Master of Science / Department of Computing and Information Sciences / Daniel Andresen / Android Phones and Tablets are driven by apps and becoming more and more popular these days. Enthusiastic game players around the world are always looking for fun and exciting games which are easily accessible from their handheld devices like smartphones, tablets etc. Checkers is one such mobile game app based on the popular game American Checkers or Draughts and is developed on Android platform. This game is turn based in which players play against each other. The player capture the pieces of opponent and progresses diagonally, trying to become the winner by capturing all the pieces of opponent or blocking the opponent so that there is no legal moves left. There are various features in the game. Instant messaging allows players to chat during the game.. Saved Games feature lets users to play the incomplete games later. Leaderboards and Scores make the game competitive as players can see their rankings and scores after the game. Tournaments and Scheduling enables players to schedule matches. Tournament is scheduled with Round Robin process wherein each player plays with all other players in turn and finally winner is declared after end of the game.

Self-service may increase customer satisfaction. But by allowing customers to be in close contact with goods before they purchase, exposes the retailer to possible shrinkage in the form of dishonest customers and staff. Suppliers contribute to the shrinkage problem by under-supplying or falsifying invoices. Errors in the capture of inventory information on the part of management and employees are further contributors to possible shrinkage. The combination of these three factors contributes to the phenomenon of 'retail shrinkage' and is directly responsible for eroding the profits of retailers. At present the South African retail market is highly competitive. It is almost saturated and retailers depend on sales volume and lower profit margins to remain in business. To increase profitability, South African retailers are pursuing re-branding and foreign market expansion strategies. This is aggravated by a higher shrinkage rate which in turn increases prices. Robust Shrinkage reduction leads to lower prices, better availability and safer shopping for consumers, greater sales and guaranteed shelf space for manufacturers and reduced losses and increased profitability for retailers. How this can be achieved is the challenging question for retailers. Bearing this in mind, this research is carried in two selected stores, from Woolworths and Checkers. The findings reveal that the above listed shrinkage problems are of great concern to the stores and they have put in place various loss reduction solutions. In this situation the list of solutions is diverse and 'prescribing' a solution is not the main concern. The challenge is how to systematically identify critical and solution seeking causes. From this research it was clear that neither of the two stores has a systematic Shrinkage related data gathering, recording and analysis tools. They are not collaborating with other firms in similar businesses. And worst of all they do not have a strategy to reduce loss because they do not seem to consider loss reduction as a core business activity. Finally, a strategic or policy deployment approach to loss reduction is recommended for the two stores. This includes shrinkage awareness, planning, shrinkage cause analysis, implementation and evaluation. Based on the strategic approach, specific solutions to the specific problems at the two stores are also provided. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

Games have been investigated as computationally complex problems since the inception of artificial intelligence in the 1950’s. Originally, search-based techniques were applied to create a competent (and sometimes even expert) game player. The search-based techniques, such as game trees, made use of human-defined knowledge to evaluate the current game state and recommend the best move to make next. Recent research has shown that neural networks can be evolved as game state evaluators, thereby removing the human intelligence factor completely. This study builds on the initial research that made use of evolutionary programming to evolve neural networks in the game learning domain. Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) is applied inside a coevolutionary training environment to evolve the weights of the neural network. The training technique is applied to both the zero sum and non-zero sum game domains, with specific application to Tic-Tac-Toe, Checkers and the Iterated Prisoners Dilemma (IPD). The influence of the various PSO parameters on playing performance are experimentally examined, and the overall performance of three different neighbourhood information sharing structures compared. A new coevolutionary scoring scheme and particle dispersement operator are defined, inspired by Formula One Grand Prix racing. Finally, the PSO is applied in three novel ways to evolve strategies for the IPD – the first application of its kind in the PSO field. The PSO-based coevolutionary learning technique described and examined in this study shows promise in evolving intelligent evaluators for the aforementioned games, and further study will be conducted to analyse its scalability to larger search spaces and games of varying complexity. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Computer Science / unrestricted

