Law enforcement co‐ordination agencies have recently issued position/guidance documents relating to the potential for VR environments (the “Metaverse”) to become new environment for criminal activity, and calling for additional work to enhance investigative capability. By reviewing the historic development of VR and comparing it with the appearance of the WWW, the authors propose that the situation is not as dire as the issued documents may suggest, but represents an evolutionary rather than revolutionary step in online experiences. They conclude, therefore, that while ability to examine VR presentation/interaction devices may be useful, continued development of ability to examine online systems remains essential. This article is categorized under: Digital and Multimedia Science > Multimedia Forensics Digital and Multimedia Science > Cybercrime Investigation Digital and Multimedia Science > Artificial Intelligence

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how personalisation of learning resources and services can be achieved for students with and without disabilities, particularly responding to the needs of those with multiple disabilities in e‐learning systems. The paper aims to introduce ONTODAPS, the Ontology‐Driven Disability‐Aware Personalised E‐Learning System, which has the mechanism for such personalisation.

People with visual impairments, particularly blind people face alot of difficulties browsing the web with assistive technologies such as screen readers, when websites do not conform to accessibility standards and are thus inaccessible. HTML is the basic language for website design but its ALT attribute on the IMG element does not adequately capture comprehensive image semantics and description in a way that can be accurately interpreted by screen readers, hence blind people do not usually get the complete description of the image. Most of the problems however arise from web designers and developers not including a description of an image or not comprehensively describing these images to people with visual impairments. In this paper, we propose the use of the Image Description Assessment Tool (IDAT), a Java-based tool containing some proposed heuristics for assessing how well an image description matches the real content of the image on the web. The tool also contains a speech interface which can enable a visually impaired individual to listen to the description of an image that has been uploaded unto the system.

The number of students with disabilities in UK higher education institutions increases every year. Delivering education online is becoming increasingly challenging as institutions encounter some disabilities requiring adjustments of learning environments. The law requires that people with disabilities be given equivalent learning experiences to their non-disabled peers through "reasonable adjustments". Educational institutions have thus utilised assistive technologies to assist disabled students in their learning, but some of these technologies are incompatible with some learning environments, hence excluding some disabled students and resulting in a disability divide. To solve this problem, amongst other solutions, e-learning personalisation has been used and more recently, this is also achieved using Semantic Web technologies such as ontologies. Nevertheless, as ontologies are incorporated into learning environments little seems to be done to personalise learning for some disabled students. This study, in order to bridge the gap, proposes a personalisation approach based on a disability ontology containing information on various disabilities encountered in higher education, which can be used to present disabled students with learning resources relevant and suitable for their specific needs.

This paper could be subtitled Are we teaching the next generation of computer criminals and internet terrorists"? This issue was raised by the Security Services as part of the collaborative network meeting in the area of IT Forensics and Data Analysis hosted by City University. These are valid concerns about the nature of material taught to computer science students in the area of security.The questions are also important ethical dilemmas for any professional working in the computer and internet security field. These are also applicable when discussing such security risks with the media, members of the public and even legislators. Information on vulnerabilities has to be presented so that it informs programmers and computer users about the areas of risk, but without providing recipes for them to use to conduct criminal activities or mischief themselves.The paper will look at several case studies from the curriculum at the University of Hull at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Some specific problem areas of email forgery, security of the Windows operating system and exploitation of buffer overflows, and deception in online auctions, will be explored.

A project to combine criminological techniques of profiling with Internet abuse and computer forensic data is outlined. The multidisciplinary approach which applies the expertise of lawyers, criminologists, computer forensics and Internet specialists together is seen as a response to the explosion of e-crimes. Future work that involves the presentation of the results of cyberprofiling is proposed.

With the aid of an example case of identity theft used to perpetrate an apparent benefits fraud and consideration of other undesirable online activities, the authors examine the motives and methods of Internet-based identity theft. Consideration is given to how such cases may be detected, investigated and prevented in the future. The problem of trust relationships and validation of identity tokens is discussed and recommendations for the prevention of identity theft are given.

