender inequalities. My research seeks to answer the question: do mobile phones empower women by increasing access to resources and enhancing decision-making power? This research is situated in northern Tanzania in predominately ethnically Maasai communities where patriarchal (system controlled by men) and polygynous (marriage of one man with several women) practices essentially give men the power to determine the responsibilities, roles, and rights of all community members. These practices are embedded in important traditions that help Maasai communities cope with stress and maintain or enhance life now and for future generations. The widespread adoption of mobile phones creates an opportunity for novelty in these traditional norms. To understand how Maasai women may use mobile phones to challenge traditional practices that permit gender inequalities, this study conducted interviews and surveys with women in ten rural communities to examine: if and how women access and use mobile phones; the opportunities and challenges that mobile phones present; how women leverage phones to access resources and practice agency (having options and the ability to define and act on goals); and how social position in the household interacts with processes of empowerment that phones may permit. Findings show that there is no single relationship between mobile phones and empowerment, but rather a multitude of relationships that are influenced by social position both in and out of the household. This study illustrates the importance of considering local socio-cultural norms and engaging men in development interventions for women’s empowerment.

While there are exemplary studies on the relationships between social networks and media such as television and the Internet, less is known about the social network consequences of mobile phone use during life-stage transitions. This study investigates the roles that mobile phones play in supporting the relationships of young people as they transition to and through their first-year of university in Toronto, Canada. Focussing on information practices during a transition that tests the resilience of support networks, this study queried the extent to which mobile phones play a role in keeping relationships intact, enabling students to maintain a sense of social cohesion and belonging. Data were collected from November 2007 to September 2008 through a longitudinal research design. Socio-technical concepts and network analysis techniques were applied to analyze the ways in which mobile communication is embedded in the everyday social life of young people aged 17-34. Set within the culturally-specific context of urban Canada, the data provided substantial evidence that mobile phones foster social cohesion within intimate relations but provide a more tenuous platform from which to nurture new relationships. First-year undergraduates have integrated the mobile phone into the way they engage with their social networks to a considerable degree, with commuter students experiencing additional tensions in negotiating relationships from home and on-campus. Findings showed that mobile phones were the devices of choice to mitigate feelings of loneliness, with deleterious consequences for the development of new relationships. Furthermore, the mobile phone was a key contributor to a rising sense of empowerment and autonomy for young adults as they negotiated identity transformations during their rite of passage into adulthood. Issues of trust and reciprocity in forming new relationships were mediated through a continuum of social media of which the mobile phone was the most intimate. Evidence of continuous access to social networks has broader implications for how mechanisms for coping with being alone and disconnection are acquired in this generation. Finally, observations of ritualistic interaction practices involving mobile phones may be theorized as small-scale evidence of larger societal shifts from collective constructs of community to that of networked individuals.

While there are exemplary studies on the relationships between social networks and media such as television and the Internet, less is known about the social network consequences of mobile phone use during life-stage transitions. This study investigates the roles that mobile phones play in supporting the relationships of young people as they transition to and through their first-year of university in Toronto, Canada. Focussing on information practices during a transition that tests the resilience of support networks, this study queried the extent to which mobile phones play a role in keeping relationships intact, enabling students to maintain a sense of social cohesion and belonging. Data were collected from November 2007 to September 2008 through a longitudinal research design. Socio-technical concepts and network analysis techniques were applied to analyze the ways in which mobile communication is embedded in the everyday social life of young people aged 17-34. Set within the culturally-specific context of urban Canada, the data provided substantial evidence that mobile phones foster social cohesion within intimate relations but provide a more tenuous platform from which to nurture new relationships. First-year undergraduates have integrated the mobile phone into the way they engage with their social networks to a considerable degree, with commuter students experiencing additional tensions in negotiating relationships from home and on-campus. Findings showed that mobile phones were the devices of choice to mitigate feelings of loneliness, with deleterious consequences for the development of new relationships. Furthermore, the mobile phone was a key contributor to a rising sense of empowerment and autonomy for young adults as they negotiated identity transformations during their rite of passage into adulthood. Issues of trust and reciprocity in forming new relationships were mediated through a continuum of social media of which the mobile phone was the most intimate. Evidence of continuous access to social networks has broader implications for how mechanisms for coping with being alone and disconnection are acquired in this generation. Finally, observations of ritualistic interaction practices involving mobile phones may be theorized as small-scale evidence of larger societal shifts from collective constructs of community to that of networked individuals.

Decades of research suggest that talking on a cell phone interferes with driving performance, but the underlying mechanisms of this interference remain poorly understood. Driving and cell phone research often generalizes easy, novice laboratory tasks to the well practiced task of driving, and it frequently ignores important factors like emotion in tasks used to represent cell phone conversation. This experiment sought to address these issues. Participants performed a tracking task and two verbal tasks over 7 one-hour sessions. At some times the tasks were performed individually, and at others the tracking task was performed concurrently with one of the verbal tasks. Participants watched an anger-inducing film clip at the beginning of the 7th session and were instructed to either down-regulate or maintain that anger. Results challenged the validity of generalizing easy novice task performance to driving performance.

D. Tech. Marketing, Logistics and Sport Management / This study explores supply chain costs in the South African mobile phone industry, which then leads to the development of a supply chain cost-reduction framework for this industry. The knowledge generated from this study should assist South African mobile phone companies to reduce their supply chain costs. On the other hand, this study should also assist regulating authorities (the Department of Communication and The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa [ICASA]) to gain insight into the cost drivers in the mobile phone supply chain and the contributing factors to high call tariffs in South Africa. It should also inform appropriate and adequate mobile telecommunication policies. The purpose of this study is to explore supply chain costs in the South African mobile phone industry, and to develop a supply chain cost-reduction framework for the South African mobile phone industry.