Metaverse is a vision enabling to constitute an environment in which someone could see real and virtualized worlds. The Metaverse is a product (or something similar as we do not yet know its final form) of such technologies. In this circumstance, when applications that utilize the Metaverse are used, there seem to be no transportation charges, and there is no cap on amounts of individuals, users, players, learners, or trainee who can take part. Hence, and due to such a feature, the Metaverse has attracted various researchers from different fields where it has been exploited by them to contribute to those fields and research areas. As for example, it is possible to teach various target audiences by offering different events and classes from any location in the globe. In order for a participant to utilize the Metaverse, there are necessary conditions to be considered as well as other settings to be initialized. In line of this, virtual reality, augmented reality, availability of required sensors, smart glasses, headsets, and few others are considered some examples of such conditions and settings that the Metaverse requires. Despite the advantages that Metaverse offers us, there are a number of considerations that must be taken into account while developing it by interested researchers. One of these concerns is the Metaverse privacy regarding the participants (represented as avatars inside the Metaverse environment). Another issue is that since the Metaverse is still in its early stages, many attempts have to be made from interested researchers who engage to develop it to enhancing it. This review aims to survey related articles that concern the Metaverse and its development providing a review of the chronological stages throughout the history of the development of Metaverse. It aims also to list a number of recent technological advances allowing the Metaverse. Besides, Metaverse’s definitions, properties, and architecture, and applications have been discussed and listed in this review. The novelty of this article is that it has suggested a framework to a number of issues that are still paid attention for potential solutions by researchers aiming to contribute to researchers and designers to consider such an issue and its corresponding solution for future research works and enhancement. Challenges faced by researchers and other relevant concerned issues related to Metaverse have been in detail discussed and highlighted. Besides, future trends have been clarified.

This paper proposes a fast method for car-license-plate detection (CLPD) and presents three main contributions. The first contribution is that we propose a fast vertical edge detection algorithm (VEDA) based on the contrast between the grayscale values, which enhances the speed of the CLPD method. After binarizing the input image using adaptive thresholding (AT), an unwanted-line elimination algorithm (ULEA) is proposed to enhance the image, and then, the VEDA is applied. The second contribution is that our proposed CLPD method processes very-low-resolution images taken by a web camera. After the vertical edges have been detected by the VEDA, the desired plate details based on color information are highlighted. Then, the candidate region based on statistical and logical operations will be extracted. Finally, an LP is detected. The third contribution is that we compare the VEDA to the Sobel operator in terms of accuracy, algorithm complexity, and processing time. The results show accurate edge detection performance and faster processing than Sobel by five to nine times. In terms of complexity, a big-O-notation module is used and the following result is obtained: The VEDA has less complexity by K² times, whereas K² represents the mask size of Sobel. Results show that the computation time of the CLPD method is 47.7 ms, which meets the real-time requirements.

Energy management systems in buildings (EMSs-in-Bs) play key roles in energy saving and management to which an efficient energy management system in buildings (EMS-in-Bs) design contributes. Different scope-based designs of EMS-in-Bs are reviewed. The objective is to highlight different scope-based designs of EMS-in-Bs in which scopes of reviewed papers aim to implement a function of, for example, “monitor energy performance”, “estimate energy-use”, or “control energy-use”. This paper aims to constitute a comprehensive conception of how efficient such an EMS-in-Bs to perform more than one scope (i.e., function). Meaning, is the proposed EMS-in-Bs able to perform several sequential functions? This paper's contribution is to give a function-focused EMS's review utilizing the scope of reviewed papers. That is, reviewed papers are classified based on the scope/function the selected EMS-in-Bs is designed for. This could help select an EMS-in-Bs to perform certain scope/function(s). Another contribution is that, numerous EMSs-in-Bs are reviewed in a classified way so that the most adequate EMS-in-Bs for a certain scenario considering the performed scopes/functions e.g., “monitor” are highlighted. Findings showed that “control-optimize”-functioned EMS-in-Bs achieved highest energy-saving rates ~30% compared to “estimate-predict” with 10%. Findings, insights given by reviewed studies, current problems faced, future directions, and remarks are drawn in conclusion. Analysis done on reviewed papers has found that the highest and lowest averaged-energy saving rates were obtained with papers whose their scopes are implementing “control”-with-“optimize” and “estimate”-with-“predict”, respectively. Energy saving rates for these two classes of scopes have been equal to 22.57% and 10%, respectively. We recommend that there is a need to enhance the estimation- and prediction-related EMS-in-Bs to achieve a higher energy saving rate.

