Digital, Volume 2, Issue 2 (June 2022) – 11 articles

Ridesharing platforms have gained a strong foothold as an alternative transportation option to vehicle ownership for consumers while being contested for causing widespread market disruption. They continue to foster business model innovation and unveil new opportunities for delivering goods and services within the broader sharing economy. However, relatively little is known about the comparative value of services provided by the numerous ridesharing platforms available today. We, therefore, analyze three exemplars within the broader sharing economy: Uber^®, BlaBlaCar^®, and Zimride^®. We find that these ridesharing platforms are unique service systems with different designs for facilitating peer-to-peer service interactions, which are reflected in their technology features, affordances, and constraints. Our analysis offers researchers and platform owners new ways to conceptualize and understand these two-sided, digital markets with a range of participants, user goals, and service experiences. In particular, we demonstrate that platforms can be designed to cultivate entrepreneur dependency or enable prosumer communication and collaborative consumption. Given pending legislation to regulate platform-based work, platform owners should be mindful about creating an asymmetrical power imbalance with providers given assumptions about service interactions and technology features. Furthermore, researchers should account for service design differences, as well as the technology affordances and constraints, of platforms. Full article

In recent years, the rapid development of technology has offered scientists new powerful tools. Especially in the field of cultural heritage documentation, modern digital media are an integral part, contributing significantly to the process of recording, managing, and displaying architectural monuments, archaeological sites, and art objects in a fast and accurate way. Digital technologies have made it possible to produce accurate digital copies of heritage sites and contribute to their salvation and conservation. At the top of the hill of Agios Fokas, acropolis of the ancient Demos of Kymissaleis, are the remains of a small Hellenistic temple of the 3rd–2nd century BC. This article proposes a virtual reconstruction of the temple on the acropolis of Kymissala. The geometric documentation of the temple and the creation of a three-dimensional model with its virtual reconstruction are analyzed. Modern photogrammetric methods are applied by taking digital images in the context of the experimental application of a relatively simple and semi-automatic method that does not require highly specialized knowledge and therefore can be used by non-specialists. With the use of modeling software, a three-dimensional model of the temple is created with the main goal of its virtual reconstruction. Full article

Archaeology operates in an increasingly data-mediated world in which data drive knowledge and actions about people and things. Famously, data has been characterized as “the new oil”, underpinning modern economies and at the root of many technological transformations in society at large, even assuming a near-religious power over thought and action. As the call for this Special Issue recognizes, archaeological research is socially and historically situated and consequently influenced by these same broader developments. In archaeology, as in the wider world, data is the foundation for knowledge, but its capacity is rarely reflected upon. This paper offers just such a reflection: a meditation on the nature of archaeological digital data and the challenges for its (re)use. It asks what we understand by data: its etymology and comprehension, its exceptionality and mutability, its constructs and infrastructures, and its origins and consequences. The concept of the archaeological data imaginary is introduced to better understand approaches to the collection and use of archaeological data, and a case study examines how knowledge is mediated and remediated through the data embedded in grey literature. Appreciating the volatility and unpredictability of digital data is key in understanding its potential for use and reuse in the creation of archaeological knowledge. Full article

Digital images are produced by humans and autonomous devices everywhere and, increasingly, ‘everywhen’. Legacy image data, like Mary Shelley’s infamous monster, can be stitched together as either smooth and eloquent, or jagged and abominable, supplementary combinations from various times to create a thought-provoking and/or repulsive Frankensteinian assemblage composed, like most archaeological assemblages, of messy temporal components combining, as Gavin Lucas sums it up, as “a mixture of things from different times and with different life histories but which co-exist here and now”. In this paper, we take a subversive Virtual Art/Archaeology approach, adopting Jacques Derrida’s notion of the ‘supplement’, to explore the temporality of archaeological legacy images, introducing the concept of timesheds or temporal brackets within aggregated images. The focus of this temporally blurred, and time-glitched, study is the World Heritage Site of the Neolithic to Common Era henge monument of Avebury, UK (United Kingdom). Full article

Adult referrals to specialist autism spectrum disorder diagnostic services have increased in recent years, placing strain on existing services and illustrating the need for the development of a reliable screening tool, in order to identify and prioritize patients most likely to receive an ASD diagnosis. In this work a detailed overview of existing approaches is presented and a data driven analysis using machine learning is applied on a dataset of adult autism cases consisting of 192 cases. Our results show initial promise, achieving total positive rate (i.e., correctly classified instances to all instances ratio) up to 88.5%, but also point to limitations of currently available data, opening up avenues for further research. The main direction of this research is the development of a novel autism screening tool for adults (ASTA) also introduced in this work and preliminary results indicate the ASTA is suitable for use as a screening tool for adult populations in clinical settings. Full article

