International Journal of Information Technology and Computer Science (IJITCS)

IJITCS Vol. 5, No. 5, Apr. 2013

Cover page and Table of Contents: PDF (size: 241KB)

Table Of Contents

REGULAR PAPERS

Platform-Independent Courseware Sharing

By Takao Shimomura Adriano Montanaro

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijitcs.2013.05.01, Pub. Date: 8 Apr. 2013

Courseware distribution between different platforms is the major issue of current e-Learning. SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) is one of the solutions for courseware sharing. However, to make SCORM-conformable courseware, some knowledge about HTML and JavaScript is required. This paper presents a SWF (Sharable Web Fragment)-based e-Learning system, where courseware is created with sharable Web fragments such as Web pages, images and other resources, and the courseware can be distributed to another platform by export and import facilities. It also demonstrates how to export a subject that contains assignments and problems and how to import the whole subject, only the assignments, or only the problems. The exported meta-information is architecture-independent and provides a model of courseware distribution.

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VisiMark1_0: An Assistance Tool for Evaluating Robustness of Video Watermarking Algorithms

By Neeta Deshpande Mahesh Sanghavi Archana Rajurkar Ramchandra Manthalkar

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijitcs.2013.05.02, Pub. Date: 8 Apr. 2013

The paper proposes a tool, VisiMark1_0, as assistance for evaluating the robustness of video watermarking algorithms as evaluation of a video watermarking algorithm for robustness with available tools is a tedious task. It is our belief that for researchers of robust video watermarking, a tool needs to be designed that will assist in the evaluation procedure irrespective of the design algorithm.
This tool provides a test bed of various attacks. The input to this tool will be a watermarked video whereas the outputs will be attacked videos, evaluated parameters PSNR, MSE, MSAD and DELTA, graphical comparisons of the attacked and watermarked videos with all parameters needed by researchers, and the attacks report. Provision for comparison of any two videos is an additional facility provided in the tool.
The attacks implemented in VisiMark1_0 are categorized mainly in three. Firstly, Video attacks: Frame dropping, Frame averaging, Frame swapping, Changing the sequence of the scenes, Changing Frame rate, Fade and dissolve, Contrast stretching, Motion blurring, Chroma sampling, Inter frame averaging are some of the novel offerings in video frame attacks category. Secondly, Geometrical attacks: Apart from the traditional Rotation, Scaling and Cropping attacks for images, VisiMark1_0 contributed towards Sharpening, Shearing, Flipping, Up/down sampling and Dithering attacks for a video and signal processing attacks like Conventional Noising, Denoising and Filtering attacks for images are incorporated for video along with Pixel removal attack as a novel contribution. VisiMark1_0 is an endeavor to design a tool for evaluating a raw video (an .avi file currently) incorporating various attacks having a prospect for numerous video formats in near future.

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iText – SMS-based Web Services for Low-end Cell Phones

By Juan Li Justin Anderson Matti Kariluoma Kailash Joshi Prateek Rajan Pubudu Wijeyaratne

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijitcs.2013.05.03, Pub. Date: 8 Apr. 2013

With the development of mobile wireless technology, more people are using their smart phones to browse Web sites, do social networking, and play online games. However, a significant fraction of people in developing regions are still using simple low-end devices with limited processing and communication capabilities. Access to Internet contents and services is currently available only for Internet-enabled, Internet-capable smart devices. To address this problem, in this paper, we propose a Short Messaging Service (SMS)-based service to enable low-end cell phones to access Internet and Web services. In particular, we designed a service called iTex, allowing users to use Google web services through text messages even if they do not own Internet-enabled and Internet-capable smart devices.

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The Web Navigability Structure of E- Banking in India

By Arvinder Kaur Diksha Dani

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijitcs.2013.05.04, Pub. Date: 8 Apr. 2013

The recent exponential growth of Internet has made the online banking very popular .It has become integral part of life for many people. But still the majority of people have probably not even tried it yet possibly because the websites of the banks are too complicated to understand and navigate. It has therefore become important to evaluate the quality of the banking websites. Most of the studies in the literature on banking websites have focused on evaluating the quality of services of these websites. In this paper we have investigated the structural properties of the websites with emphasis on navigability study of these business sites. Also evaluated the correlation between the navigability, popularity and importance of the Web sites.

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A New Technique for Segmentation of Handwritten Numerical Strings of Bangla Language

By Md. Aktaruzzaman Md. Farukuzzaman Khan Ahsan-Ul-Ambia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijitcs.2013.05.05, Pub. Date: 8 Apr. 2013

Segmentation of handwritten input into individual characters is a crucial step in connected handwriting recognition systems. In this paper we propose a robust scheme to segment handwritten Bangla numbers (numerical strings) against the variability involved in the writing style of different individuals. The segmentation of digits from a number is usually very tricky, as the digits in a Bangla number are seldom vertically separable. We have introduced the concept of Degenerated Lower Chain (DLC) for this purpose. The DLC method was proved efficient in case of segmenting handwriting digits in our experiments. Ten pages of handwritten Bangla numerical strings containing 2000 individual digits that construct 700 numbers written by five different writers of variable ages were segmented by the developed system. The system achieves more than 90% segmentation accuracy on average.

