Heterogeneous vehicular communication on the Internet of connected vehicle (IoV) environment is an emerging research theme toward achieving smart transportation. It is an evolution of the existing vehicular ad hoc network architecture due to the increasingly heterogeneous nature of the various existing networks in road traffic environments that need to be integrated. The existing literature on vehicular communication is lacking in the area of network optimization for heterogeneous network environments. In this context, this paper proposes a heterogeneous network model for IoV and service-oriented network optimization. The network model focuses on three key networking entities: vehicular cloud, heterogeneous communication, and smart use cases as clients. Most traffic-related data–oriented computations are performed at cloud servers for making intelligent decisions. The connection component enables handoff-centric network communication in heterogeneous vehicular environments. The use-case-oriented smart traffic services are implemented as clients for the network model. The model is tested for various service-oriented metrics in heterogeneous vehicular communication environments with the aim of affirming several service benefits. Future challenges and issues in heterogeneous IoV environments are also highlighted.

The violation traffic laws by driving at high speeds, the overloading of passengers, and the unfastening of seatbelts are of high risk and can be fatal in the event of any accident. Several systems have been proposed to improve passenger safety, and the systems either use the sensor-based approach or the computer-vision-based approach. However, the accuracy of these systems still needs enhancement because the entire road network is not covered; the approaches utilize complex estimation techniques, and they are significantly influenced by the surrounding environment, such as the weather and physical obstacles. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel IoT-based traffic violation monitoring system that accurately estimates the vehicle speed, counts the number of passengers, and detects the seatbelt status on the entire road network. The system also utilizes edge computing, fog computing, and cloud computing technologies to achieve high accuracy. The system is evaluated using real-life experiments and compared with another system where the edge and cloud layers are used without the fog layer. The results show that adding a fog layer improves the monitoring accuracy as the accuracy of passenger counting rises from 94% to 97%, the accuracy of seatbelt detection rises from 95% to 99%, and the root mean square error of speed estimation is reduced from 2.64 to 1.87.

In this paper, a novel hybrid edge-detection steganography technique is proposed, which greatly increases the payload capacity without losing much of its invisibility. Conventional least significant bit (LSB) steganography has a low payload capacity and is sensitive to statistical analysis. Our approach combines Canny and Sobel edge-detection methods to find the optimal embedding regions and then performs Most Significant Bit (MSB) modifications in edge areas where the human visual system (HVS) is less sensitive to changes. Experimental results show that the performance of our proposed method outperforms conventional LSB-based steganographic methods by an average of 42.3% in payload capacity, while maintaining a PSNR greater than 38 dB and an SSIM above 0.95. The proposed method is also more robust against statistical attacks, such as chi-square analysis and RS steganalysis, which are critical challenges in secure data transmission.

This study examines the legal nature of industrial robots in light of the rapid progress in artificial intelligence technologies and the growing reliance on such systems in various aspects of life. It raises new legal and ethical questions about the extent to which industrial robots can be granted legal personality, and the forms and nature of such personality. The study discusses this concept as a legal framework that permits attributing certain rights or obligations to robots, depending on their use and degree of functional independence from humans. The importance of this discussion becomes evident with the emergence of advanced applications of industrial robots, such as self-driving cars, production-line robots, chatbots, and algorithms capable of making impactful decisions that may cause material or moral harm without direct human intervention. The study further investigates whether the legal system needs to adopt a special model of legal personality for these entities to enable accountability for their actions or the outcomes of their decisions.Using the descriptive-analytical approach, the study centered on the following question: What is the legal nature of industrial robots? The study concludes that granting robots a special or conditional legal personality may help fill the legislative gap concerning liability, particularly in cases where tracing the direct human actor proves difficult. The findings emphasize the necessity of establishing gradual and balanced legal frameworks through which industrial robots can be granted limited and well-regulated legal personality. Such frameworks must both account for technological advancement and ensure effective human oversight. The study also calls for international cooperation to formulate unified legal standards consistent with legal and human values.

This research examines file protection in cloud environments using the SHA-256 algorithm. It evaluates secure hash variants in file transfer systems, aiming to improve throughput while meeting security requirements. Data analysis involved gathering and cleaning datasets, measuring encryption times, and applying statistical and graphical methods. Results show SHA-256 as an effective base for encryption, with parallel processing increasing efficiency when real-time speed is essential. The study highlights the value of transformational techniques to boost performance and recommends hybrid systems that combine SHA-256 with other algorithms for stronger security. These outcomes support further work on cryptographic methods to strengthen the safety and reliability of cloud infrastructures.