In this paper we present a non-intrusive model-based gaze tracking system. The system estimates the 3-D pose of a user’s head by tracking as few as six facial feature points. The system locates a human face using a statistical color model without any mark on the face and then finds and tracks the facial features, such as eyes, nostrils and lip corners. A full perspective model is employed to ma...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current level of best manufacturing practices in Malaysian ISO 9000 certified small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a survey on 270 ISO 9000 certified manufacturing SMEs. Based on an extensive search of literature on performance requirements, eight areas were identified. Thus, the question...

The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of an ultraviolet (UV-C, 254 nm) irradiation system on reducing the load of Salmonella typhimurium (S. typhimurium), Salmonella choleraesuis (S. choleraesuis) resistant to streptomycin and Enterococcus faecium (E. faecium) inoculated in sterile porcine plasma and then subjected to different UV-C irradiation doses (750, 1500, 3000, 6000...

The ISO 9000 experiences of the same sample of organisations over a five year time period is examined in this paper. The responses to a questionnaire sent out at the end of 1999 to companies which had a reasonably long term experience with the ISO 9000 series quality system are analysed. These companies were ISO 9000 series certified before 1994 when the authors conducted their first survey on ...

The ISO 9000 series of quality management systems standards, introduced in 1986, has been adopted at over 560,000 locations worldwide. Anecdotal evidence suggests that firms can achieve internal benefits such as quality or productivity improvements, or that certification can help firms maintain or increase their market share, or both. Others argue that the standard is too generic to cause perfo...

There has ben a major push by firms to seek certification to the International Quality Standards ISO 9000. This heightened interest is not without problems as many managers have misunderstood the value of seeking ISO 9000 certification. A review of the literature revealed a major gap in research in this area of quality management. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the role of the n...

Trade policy is an important topic in global public policy. It is recognized that trade is hampered when buyers have incomplete information about the offered products, a problem accentuated in the international markets by the physical and cultural distances between buyers and sellers. Buyers look for proxies to assess product quality, and exporters that can provide assurance about quality gain ...

A computational enterprise model representing key facets of an organization can be an effective tool to consider when planning an enterprise information architecture. For example, a specific organization's quality management business processes and organizational structures can be represented using such a model, and then compared to a reference model of "good" processes and structures, such as t...

1 Growing at unimagined rates, the information and communication technologies (ICT) industry is facing ever-increasing challenges from the complexity of interconnected services and the expectations of users. The TL 9000 Quality Management System (QMS) drives efficiency and performance across the ICT global supply chain, tracks performance, improves results, reduces the cost of doing business, a...