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Study of Techniques used for Medical Image Segmentation and Computation of Statistical Test for Region Classification of Brain MRI

By Anamika Ahirwar

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijitcs.2013.05.06, Pub. Date: 8 Apr. 2013

This paper explores the possibility of applying techniques for segmenting the regions of medical image. For this we need to investigate the use of different techniques which helps for detection and classification of image regions. We also discuss some segmentation methods classified by researchers. Region classification is an essential process in the visualization of brain tissues of MRI. Brain image is basically classified into three regions; WM, GM and CSF. The forth region can be called as the tumor region, if the image is not normal. In the paper; Segmentation and characterization of Brain MR image regions using SOM and neuro fuzzy techniques, we integrate Self Organizing Map(SOM) and Neuro Fuzzy scheme to automatically extract WM, GM, CSF and tumor region of brain MRI image tested on three normal and three abnormal brain MRI images. Now in this paper this scheme is further tested on axial view images to classify the regions of brain MRI and compare the results from the Keith‘s database. Using some statistical tests like accuracy, precision, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, false positive rate, false negative rate, likelihood ratio positive, likelihood ratio negative and prevalence of disease we calculate the effectiveness of the scheme.

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Factors Affecting Software Cost Estimation in Developing Countries

By Engr Ali Javed Mirza Ahsan Ullah Aziz-ur-Rehman

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijitcs.2013.05.07, Pub. Date: 8 Apr. 2013

Cost is the main driving factor for all projects. When it is done correctly, it helps in the successful completion of the project. In this research we have discussed various factors that affect the estimation procedure. These include team structure, team culture, managerial style, project type (Core application or integrated application), client’s working environment. Accurate estimation is far difficult in developing countries where most of the organizations follow local standards. These inaccurate estimations lead to late delivery, less profit or in worst case complete failure.
Software requirement gathering, development, maintenance, quality assurance and cost of poor quality are major groups responsible for overall cost in software production process. The exact proportion among them varies significantly in consecutive software releases, which is caused by many factors. The ever increasing need for the reliability of the software systems, especially mission critical applications in the public safety domain, raises the bar for the accuracy of prediction and estimation techniques. The accuracy of estimations in many areas brings about more concerns regarding techniques already used in the software industry. Widely deployed techniques, such as Wideband Delphi method, stress the engineering and technical aspects of the process of how estimates are prepared.

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Performance Evaluation of the Loop Buffer Switch under Prioritized Traffic

By Devesh Pratap Singh Rajiv Srivastava

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijitcs.2013.05.08, Pub. Date: 8 Apr. 2013

In this paper, optical loop buffer based architecture is discussed; with its advantages over other architectures. In general the performance of the switch is measured at physical and network layer. The physical layer analysis deals with power budget analysis, however, at the network layer; the performance is measured in terms of packet loss probability and average delay. To obtain more realistic performance at the network layer the QoS parameters need to be included. In this paper, a QoS parameter which is known as priority of the incoming packets is included and corresponding results are presented, and it has been found that even at the load of 0.7, packet loss probabilities on the order of 10-5 can be achieved.

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The Extensive Bit-level Encryption System (EBES)

By Satyaki Roy

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijitcs.2013.05.09, Pub. Date: 8 Apr. 2013

In the present work, the Extensive Bit-level Encryption System (EBES), a bit-level encryption mechanism has been introduced. It is a symmetric key cryptographic technique that combines advanced randomization of bits and serial bitwise feedback generation modules. After repeated testing with a variety of test inputs, frequency analysis, it would be safe to conclude that the algorithm is free from standard cryptographic attacks. It can effectively encrypt short messages and passwords.

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Semantic Multi-granular Lock Model for Object Oriented Distributed Systems

By V.Geetha N.Sreenath

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijitcs.2013.05.10, Pub. Date: 8 Apr. 2013

In object oriented distributed systems (OODS), the objects are viewed as resources. Concurrency control techniques are usually applied on the database tier. This has the limitations of lack of support of legacy files and requirement of separate concurrency control mechanisms for each database model. Hence concurrency control on the objects at server tier is explored. To implement concurrency control on the objects participating in a system, the impact of method types, properties and class relationships namely inheritance, association and aggregation are to be analyzed. In this paper, the types and properties of classes and attributes are analysed. The semantics of the class relationships are analysed to ascertain their lock modes, granule sizes for defining concurrency control in OODS. It is also intended to propose compatibility matrix among all these object relationships.

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