Desktop archives are distinct from sources for which shared “Cranfield” information retrieval test collectionshave been created to date. Differences associated with desktop collections include: they are personal to the archive owner, the owner has personal memories about the items contained within them, and only the collection owner can rate the relevance of items retrieved in response to their...

This paper discusses the emerging trend of Personal Desktop Searching utilities on desktop PCs, and how the information cached and stored with these systems can be retrieved and analysed, even after the original document has been removed. Focusing on the free Google Desktop Search program, this paper first analyses how the program operates, the processes involved, files created and altered, and...

Cloud has emerged as a new computing paradigm that promises to move into computing-as-utility era. Desktop Cloud is a new type of Cloud computing. It merges two computing models: Cloud computing and volunteer computing. The aim of Desktop Cloud is to provide Cloud services out of infrastructure that is not made for this purpose in order to reduce running and maintenance costs. This paper discus...

The advent of high performance computers (HPC) has allowed materials researchers to model large three-dimensional (3D) nanostructures. Properties associated with these 3D structures can be sufficiently complex where researchers can benefit from immersive virtual environments (VEs) in their analysis and interpretation of HPC model results. Because immersive VEs are expensive and not as convenien...

Following IT innovations, manual operations have been automated, improving the overall quality of life. This has been possible because an organic topology has been formed among many diverse smart devices grafted onto real life. To provide services to these smart devices, enterprises or users use the cloud. Cloud services are divided into infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service...

This report outlines the research undertaken which is aimed at easing the development of parallel desktop applications. Developing parallel applications is notoriously difficult, but developing parallel desktop applications is further complicated largely due to the interactive nature of desktop environments. With desktop processors widely becoming multicore, parallelising desktop applications i...

Purpose. To design and validate a desktop virtual reality (VR) system, for presentation and assessment of volumetric data, based on commercially-of-the-shelf (COTS) hardware as an alternative to a fully immersive CAVE-like I-Space VR system. Methods. We designed a desktop VR system, using a three-dimensional (3D) monitor and a 6 degreesof-freedom (6DOF) tracking system. A personal computer uses...