Abstract
A general concept on the use of computer vision in a way in which objects in the scene act as visual markers is presented, with special focus on its ability to increase the contextual awareness of a blind user with relation to its surroundings. A demonstration of the concept has been developed and is presented in this work. Having a rough estimation of user location and previous knowledge, from memory, of which visual features should be present in an environment, the recognition of visual elements in a scene validates and provides a trust indicator about the estimated spatial context of a blind user of an assistive orientation device, reducing the gap naturally imposed by his impairment. © 2016 ACM.

Abstract
This paper proposes a real-time system to provide location based guidance and obstacle avoidance of blind persons in indoor environments. The system integrates navigation features based on visual recognition of markers and the detection and classification of possible obstacles in front of the blind person. The system uses the Microsoft Kinect sensor to acquire RGB-D images of the scene. The RGB camera provides input for a real-time tracking algorithm which identifies a trained set of wall-mounted visual markers. The user's pose is estimated combining marker information with GIS data. Depth information is used to classify nearby obstacles. The results of experimental tests with two blind subjects are presented and discussed. © 2016 ACM.

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Abstract
Today's society is characterized by an abundant growth of data and information within the organizations, largely due to the extrapolation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) used to support their daily activities. The growing complexity of IS, has required the appearance of Information Systems Architectures (ISA) for their management and maintenance. The research team has identified relevance in its applicability within the Portuguese Higher Education Institutions (PHE), and a case study with the University of Tras-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD) was drawn. Through the development and implementation of an ISA proposal, UTAD was provided with a transversal view of all the existing IS, allowing validation of the existence/need for IS aimed at managing information and decision-making under a multidimensional perspective, that is, oriented at different organizational levels, from the operational to the strategic level. Given the proposed ISA degree of abstraction, it can be applied to the other institutions within PHE, since they share similar contexts than the one inherent to UTAD.