Throughout the years of software development, the number of frameworks and software technologies have rapidly increased. This not only increases the difficulties of choosing the right software, but also makes it harder to find developers in a specific area. To create a multi-platform solution, a company would usually need competence in different areas such as frontend, backend, and mobile development. Such a solution requires an investment of a lot of time and resources. An alternative to developing a multi-platform solution opposed to the conventional way is with the software development kit created by Google called Flutter. The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to investigate the software development process when creating multi-platform solutions in Flutter. The study will point out eventual differences with the software development process between Flutter and conventional development. To achieve this, the study collected secondary research and conducted interviews with two developers who both worked with Flutter. In addition to this a Portfolio application was built during an experiment phase with a daily diary as the data collection process to validate the experiences given from the interview and secondary research. The results point towards some general benefits of using Flutter when creating multi-platform solutions. These benefits are only applicable when creating a product that shares the same user interface and have no OS specific features that requires need for deep integration into the targets device system.

Frameworks for developing cross-platform applications come in many forms, and depending on thefunctionality of the developed application, some platforms may be a better choice. Applications workingwith point cloud models consist of huge amounts of data points, created by scanning an objectwith a laser scanner which can then be loaded into the software for display and interaction.This study looks at performance differences between two cross-platform desktop application frameworks,Qt and Electron, working with point clouds by performing an experiment. Two prototypeswere used to measure the differences in the time it takes to create the point cloud, allocated memoryfor the data points, and also the average frames per second achieved throughout a rotation sequenceinitiated on the point cloud. This study is conducted on-sight at an organization currently using theQt framework and wanted to investigate potential differences with an HTML5 framework. This studyalso investigates what expert practitioners working with the Qt framework experience its strength andlimitations are, by conducting semi-structured interviews to gain in-depth knowledge.This study found that the differences between the frameworks can not be drawn clearly, as thereare a lot of variables influencing performance outcomes. However, under these conditions Qt generallyperformed better on all occasions. Performance is one way to measure an application and framework,and this study found that working with the Qt framework has its strong points as well as weaknesses.The performance and cross-platform capabilities of Qt are well-liked, but it can come at the cost ofpoor documentation and high complexity of developing bigger applications. Using QtQuick (QML) todevelop the GUI is generally appreciated for how it separates the front-end GUI from C++ togetherwith the available modules. However, it can take time to learn QML and may not completely removethe need of C++ development.

Performing measurements of samples that contain chemical substances is a time consuming task if the measurement instruments are small and require high precision. A single measurement session can often contain a large amount of samples, which is why it is crucial to automate this process. The solution, which is discussed in this report, is a Graphical User Interface that allows a user to control three linear motors that can move in the X-, Y-, and Z-axis. Movement of the motors results in the movement of the sampling platform, which allows a measurement instrument to be inserted and ejected from each sample with a much higher precision than a human is capable of. Automating the process does not only result in a more accurate and precise measurement process, but also a more efficient process, since the sample size can be decreased. By decreasing the sample size, it is also possible to increase the number of samples to perform measurements on. The results shows an increase in accuracy and a reduction of the required supervision over the sampling process. Moreover, our solution also reduces power consumption since the equipment used in the analyses requires less uptime. / Att utföra mätningar av prover som innehåller kemiska ämnen är en tidskrävande uppgift om mätinstrumenten är små och kräver hög precision. En enda mätsession kan ofta innehålla en stor mängd prover, därför är det väsentligt att automatisera denna process. Lösningen, som diskuteras i denna rapport, är ett grafiskt användargränssnitt som låter en användare styra tre linjära motorer som kan röra sig i X-, Y- och Z-led. Rörelse av motorerna resulterar i att provtagningsplattformen rör sig, vilket gör att ett mätinstrument kan matas in och ut från varje prov med en mycket högre precision än vad en människa är kapabel till. Att automatisera processen resulterar inte bara i en mer exakt mätprocess, utan också i en mer effektiv process, eftersom provers storlek kan minskas. Genom att minska provstorleken är det också möjligt att öka antalet prover att utföra mätningar på. Resultaten visade en betydelsefull ökning av noggrannhet och en minskning av nödvändig övervakning av systemet. Vår lösning innebär också en minskning av strömförbrukningen eftersom den utrustning som används i analyserna kräver kortare drifttid.