The subjects of perfect information games, machine learning and computational intelligence combine in an experiment that investigates a method to build the skill of a game-playing agent from zero game knowledge. The skill of a playing agent is determined by two aspects, the first is the quantity and quality of the knowledge it uses and the second aspect is its search capacity. This thesis introduces a novel representation language that combines symbols and numeric elements to capture game knowledge. Insofar search is concerned; an extension to an existing knowledge-based search method is developed. Empirical tests show an improvement over alpha-beta, especially in learning conditions where the knowledge may be weak. Current machine learning techniques as applied to game agents is reviewed. From these techniques a learning framework is established. The data-mining algorithm, ID3, and the computational intelligence technique, Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO), form the key learning components of this framework. The classification trees produced by ID3 are subjected to new post-pruning processes specifically defined for the mentioned representation language. Different combinations of these pruning processes are tested and a dominant combination is chosen for use in the learning framework. As an extension to PSO, tournaments are introduced as a relative fitness function. A variety of alternative tournament methods are described and some experiments are conducted to evaluate these. The final design decisions are incorporated into the learning frame-work configuration, and learning experiments are conducted on Checkers and some variations of Checkers. These experiments show that learning has occurred, but also highlights the need for further development and experimentation. Some ideas in this regard conclude the thesis. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Computer Science / MSc / Unrestricted

Due to the increased usage of technology and its indicated aid in writing acquisition, it is important to investigate the effects of spell-checkers on the English language. Thus, this essay has conducted a quantitative study to ascertain if there has been an improvement or regression in English spelling with the aim of gathering an indication of if and how spelling has evolved and changed with the development of spell-checkers. This study intended to answer two main questions: “Has spelling improved after spell-checkers were invented?” and “Can spell-checkers be seen as an aid in helping people learn how to spell better?”. Texts from before the development of spell-checkers and texts from after were utilized and searched for possible misspellings, to identify whether spelling has improved or not. The main finding was that there was a numerical difference between the two groups of texts, with the older texts containing an average of 43% misspellings as opposed to the newer texts which comprised an average of 7% misspellings. Thus, it was concluded that with the emergence of spell-checkers, spelling has improved. In relation to the second question, this research detected that although spelling mistakes have decreased, certain misspellings and errors are occurring, such as errors in transposition and omission, indicating that spell- checkers might not in fact be an aid in improving spelling competence. However, more data is required with regard to the second question, thus the answer remains inconclusive, with the need for further data to reach an assertive answer.

This study aimed to investigate in which ways spell checkers affect L2 learners’ spelling acquisition and whether or not they are suitable for educational purposes. A systematic literature review and a survey were conducted to retrieve data. Further, a phenomenographic approach was applied throughout the study. The results of the study showed that in order forspell checkers to function as an aid for the L2 learners’ spelling acquisition, the learner needs to consciously engage in explicit learning to be able to utilize the aid. Therefore, spell checkers require learners to use individual responsibility. The results also showed that spell checkers need improvements in order to fully function in educational purposes since current spell checkers have limitations as far as detecting errors.

This work deals with design and construction of a robotics checkers player based on computer vision, a move solving algorithm Minimax and a industrial manipulator EPSON C3. Work also deals with design of robot communication protocol and C# communication library execution.

The digitalization of the healthcare sector has expanded and changed how actors in a healthcare journey experience mental healthcare. One significant change is how symptom assessment is conducted, specifically the digital transformation of self-assessment tools and models. New ways of assessing symptoms elicit challenges for designers working with digital mental healthcare. Challenges exist in developing and transforming self-assessment tools to fit a digital environment. This study takes a qualitative approach to explore what challenges designers might face while working with digital self-assessment tools. The study method consists of seven open interviews where thematic analysis was used to interpret themes representing design challenges. The identified themes are immutable tools and models, limited user involvement in design, regulatory barriers and official requirements, and multiple actors in design work. The themes highlight design challenges working with self-assessment tools and are represented through data extracts and discussed with identified relevant literature. Understanding design challenges could help designers make informed decisions while working with digital self-assessment services and tools

No description available.

This thesis describes playing draughts game by 6 axis manipulator Lynxmotion AL5D controlled by ARM Cortex M3 MCU. It involves algorithms for image recognition, artificial intelligence and algorithms for controlling 6 axis manipulator in real-time.