This thesis outlines the creation of a secure, real time, system independent, Internet based auctioning application. The system has been developed to meet the needs of today's stringent reqUirements on secure Internet based applications. To attain this goal, the latest cryptographic algorithms and development platforms have been used. The result is a JAVA based server and client auctioning application. The client application is designed to run In any common web browser, and the server to execute on any JAVA enabled operating system with a web server and Internet connection. The real time system uses a relatively secure hybrid cryptosystem for communication. This involves the use of RSA for secure key exchange, and RC6 and MARS for secure communication. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal,Durban, 2000.

Beneath the facade of the applications code of a well-designed real-time embedded system lies intrinsic firmware that facilitates a fast and effective means of detecting and diagnosing inevitable hardware failures. These failures can encumber the availability of a system, and, consequently, an identification of the source of the malfunction is needed. It is shown that the number of possible origins of all manner of failures is immense. As a result, fault models are contrived to encompass prevalent hardware faults. Furthermore, the complexity is reduced by determining syndromes for particular circuitry and applying test vectors at a functional block level. Testing phases and philosophies together with standardisation policies are defined to ensure the compliance of system designers to the underlying principles of evaluating system integrity. The three testing phases of power-on self tests at system start up, on-line health monitoring and off-line diagnostics are designed to ensure that the inherent test firmware remains inconspicuous during normal applications. The prominence of the code is, however, apparent on the detection or diagnosis of a hardware failure. The authenticity of the theoretical models, standardisation policies and built-in test philosophies are illustrated by means of their application to an intricate real-time system. The architecture and the software design implementing the idealogies are described extensively. Standardisation policies, enhanced by the proposition of generic tests for common core components, are advocated at all hierarchical levels. The presentation of the integration of the hardware and software are aimed at portraying the moderately complex nature of the task of generating a set of built-in tests for a real-time embedded system. In spite of generic policies, the intricacies of the architecture are found to have a direct influence on software design decisions. It is thus concluded that the diagnostic objectives of the user requirements specification be lucidly expressed by both operational and maintenance personnel for all testing phases. Disparity may exist between the system designer and the end user in the understanding of the requirements specification defining the objectives of the diagnosis. It is thus essential for complete collaboration between the two parties throughout the development life cycle, but especially during the preliminary design phase. Thereafter, the designer would be able to decide on the sophistication of the system testing capabilities. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1991.

The use of computers for digital image recognition has become quite widespread. Applications include face recognition, handwriting interpretation and fmgerprint analysis. A feature vector whose dimension is much lower than the original image data is used to represent the image. This removes redundancy from the data and drastically cuts the computational cost of the classification stage. The most important criterion for the extracted features is that they must retain as much of the discriminatory information present in the original data. Feature extraction methods which have been used with neural networks are moment invariants, Zernike moments, Fourier descriptors, Gabor filters and wavelets. These together with the Neocognitron which incorporates feature extraction within a neural network architecture are described and two methods, Zernike moments and the Neocognitron are chosen to illustrate the role of feature extraction in image recognition. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1996.

Researchers have always found difficulty in attaining funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF) for new research interests. The field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds the promise of improving the matching of research proposals to funding sources in the area of Intelligent Information Retrieval (IIR). IIR is a fairly new AI technique that has evolved from the traditional IR systems to solve real-world problems. Typically, an IIR system contains three main components, namely, a knowledge base, an inference engine and a user-interface. Due to its inferential capabilities. IIR has been found to be applicable to domains for which traditional techniques, such as the use of databases, have not been well suited. This applicability has led it to become a viable AI technique from both, a research and an application perspective. This dissertation concentrates on researching and implementing an IIR system in LPA Prolog, that we call FUND, to assist in the matching of research proposals of prospective researchers to funding sources within the National Research Foundation (NRF). FUND'S reasoning strategy for its inference engine is backward chaining that carries out a depth-first search over its knowledge representation structure, namely, a semantic network. The distance constraint of the Constrained Spreading Activation (CSA) technique is incorporated within the search strategy to help prune non-relevant returns by FUND. The evolution of IIR from IR was covered in detail. Various reasoning strategies and knowledge representation schemes were reviewed to find the combination that best suited the problem domain and programming language chosen. FUND accommodated a depth 4, depth 5 and an exhaustive search algorithm. FUND'S effectiveness was tested, in relation to the different searches with respect to their precision and recall ability and in comparison to other similar systems. FUND'S performance in providing researchers with better funding advice in the South African situation proved to be favourably comparable to other similar systems elsewhere. / Thesis (M.Sc.)- University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

Thesis (MSc (Mathematical Sciences. Computer Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / Since the late 1990s, the Robot Soccer World Cup has been used as a testing ground for new technology in the eld of robotic design and arti cial intelligence. This research initiative pits two teams of robots against each other in a game of soccer. It is hoped that the technology gained will enable the construction of a fully autonomous team of robot players to play a normal soccer game against a human team by the year 2050. In robot soccer matches, as in real soccer matches, inferring an opponent's strategy can give a team a major advantage. One important aspect of a team's strategy is the formation the team uses. Knowing the formations that an opposing team tends to take, enables a team to prepare appropriate countermeasures. This thesis will investigate methods to extract formation information from a completed soccer game. The results show that these methods can be used to infer a classical team formation, as well as other distinguishing characteristics of the players, such as which areas on the eld the players tend to occupy, or the players' movement patterns - both valuable items of information for a future opposition team.