Mobile platforms for archaeological purposes have increased in use over the last 20 years with many of the developments coming from Continental Europe. Mobile platform developments have mainly focused on one type of instrumentation, offering multiple sensors, depths of detection or frequencies. This development of mobile platforms has focused on data acquisition rates but has not considered the physical impact on the soil. The Geoscan Research Mobile Sensor Platform (MSP40) was intended to improve survey efficiency and remain a lightweight system. The platform can collect two earth resistance configurations that show directional variation of the current flow through soil. Additional sensors were integrated on to the square frame of the hand-pulled cart to record simultaneous fluxgate gradiometer data and a microtopographic surveys. Ground based geophysical investigation will always have a physical impact on a site. The MSP40 is no exception but careful selection of wheel types and the lightweight frame limit the damage compared to many mobile arrays. The MSP40 has been tested on a number of different soils at various times of the year with encouraging results; however issues with overcoming the contact resistance of electrodes remain. The continuous collection rate and combination of techniques means a slight drop in data quality is inevitable. However the increased data density, multiple-sensors and improved rate of collection offset reductions in data quality. The research has shown that the MSP40 can perform low impact rapid site assessments on ¿vulnerable¿ sites, whilst maximising the information gained from a single traverse. / AHRC, Geoscan Research

This paper introduces the topic of Cohousing as a solution to the chronic housing crisis and examines how it can be supported by digital platforms, and what form they should take. The theoretical concept of platforms and infrastructure is examined in general and specifically for communities along with other co-operative practices. The methodology of Research through Design (RtD) paired with recognised design methods of interviews, surveys and participatory design including workshops and co-design, employing a design process blending ideation and prototyping with each of these methods. The resulting design is a platform serving the dual functionality of marketing the Cohousing practice to wider society coupled with aggregating the infrastructural and communication needs of a cohousing group. The design works to support a highly interpersonal community-based activity through the face-to-face interaction of groups and demonstrates how the studies of platforms and infrastructure combined with research through design can support such practices.

台灣觀光外匯的成長力度高，外國旅客來台灣包車旅遊的需求漸增，因應而生的包車平台興起，本研究期望針對既有個案探討包車平台如何去設定付費方與被捕貼方，並且提供其他同質性平台商業模式設計更多元的思考方式。 透過黃勇及周學春提出之平台商業模式研究之框架及陳威如及余卓軒提出的平台補貼策略之考慮因素，以質性研究方式，選取UTAXI、台灣小旅行、DingTAXI叮叮包車三個包車平台個案進行訪談與分析。 UTAXI媒合“旅客-司機”，致力“您的專屬司機”，選擇司機作為付費方，自由行旅客為被補貼方，定價較市場平均價格高；台灣小旅行媒合“旅客-司機”，致力“體驗台灣在地感動，訴說土地故事”，選擇自由行旅客作為付費方，計程車學院協會司機為被補貼方，定價為市場平均價格；DingTAXI叮叮包車媒合“旅客-車隊“，致力”解決自由行旅客交通困擾“，選擇自由行旅客作為付費方，合作車行、車隊為被補貼方。 本研究得知個案其各自商業模式之創建、如何選擇付費方與被補貼方以及包車平台之定價策略，也可從個案中得知，思考角度與立場不同，運用補貼模式的準則得出之結果也截然不同，提供未來同質性平台於發展時多元的思考方式及依據。 / From 2007 to 2015, visitors to Taiwan increased from 3.71 million to more than 10 million. As a result, foreign exchange earnings from tourism surged by 2.6 times, from NT$17.12 billion (US$521.95 million) to an estimated NT$44.50 billion (US$1.36 billion). These results and reviews demonstrate that Taiwan is becoming a major destination for travelers worldwide. Car carter service become a popular way for visitors to explore Taiwan on their own, therefore more and more online car carter service platforms are being set up. Platform pricing model is not set up by user charge alone, how users interact on the platform is also considered. Platform controller attract users who can cause positive cross-side network effect by offering them better price so that they can attract users who are willing to pay the fee. This research depends on two-side market theory to explain how online car carter platforms attract users to enter their platforms, design interaction mechanism and set rules to allow users to use platforms easily. Depending on different point of views, every online car carter service platform has its own design. Therefore, this research also depends on the business model and the eco-system on platform theory to analyze car carter service platform. After understanding how platforms design interaction mechanism, platform pricing model is then discussed. Every platform has its own pricing model, because of different design. This research analyzes platform pricing model by subsidy rules from previous studies. By analyzing three online car carter service platform cases, this research concludes that platforms have different interacting mechanisms because of website design purpose and user dating purpose. This research demonstrates which subsidy rules are used on online dating platform and how these platform create their own eco-system to maintain the platform.