With the aid of an example case of identity theft used to perpetrate an apparent benefits fraud and consideration of other undesirable online activities, the authors examine the motives and methods of Internet-based identity theft. Consideration is given to how such cases may be detected, investigated and prevented in the future. The problem of trust relationships and validation of identity tokens is discussed and recommendations for the prevention of identity theft are given.

It has long been argued that developing distributed software is a difficult and error-prone activity. Based on previous work on design patterns and skeletons, this paper proposes a template-based approach for the high-level design and implementation of distributed virtual environments (DVEs). It describes a methodology and its associated tool, which includes a user interface, a performance analyser and an automatic code generation facility. It also discusses some preliminary results on a surgical training system.

The paper reports on a software engineering course given under the auspices of an academic research project to its researchers. The value of such a course is noted, as is the lack of similar courses elsewhere. In the light of recent comments from University Vice-Chancellors and Principals, as well as from Government, more academic research projects should be running courses of the kind described.

Industrial input led to this group project practical for Computer Science students at the University of Edinburgh. The project ties together many components of the Computer Science curriculum, and involves students who do joint degrees with other subjects, enabling them to use their speciality subject. It is argued that this form of practical enhances the education of software engineers beyond that which is normally found in programming practicals. The industrial input has been retained throughout the project, and industry continues to play a valuable role in this course. Sufficient detail is included to allow others to incorporate elements of this group project in their own courses, as many have commented to us that they would like to run such a practical. Although the group project course was designed to improve the education of our students, it is concurrent with the latest trends in computer science and software engineering education, and also seems to have anticipated professional and political criticism of education.

Recent technological advances in electronics, robotics, software engineering and reduction in hardware costs have been accompanied by increasing pressure on theatre time and reductions in health care spending. The above has coincided with technical innovations in orthopaedics, increasing awareness of the hazards of low dose radiation, greater patient expectations and the need to decrease morbidity associated with the learning phase of any new procedure. These factors have provided an optimum environment for the introduction of automation in orthopaedics. The CAOS (Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Systems) projects are a collaborative effort between Orthopaedic Surgeons and Engineers to create new Computer - Robotic based surgical instruments. A basic principle in Orthopaedic Surgery is the "placement of an object (Guide Wire, Screw, Tube or Scope) at a specific site within a region, via a trajectory which is planned from X-ray based 2 D images and governed by 3 D anatomical constraints". Implementation of the "basic orthopaedic principle" by the surgeon occurs in a closed circuit arrangement (Diagram 1). Stages 1 - 4 represent planning, 5 - 6 execution and 7 reappraisal - modification. These stages are not distinct but sequentially overlap. DIAGRAM 1

Recent technological advances in electronics, robotics, software engineering and reduction in hardware costs have been accompanied by increasing pressure on theatre time and reductions in health care spending. The above has coincided with technical innovations in orthopaedics, increasing awareness of the hazards of low dose radiation, greater patient expectations and the need to decrease morbidity associated with the learning phase of any new procedure. These factors have provided an optimum environment for the introduction of automation in orthopaedics. The CAOS (Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Systems) projects are a collaborative effort between Orthopaedic Surgeons and Engineers to create new Computer - Robotic based surgical instruments. A basic principle in Orthopaedic Surgery is the "placement of an object (Guide Wire, Screw, Tube or Scope) at a specific site within a region, via a trajectory which is planned from X-ray based 2 D images and governed by 3 D anatomical constraints". Implementation of the "basic orthopaedic principle" by the surgeon occurs in a closed circuit arrangement (Diagram 1). Stages 1 - 4 represent planning, 5 - 6 execution and 7 reappraisal - modification. These stages are not distinct but sequentially overlap. DIAGRAM 1

The Computer Science Department has been looking at an online library of student dissertations for some years. When the University Library started to explore the provision of electronic archiving of thesis in collaboration with the British Library, the linking of the two efforts seemed appropriate. In collaboration with the e-integration team of Academic Services a library of several years of past undergraduate final year dissertation in computer science has been provided. This provides the e- integration team with access to a significant corpus of material, and users with which to gain experience and test out their provision. It also provides computer science with a means of accessing their online archives in a controlled manner, and for the students it provides a better alternative to the paper library of dissertations they consulted previously.