Browsing by Author "Hewagamage, P"

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Embargo
Computer-Vision Enabled Waste Management System for Green Environment
(IEEE, 2021-12-09) Hewagamage, P; Mihiranga, A; Perera, D; Fernando, R; Thilakarathna, T; Kasthurirathna, D
Waste management has become a critical requirement to maintain a green environment in Sri Lanka as well as other countries. Town councils have to regularly collect different types of wastes to clean cities/towns. Hence managing the waste of the cities is a challenging task. However, most of the urban councils currently use a manual approach to managing waste. However, it results in many difficulties for the people and cleaning staff who involve in the process by following strict guidelines. Issues due to waste contamination, no proper information management of waste collection, and no punctuality in removing waste from the garbage bins are some of the significant issues arising from the manual process. Due to the drawbacks of the manual approach, social issues, environmental issues, health issues can occur easily. This paper proposes a better solution to replace this manual system with an automated system to overcome these issues. Hence, the main objective of this research is to introduce an ICT-based innovative design that can be used to develop an effective waste management system in town councils. In the proposed model, we will introduce a Computer Vision-based smart waste bin system with real-time monitoring that incorporates various technologies such as computer vision, sensor-based IoT devices, and geographical information system (GIS) related technologies. Our proposed solution consists of a waste bin system, which is capable of automated waste segregation. Our design facilitates the admin users to expand the waste bin kit by adding more waste categories in a user-friendly manner, making our product adaptive in any environment. At the same time, waste bins can notify the real-time waste status. Our system generates the optimum collection routing path and displays it in a mobile app using those real-time status details. We also demonstrate a low-cost prototype.
Open Access
Designing for Financial Literacy: Co-design with Children in Rural Sri Lanka
(Springer, Cham, 2017-09-20) Halloluwa, T; Vyas, D; Usoof, H; Bandara, P; Brereton, M; Hewagamage, P
Financial literacy can play an important role in supporting the livelihood of the poor. Sri Lanka, being a country that aims to become a knowledge economy, has started to integrate the use of technology in its primary education. This paper presents a case study from a Co-Design activity with primary school children in rural Sri Lanka to ideate designing of mobile applications to engage primary school students in financial literacy. Three workshops were conducted spanning over two months based on the bonded design method. Techniques involving bags of stuff, storyboarding and stickies were utilised to support idea generation. Two themes; shopping and transporting were prominent among the final designs. From the findings of this paper, we discuss the design inspirations of the study and the impact that scaffolding practices had on the outcomes of the study. Finally, we lay out some initial guidelines to follow when conducting co-design workshops with rural and resource constrained children in Sri Lanka.