Sedan smarta mobiltelefoner introducerades har användningen och likaså behovet av mobilapplikationer ökat exponentiellt. När utvecklingsprocessen för en mobilapplikation påbörjas måste en utvecklare utvärdera ett antal faktorer som kan påverka mobilapplikationens användning eller prestanda, till exempel utvecklingsplattform som denna studie fokuserar på. Syftet med denna studie är att fastställa prestandaskillnaderna för native Android och Xamarin cross-compile med hjälp av en experimentell studie. Tesen för denna studie är baserad på tidigare forskning som tyder på att cross-platform och Xamarin cross-compile har sämre prestanda än native Android, resultatet av denna studie kan bidra till valet av utvecklingsplattform för utvecklare. Avgränsningar har valts i form av Android som plattform, exekveringstid, CPU-användning samt RAM-användning för prestandamätning. Beräkningar som utförs är iterativ bubble sort i form av best case, worst case och random case med varierande antal nummer och en rekursiv Fibonaccisekvens med olika utgångspunkter. Resultatet av denna studie stämmer överens med tesen, Xamarin har i dagsläget sämre prestanda än native Android. / Throughout the last decade the mobile phone market has grown rapidly and with it, the need for mobile applications has grown as well. When the development process for a mobile application starts, a developer must review various factors that can affect the mobile applications usage or performance, for example the development platform to use which is the focus of this study. The purpose of this study is to determine the difference in performance between native Android and Xamarin cross-compile with the use of an experimental study. The hypothesis of this study is based on previous research which shows that cross-platform and Xamarin cross-compile have worse performance than native Android, the result of this study can contribute can help a developer make the decision on what development platform to choose. The delimitations have been chosen as Android as platform, execution time, CPU-usage and RAM-usage for performance testing. The algorithms that were chosen were an iterative bubble sort, in form of best case, worst case and random case with varying numbers, and a recursive Fibonacci sequence with different starting points. The result of this study is consistent with the hypothesis, Xamarin shows worse performance than native Android.

Today, there are a handful of different platforms for mobile phones. Writing an application natively for each mobile operating system is time consuming and expensive. This situation has created a need for using cross-platform frameworks, that allow programmers to create an application once and run it on all platforms. The problem is that it is not certain whether cross-platform apps can fully replace native ones, or if by using cross-platform tools some desired qualities are lost. Investigating this issue would allow to find out which one of these two application development methods is better, or in which situation it is better to choose one over the other. Such knowledge would allow to decrease development time and costs. Companies that create mobile applications on a daily basis have expertise in this area. Thus, thirteen interviews were done with thirteen distinct businesses in order to research this problem. The results showed that native development produces higher quality applications, but there are some situations where it might be better to use cross-platform frameworks.

