DOI: 10.3897/jucs.75357

Authors: Jorge Ruiz Quiñones, Antonio J. Fernández Leiva

Abstract: Usually, human participation is required in order to provide feedback during the game tuning or balancing process. Moreover, this is commonly an iterative process in which play-testing is required as well as human interaction for gathering all important information to improve and tune the game components’ specification. In this paper, a mechanism is proposed to accelerate this process and reduce significantly the costs of it, contributing with a solution to perform the game parameter tuning and game balancing using search algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. The process is executed in a fully automated way, and just requires a game specification written in a particular video game description language. Automated play-testing, and game’s feedback information analysis, are related to perform game parameters’ tuning and balancing, leading to offer a solution for the problem of optimizing a video game specification. Recently, XVGDL, a new language for specifying video games which is based on the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), has been presented. This paper uses XVGDL+, an extension of this lan- guage that incorporates new components to specify, within the video game specification, desirable goals or requirements to be evaluated after each game execution. A prototypical implementation of a Game Engine (termed XGE+) was also presented. This game engine not only enables the execution of an XVGDL+ game specification but also provides feedback information once the game has finished.The paper demonstrates that the combination of XVGDL+ with XGE+ offers a powerful mechanism for helping solving game AI research problems, in this case, the game tuning of video game parameters, with respect to initial optimization goals. These goals, as one of the particularities of the proposal presented here, are included within the game specification, minimizing the input of the process.As a practical proof of it, two experiments have been conducted to optimize a game specification written in XVGDL via a hill climbing local search method, in a fully automated way.

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DOI: 10.3897/jucs.68692

Authors: Riri Fitri Sari, Asri Ilmananda, Daniela Romano

Abstract: In the current digital era, information exchanges can be done easily through the Internet and social media. However, the actual truth of the news on social media platforms is hard to prove, and social media platforms are susceptible to the spreading of hoaxes. As a remedy, Blockchain technology can be used to ensure the reliability of shared information and can create a trusted communications environment. In this study, we propose a social media news spreading model by adapting an epidemic methodology and a scale-free network. A Blockchain-based news verification system is implemented to identify the credibility of the news and its sources. The effectiveness of the model is investigated by utilizing agent-based modelling using NetLogo software. In the simulations, fake news with a truth level of 20% are assigned a low News Credibility Indicator (NCI ± -0.637) value for all of the different network dimensions. Moreover, the Producer Reputation Credit is also decreased (PRC ± 0.213) so that the trust factor value is reduced. Our epidemic approach for news verification has also been implemented using Ethereum Smart Contract and several tools such as React with Solidity, IPFS, Web3.js, and Metamask. By showing the measurements of the credibility indicator and reputation credit to the user during the news dissemination process, this proposed smart contract can effectively limit user behaviour in spreading fake news and improve the content quality on social media.

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DOI: 10.3217/jucs-018-13-1871

Authors: Gurvinder Baicher

Abstract: This paper considers theoretical issues concerning reconstruction errors and conditions for perfect reconstruction (PR) of the input signal for a 2-channel multirate quadrature mirror filter (QMF) bank. The main emphasis is on the optimisation of a new design of a perfect reconstruction QMF bank using infinite impulse response (IIR) filters based on transformation of variables technique. The genetic algorithm (GA) optimisation is used for the initial design of the QMF bank and for the IIR filters using finite word length coefficients. The optimised results are then applied to a real time digital signal processing kit. Finally, some test results for data compression achievable using different values of encoded bits are included.

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DOI: 10.3217/jucs-018-09-1177

Authors: Xingang Liu, Jiantan Liu, Kook-Yeol Yoo, Haengrae Cho

Abstract: For the Wireless Multimedia Sensor Network (WMSN), the intraframe video coding is widely used for the robust transmission and computation complexity. Though the intraframe algorithm requires much smaller computational complexity than the interframe coding, the amount of computation of the intraframe should be reduced to use WMSN application. In this paper, we propose an intra mode decision algorithm to reduce the computation complexity of intraframe H.264/AVC encoders. The proposed algorithm determines the candidate modes and skips the remaining modes based on the smoothness and directional similarity of MB. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves 18% to 70% reduction in the computational complexity, compared with the various conventional methods.

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DOI: 10.3217/jucs-017-12-1659

Authors: Rory Sie, Marlies Bitter-Rijpkema, Peter Sloep

Abstract: Several studies have shown that connecting to people in other networks foster creativity and innovation. However, it is often difficult to tell what the prospective value of such alliances is. Cooperative game theory offers an a priori estimation of the value of future collaborations. We present an agent-based social simulation approach to recommending valuable peers in networked innovation. Results indicate that power as such does not lead to a winning coalition in networked innovation. The recommendation proved to be successful for low-strength agents, which connected to high-strength agents in their network. Future work includes tests in real-life and other recommendation strategies.

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DOI: 10.3217/jucs-009-02-0120

Authors: Andreas Krebs, Jürgen Ruf

Abstract: Verification and validation are the major tasks during the design of digital hardware/software systems. Often more than 70% of the development time is spent for locating and correcting errors in the design. Therefore, many techniques have been developed to support the debugging process. Recently, simulation and test methods have been accompanied by formal methods such as equivalence checking and property checking. However, their industrial applicability is currently restricted to small or medium sized designs or to a specific phase in the design process. Therefore, simulation is still the most commonly applied verification technique. In this paper, we present a method for asserting temporal properties during simulation and also during emulation of hardware prototypes. The properties under verification are efficiently translated into an intermediate language (of a virtual machine). This intermediate representation can then be interpreted during simulation. We may also produce executable checkers running in parallel to the simulation. Furthermore, we are able to translate the properties into synthesizable hardware modules which can then be used during system emulation on FPGA-based emulators or as self test components checking the functionality during the lifetime of the system.

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