This study conducts a systematic review of safety risk models and theories by summarizing and comparing them to identify the best strategies that can be adopted in a digital ‘conceptual’ safety risk model for highway workers’ safety. A mixed philosophical paradigm was adopted (that used both interpretivism and post-positivism couched within inductive reasoning) for a systematic review and comparative analysis of existing risk models and theories. The underlying research question formulated was: can existing models and theories of safety risk be used to develop this proposed digital risk model? In total, 607 papers (where each constituted a unit of analysis and secondary data source) were retrieved from Scopus and analysed through colour coding, classification and scientometric analysis using VOSViewer and Microsoft Excel software. The reviewed models were built on earlier safety risk models with minor upgrades. However, human elements (human errors, human risky behaviour and untrained staff) remained a constant characteristic, which contributed to safety risk occurrences in current and future trends of safety risk. Therefore, more proactive indicators such as risk perception, safety climate, and safety culture have been included in contemporary safety risk models and theories to address the human contribution to safety risk events. Highway construction safety risk literature is scant, and consequently, comprehensive risk prevention models have not been well examined in this area. Premised upon a rich synthesis of secondary data, a conceptual model was recommended, which proposes infusing machine learning predictive models (augmented with inherent resilient capabilities) to enable models to adapt and recover in an event of inevitable predicted risk incident (referred to as the resilient predictive model). This paper presents a novel resilient predictive safety risk conceptual model that employs machine learning algorithms to enhance the prevention of safety risk in the highway construction industry. Such a digital model contains adaptability and recovery mechanisms to adjust and bounce back when predicted safety risks are unavoidable. This will help prevent unfortunate events in time and control the impact of predicted safety risks that cannot be prevented. Full article

In this paper, we discuss the gamification strategies and methodologies used by TRIPMENTOR—a game-oriented cultural tourism application in the region of Attica. Its primary purpose is to provide visitors with rich media content via the web and mobile environments by redirecting travellers, highlighting points of interest, and providing information for tour operators. Gamification is a critical component of the project; it relates users to specific sites and activities, improves their visiting experiences, and encourages a constant interaction with the application through a playful experience. In TRIPMENTOR, gamification serves both as a tourism marketing strategy and as a tool for encouraging users to share their experiences while exploring Attica in a way designed to meet their personal needs, interests, and habits. This paper aims to describe and analyse the gamification mechanisms applied, following the Octalysis framework, and discuss the opportunities and challenges of gamification as a tourist marketing strategy. Full article

Over the past decade, the use of AR has significantly increased over a wide range of applications. Although there are many good examples of AR technology being used in engineering, retail, and for entertainment, the technology has not been widely adopted for teaching in university engineering departments. It is generally accepted that the use of AR can complement the students’ learning experience by improving engagement and by helping to visualise complex engineering physics; however, several key challenges still have to be addressed to fully integrate the use of AR into a broader engineering curriculum. The presented paper reviews the uses of AR in engineering education, highlights the benefits of AR integration in engineering curriculums, as well as the barriers that are preventing its wider adoption. Full article

The accuracy with which virtual articulators are able to simulate centric and eccentric movements when fabricating definitive restorations has not yet been proven to be on par with mechanical articulators which have been reliably used in restorative dentistry for decades. This may be an issue when working on complex restorative cases utilizing a digital workflow and could result in considerable chairside adjustment time and subsequent loss of occlusal anatomy and morphology. Interchanging between digital and analog workflows is a challenge as accurate cross-mounting is difficult due to the changes that occur as the digital and analog workflows progress. This technique article provides a method for the fabrication of simple digital mounting jigs that enable clinicians and laboratory technicians to mount printed digital wax-ups and working casts back onto a programmed mechanical articulator, opposing diagnostic casts that have originally been mounted by means of a facebow transfer. This allows for the positioning of printed digital wax-ups and working casts to be in the correct 3-dimensional spatial relationship on the mechanical articulator for any necessary occlusal adjustments of the digitally designed wax-ups and/or definitive restorations before they are moved chairside. Full article

In the never-ending search by Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) for ways to reduce crime more effectively, the prevention of criminal activity is always considered the ideal solution. Since the 1990s, Intelligence-led Policing (ILP) was implemented in some forms by many LEAs around the world for crime prevention. Along with ILP, LEAs nowadays more and more turn to various new surveillance technologies. As a result, there are numerous studies and reports introducing some compelling results from LEAs that have implemented ILP, offering robust data around how the future of policing could be. In this context, this paper explores the most recent literature, identifying where ILP stands today in Greece and to what extent it could be a viable, practical approach to crime prevention. In addition, it is researched to what degree new technologies have been adopted by the European Union and the Hellenic Police in their “battle” against crime. It is concluded that most technologies are at the research stage, and studies are underway in many areas. Full article

Cephalometric analysis is an excellent instrument in clinical diagnosis, treatment, and recovery from surgery. Nowadays, efforts to develop computerized dental X-ray image Cephalometric analysis systems for clinical and education usages. Much commercial software is created, but its high cost is unaffordable for some undergraduate students or low-income medical institutions; sure, the best option is the use of open source software alternatives. The study aimed to design free software Cephalopoint that applies vector algebra to perform the accuracy and precision of Cephalometric analysis. Three tests were used to validate the measurements made: accuracy test, consisting of comparing three selected cases and reply 32 times using the manual and software technique measurement; time test, consisted in obtaining the average time used to complete manual and software techniques of the previous test; and statistical test, consisted of measuring and applying the statistical analysis of 42 random cases for each method only using the software technique. The results showed high repeatability and no significant difference between manual tracing and software techniques. All the variables calculated with the software technique exhibited a normal distribution. Cephalopoint is excellent software for accurate and precise Cephalometric measurements. Moreover, it significantly decreased the measurement time compared with the manual. Full article