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A location-based ubiquitous crowdsourcing approach for the emergency supply of oxygen cylinders

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Abstract

Many people with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) are subjected to emergencies triggered by breathing difficulties. Oxygen therapy, administered from medical oxygen cylinders, can be used to relieve respiratory airways, and restore the supply of oxygen to the body’s vital organs. In this paper, we present a location-based ubiquitous crowdsourcing solution to enable COPD patients to request an emergency supply of oxygen cylinders. At the heart of the solution is a trusted platform that acts as a mediator for the ambient social interaction among a virtual and socially engaged community of requestors and suppliers. The geo-temporal data generated by this social interaction can be analyzed to uncover meaningful ambient environmental patterns. Our approach also uses image processing and computer vision techniques to help validate crowd responses. We discuss the details of the human-centric computer interaction design and its key features. We also elaborate on the challenges faced in the design and development of the solution and summarize the actions taken to address them.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Marwa Messaoud and Hazar Chaabani for their technical assistance during the early stages of this project.

Funding

Financial support for this research was provided by Zayed University under Research Cluster Fund program (grant number R17074).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering & Information Sciences, University of Wollongong in Dubai, Dubai, UAE

    May El Barachi

  2. ESPRIT School of Engineering, Tunis, Tunisia

    Faouzi Kamoun, Abderrazek Hachani, Amir Ben Said & Imed Amri

  3. College of Technological Innovation, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE

    Fatna Belqasmi

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  1. May El Barachi
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  2. Faouzi Kamoun
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Correspondence to Faouzi Kamoun.

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El Barachi, M., Kamoun, F., Hachani, A. et al. A location-based ubiquitous crowdsourcing approach for the emergency supply of oxygen cylinders. Pers Ubiquit Comput 25, 109–120 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-020-01469-1

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