L'objectif de ce travail est de construire une machine d'essai pour la prothèse. La machine doit être capable de reproduire les mêmes conditions dynamiques et cinématiques appliquées sur la prothèse pendant l'utilisation normale.Le nombre d'amputation et les causes d'amputation ont été recueillis. Différents types de prothèses ont été classés selon la prothèse de jambe par hauteur d'amputation, prothèse passive et active, différenciées par la nature de leur actionneur. La plupart des machines d'essai pour la prothèse ont été étudiées à partir de la prospective technologique et capacitaire. Déterminer toutes les limitations de la plupart des machines d'essai existantes, et les besoins de développer une nouvelle machine pour remplir complètement ces besoins ont été développés.Ensuite, nous avons étudié et analysé la dynamique de la marche et de la course humaines. Les équations du mouvement en prenant en considération les masses et les moments d'inertie des segments squelettiques. La plupart des paramètres de la démarche ont été extraits. En conclusion, nous avons les exigences cinématiques du centre de gravité humain pour générer 6 DOF que la machine d'essai devrait effectuer pour imiter la démarche humaine normale et courir.Trois conceptions ont été proposées pour implanter la machine d'essai; Bras de robot articulé, manipulateur cartésien et Stewart Platform (SP). Après la mise en œuvre des trois solutions, nous avons trouvé la solution la plus appropriée est le SP attaché avec une hanche active artificielle. Nous avons choisi la puissance hydraulique car c'est la technique d'actionnement la plus appropriée pour notre solution, connaissant les forces d'actionnement requises.Pour aider à contrôler le mouvement de SP, une nouvelle solution de modèle géométrique direct pour la planeuse et la plate-forme Stewart 6-6 a été développée en utilisant les capteurs rotatifs au lieu de capteurs de revêtement comme voulu pour les actionneurs hydrauliques. L'analyse de sensibilité a été étudiée pour cette solution, et un calcul analytique pour le calcul de l'espace de travail a également été développé.La conclusion de cette machine d'essai est que nous pouvons créer toute la dynamique du corps humain, c'est-à-dire marcher ou courir ou monter et descendre des escaliers. La solution développée peut porter des procédures d'essai pour la prothèse passive ou active. / The objective of this work is to build a testing machine for prosthesis. The machine should be able to reproduce the same dynamic and kinematics conditions applied on the prosthesis during the normal use.Numbers of amputation, and causes of amputation were collected. Different types of prosthesis were classified according to the leg prosthesis per amputation height, passive and active prosthesis, differentiated by the nature of their actuator. Most of the testing machine for the prosthesis were studied form the technological and capability prospective. Determining all the limitations of most of existing testing machines, and the needs to develop a new machine to full fill these needs were developed.Then we studied and analyzed the dynamics of the human gait and run. The equations of motion by taking into consideration the masses and moments of inertia of skeletal segments. Most of the parameters of gait were extracted. In conclusion, we have the kinematic requirements of the human center of gravity to generate 6 DOF that the testing machine should carry out to emulate the normal human gait and run.Three designs were proposed to implement the testing machine; Articulated robot arm, Cartesian manipulator, and Stewart Platform (SP). After implementing the three solutions we found the most suitable solution is the SP attached with it an artificial active hip. We have chosen the hydraulic power as it is the most suitable actuation technique for our solution knowing the required actuation forces.To help in controlling the SP motion, a novel Closed-form solution of direct Geometric model for planer and 6-6 Stewart Platform using the rotary sensors instead of liner sensors as wanted to the hydraulic actuators was developed. Sensitivity analysis was studied for that solution, and analytical calculation for computing the workspace was also developed.The conclusion from this testing machine is that we can create all the dynamics of the human body, i.e. walking or running or going up and down stairs. The developed solution can carry testing procedures for either passive or active prothesis.

The aim of this study is to conduct a thorough theoretical study on the establishment of a web-based cession collateral registration platform for agri-financiers in South Africa. The agricultural industry is earmarked for growth due to pressures of food security and the role it could play in rural development, job creation and social upliftment. Agri-finance to farmers for primary input costs, is the catalyst which kick-starts the agricultural value chain. Due to many reasons, the traditional asset-based collateral in the fashion of mortgage bonds will become more and more unavailable to agri-financiers to secure their loans. Agri-financiers will have to rely on commodity-based collateral (cession) as security for repayment of their loans. The law of cession and trite common law principle of first in time first in right creates an undue credit risk to agri-financiers. A market gap exists to establish a cession collateral registration platform in South Africa to mitigate the aforementioned credit risk assumed by agri-financiers. This platform is an entrepreneurial opportunity which could be operated as a viable and sustainable business enterprise. The results of the empirical research have shown that the market will embrace such platform as solution to the credit risk associated with commodity-based collateral in the form of a cession of crop income. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015