Lighting systems are one of the highest energy consumptions specifically in buildings. Thus, by designing energy efficient systems, it would contribute much to buildings energy savings. Therefore, this paper motivation is to review a number of lighting systems designs applied to many types of buildings. It is then so important to discover what methods and systems which have been proposed to save energy in buildings in term of lighting. By finding out what proposed systems are for different types of buildings, designers and respective researchers e.g., buildings engineers would find possibility and applicability of such lighting systems for certain types of buildings to achieve higher energy savings than some other systems when applied to the same types of buildings. Such a relation between reviewed lighting systems with types of buildings would be helpful for many researchers from different fields. There exist numerous factors that play an important role in achieving higher energy savings rate on which efficient energy lighting systems rely. This paper aims to review several types of lighting systems designs applied to different types of buildings. Additionally, performance(s) of lighting systems might vary depending on the design of the lighting system to achieve higher buildings’ energy savings. In this review paper, several past studies that utilized Information and Communication Technology (ICT) from the perspective of energy Informatics for a smart lighting system that efficiently achieves energy savings have been considered. This paper has considered different types of lighting systems and types of buildings. Cited papers in this review paper are derived from six digital libraries which are: IEEE Xplore Digital Library, ScienceDirect, MDPI, Emerald Insight, ACM DL, and Taylor & Francis Online.

The use of conventional fossil-fuel vehicles in the transportation industry contributes to climate change. The energy producing sector has actually adjusted its strategy to utilize more renewable energy to satisfy the energy demand as a result of this change in strategy. The use of electric vehicles (EVs) in the transportation network has also helped to reduce pollution from the energy industry. However, the distribution network would be placed under a lot of stress if a lot of EVs are attached to it, which might cause a number of problems and worries. However, several initiatives have been made in this direction to help find answers to these issues. The contribution of this review article is that, a number of the benefits of using the employed EVs techniques for the purpose of utilizing renewable energy sources (RESs) towards the accomplishment of a sustainable energy goal for a green environment in the so foreseeable have been highlighted; aiming to provide a larger variety of readers insights and suggestions for future research development. There have been a number of studies that have recommended various ideas and strategies for a reliable renewable energy supply. Their findings have been published in scientific journals. But the relationship between RESs and EVs in terms of energy efficiency is still needed to be further investigated to shorten such a gap in order to assess how EVs can help RESs achieve energy sustainability. Besides, the purpose of this study is to identify and assess the most recent advances and methodologies in the field. It's been possible to use numerous EV technologies to help with various problems and challenges, including the need for quick EV charging stations. However, there is a worry over the viability and applicability of EV-applied technologies that are ideally suited towards greater and more efficient usage of RESs in order to either attain or contribute to energy sustainability. In this article, we will discuss a variety of EV technologies that have been used in the past and contributed to the development of RESs. The method has applied the PRISMA 2020 strategy for inclusion and exclusion criteria. Also, the method has used specific keyword related to the topic including "electric vehicles" and "renewable energy sources". It is found that EVs can be an effective alternative for currently used fossil-fuel vehicles due to a set of reasons highlighted in this review including fast EV charging stations, efficient design for PV solar panels, and effective utilization of RESs.

In the present work, a thermal treatment technique is applied for the synthesis of Ce_xSn_1−xO₂ nanoparticles. Using this method has developed understanding of how lower and higher precursor values affect the morphology, structure, and optical properties of Ce_xSn_1−xO₂ nanoparticles. Ce_xSn_1−xO₂ nanoparticle synthesis involves a reaction between cerium and tin sources, namely, cerium nitrate hexahydrate and tin (II) chloride dihydrate, respectively, and the capping agent, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). The findings indicate that lower x values yield smaller particle size with a higher energy band gap, while higher x values yield a larger particle size with a smaller energy band gap. Thus, products with lower x values may be suitable for antibacterial activity applications as smaller particles can diffuse through the cell wall faster, while products with higher x values may be suitable for solar cell energy applications as more electrons can be generated at larger particle sizes. The synthesized samples were profiled via a number of methods, such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). As revealed by the XRD pattern analysis, the Ce_xSn_1−xO₂ nanoparticles formed after calcination reflect the cubic fluorite structure and cassiterite-type tetragonal structure of Ce_xSn_1−xO₂ nanoparticles. Meanwhile, using FT-IR analysis, Ce-O and Sn-O were confirmed as the primary bonds of ready Ce_xSn_1−xO₂ nanoparticle samples, whilst TEM analysis highlighted that the average particle size was in the range 6−21 nm as the precursor concentration (Ce(NO₃)₃·6H₂O) increased from 0.00 to 1.00. Moreover, the diffuse UV-visible reflectance spectra used to determine the optical band gap based on the Kubelka–Munk equation showed that an increase in x value has caused a decrease in the energy band gap and vice versa.