Thesis (MSc (Mathematical Sciences))-- University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: We investigate the suitability of applying some of the probabilistic and automata theoretic ideas, that have been extremely successful in the areas of speech and natural language processing, to the area of musical style imitation. By using music written in a certain style as training data, parameters are calculated for (visible and hidden) Markov models (of mixed, higher or first order), in order to capture the musical style of the training data in terms of mathematical models. These models are then used to imitate two instrument music in the trained style. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek die toepasbaarheid van probabilitiese en outomaatteoretiese konsepte, wat uiters suksesvol toegepas word in die gebied van spraak en natuurlike taal-verwerking, op die gebied van musiekstyl nabootsing. Deur gebruik te maak van musiek wat geskryf is in ’n gegewe styl as aanleer data, word parameters vir (sigbare en onsigbare) Markov modelle (van gemengde, hoër- of eerste- orde) bereken, ten einde die musiekstyl van die data waarvan geleer is, in terme van wiskundige modelle te beskryf. Hierdie modelle word gebruik om musiek vir twee instrumente te genereer, wat die musiek waaruit geleer is, naboots.

Thesis (MSc (Mathematical Sciences)--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis, a pricing mechanism to stimulate cooperation between nodes in ad hoc networks is explored. The model incorporates incentives for users to act as transit nodes and carry the traffic between other nodes on multi-hop paths, and to be rewarded with their own ability to send traffic. The thesis investigates the consequences of this pricing model by means of simulation of a network and illustrates the way in which network resources are allocated to users according to their geographical position. Moreover, since modelling node movements is an important aspect in ad hoc network simulation, a collective mobility model, the adaptive mobility model, is used to maximise the area coverage of the nodes. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis word ’n koste meganisme gebruik om samewerking te stimuleer tussen nodusse in ad hoc netwerke. Die model inkorporeer trekpleisters deur gebruikers te beloon om verkeer te stuur deur op te tree as transito nodusse, en verkeer tussen nodusse op multi-skakel paaie te dra. Die tesis ondersoek die ge- volge van die koste model deur die simulering van ’n netwerk, en demonstreer die manier waarop die netwerk hulpbronne geallokeer word aan gebruikers gebaseer op hulle geografiese posisie. Siende dat die modellering van nodus bewegings ’n belangrike aspek is in ad hoc netwerk simulasie, word ’n kollek- tiewe mobiliteits model sowel as ’n veranderlike mobiliteits model gebruik om die dekkings areas van die nodusse te maksimeer.

Thesis (MComm)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003. / Please refer to full text for abstract.

Thesis (MSc)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Network simulations generate large volumes of data. This thesis presents an animated visualization system that utilizes the latest affordable Computer Graphics (CG) hardware to simplify the task of visualizing and analyzing these large volumes of data. The use of modern CG hardware allows us to create an interactive system which allows the user to interact with the data sets and extract the relevant data in real time. We also present an alternate approach to the network layout problem, using Self Organizing Maps to find an aesthetic layout for a network which is fundamental to a successful network visualization. We finally discuss the design and implementation of such an network visualization tool. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Netwerk simulasies genereer groot volumes data. Hierdie tesis stel voor ’n geanimeerde visualiseringwat gebruik maak van die nuutste bekostigbare rekenaar grafika hardeware om die visualisering van groot volumes data te vergemaklik. Die gebruik van moderne rekenaar grafika hardeware stel ons in staat om sagteware te skep wat n gebruiker in staat stel om met die data te werk. Ons stel voor ’n alternatiewe benadering om die netwerk se uitleg daar te stel, met die hulp van tegnieke wat gebruik word in die studie van neurale netwerke. Ons bespreek dan die ontwerp en implementering van so ’n netwerk visualisering program.

Thesis (MSc)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Program slicing was originally described by Mark Weiser in 1984. He proposed this as a technique to aid in debugging because he conjectured that this is what programmers did naturally when debugging. Here program slicing is applied to an experimental concurrent language called LF. Existing techniques are adapted to accommodate the unique features of the language. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Programdeling is oorspronklik deur Mark Weiser beskryf in 1984. Hy het dit voorgestel as ’n tegniek om ontfouting te vergemaklik, want hy het geglo dat dit is wat programmeerders van nature self doen. Programdeling word hier toegepas op ’n eksperimentele gelyklopende taal genaamd LF. Bestaande tegnieke word gewysig om die taal se unieke eienskappe in ag te neem.