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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MODERN EDUCATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE (IJMECS) ISSN Print: 2075-0161, ISSN Online: 2075-017X Editor-in-Chief Prof. Yixun Shi, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, USA

Associate Editors Prof. Karim Faez, Amirkabir University of Technology, Iran Prof. Luigi Lancieri, Lille1 University, France Prof. Beltadze Guram N., Georgian Technical University, Georgia Prof. L. Senthilkumar, Sikkim Manipal University, India

Members of Editorial and Reviewer Board Prof. Dan Savescu Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania

Dr. Cristina Portugal Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Prof. Joseph J. Smulsky Institute of Earth Cryosphere SB RAS, Russia

Dr. A.A. Ojugo Federal University of Petroleum Resources Effurun, Nigeria

Dr. Jia-Fen Wu Kao Yuan University, Taiwan

Dr. Kajal Sharma Chosun University, South Korea

Dr. M. Rizwan Jameel Qureshi King Abdul-Aziz University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Dr. Oleksii K. Tyshchenko Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics, Ukraine

Dr. Mohamed Abd El-Basset Matwalli Zagazig University, Egypt

Dr. Shuang Liu Nationalities University, China

Dr. Ibtesam Al-Mashaqbeh Al-Albayt University (AABU), Jordan Dr. Farida Bouarab-Dahmani Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi Ouzou, Algeria

Prof. Sripati Mukhopadhyay Burdwan University, India Dr. Faiz MMT Marikar General Sir John Kotelawela Defence University, Sri Lanka Prof. Sumit Kumar Banerjee Dhirajlal Gandhi College Technology, India

Dr. Sanjay K. Malik Hindu College of Engineering, India Mr. B. Sriram Sur University College, SUR Dr. Farrukh Nadeem King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia

International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science (IJMECS, ISSN Print: 2075-0161, ISSN Online: 2075-017X) is published monthly by the MECS Publisher, Unit B 13/F PRAT COMM’L BLDG, 17-19 PRAT AVENUE, TSIMSHATSUI KLN, Hong Kong, E-mail: ijmecs@mecs-press.org, Website: www.mecs-press.org. The current and past issues are made available on-line at www.mecs-press.org/ijmecs. Opinions expressed in the papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily express the opinions of the editors or the MECS publisher. The papers are published as presented and without change, in the interests of timely dissemination. Copyright © by MECS Publisher. All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.

International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science (IJMECS) ISSN Print: 2075-0161, ISSN Online: 2075-017X Volume 8, Number 12, December 2016

Contents REGULAR PAPERS Digital Games and Interactive Activities: Design of Experiences to Enhance Teaching-Learning Process Natรกlia Brunnet, Cristina Portugal

Children

Keeping Parents Involved Using 360-Class Monitoring Application Siti Fatimah Abdul Razak, Basyirah Abdurahim, Faizuniza Mashhod

The Strategic Performance Measurements in Educational Organizations by Using Balance Scorecard Thitirath Cheowsuwan

Examining Mindfulness in Education Asoka S Karunananda, Philippe R Goldin, P D Talagala

Computer Modeling and Simulations of Logic Circuits Gergana Kalpachka

The Stability of Equilibrium Situation in Lexicographic Strategic Games Guram N. Beltadze, Jimsher A. Giorgobiani

Modeling of Haze Image as Ill-Posed Inverse Problem & its Solution Sangita Roy, Sheli Sinha Chaudhuri

Improvement in Copy -Move Forgery Detection Using Hybrid Approach Gurmeet Kaur Saini, Manish Mahajan

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 1-9 Published Online December 2016 in MECS (http://www.mecs-press.org/) DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2016.12.01

Digital Games and Interactive Activities: Design of Experiences to Enhance Children TeachingLearning Process Natália Brunnet PUC-Rio/Department of Arts and Design, Rio de Janeiro, 22451-900, Brazil Email: nataliabrunnet@gmail.com

Cristina Portugal PUC-Rio/Department of Arts and Design, Rio de Janeiro, 22451-900, Brazil Email: crisportugal@gmail.com

Abstract—This paper discusses teaching-learning experiences for children using today games and digital interactive activities in order to understand the benefits and difficulties for their use. This study also contextualizes the subject under the light of authors from the fields of design and education, resulting in conclusions about the relationship between the advancement of technology, its integration into the school and the effectiveness of new digital materials designed today. Index Terms—Children teaching-learning, interactive activities, digital games, interdisciplinary, design, technology. I. INTRODUCTION We are living in a moment of constant technological innovations, increasingly faster, and of different visions about the dynamics of the teaching-learning, current and future. Ramal (2003) highlights that with the speed in which information flows and is produced today, it is no longer possible to assimilate a large part of the knowledge needed to have a job and to imagine that this will be enough for the remaining of the life. Just understanding and memorizing the knowledge that humanity produced until today would not be enough for training people. For Silva (2003), today, the great evolution is to receive the experience, which is different from receiving the information. Reflections such as that are being globally discussed. For the Education Secretary of the United States of America, Arne Duncan (2015), we live today in a global economy with a market based on knowledge. According to him, the measure of our success is becoming less about what we know, and more about what we do with what we know and about learning new skills in order to adapt to a quickly changing world. Prensky (2001) says that, in order to educate today, we must reconsider both the methodology as well as the new content that have to be taught. The author highlights that those new technologies, Copyright © 2016 MECS

which are originally digital, must be invented in all levels, using the students as our guides. In this moment of strong transition between the model of books, encyclopedias and explanatory classes to a new model not yet exactly known by nobody, it is notorious that new types and formats of digital materials should be used in classroom education. Those can be interactive exercises, games and digital activities, animations, electronic books, simulations, applications, videos and podcasts. Teachers and students in the school environment are already using those objects today. Besides transformations coming from the excess of information and what we should do with it, it is important to highlight that those materials are created in face of a need, because “today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach” (PRENSKY, 2001 p.1). According to the author, current students are digital natives who think and process information in a fundamentally different way than their predecessors, the digital immigrants, category in which their current teachers are framed. The trend is that digital natives will learn with new tools and languages and will resist to the old ways of communicating and learning. In face of what was exposed, this paper has the objective of understanding, illustrating and discussing the benefits and difficulties on the use of some of those educational objects. Mainly, games and digital interactive activities, in the process of teaching-learning, mapping their types and uses and the systems in which they are inserted, as well as aspects that must be considered during their projects. First, this paper will present, in general lines, a literature review concerning games and digital activities. It will also present the analysis of four digital learning experiences with photos and schemes and the closing remarks of the study.

II. ABOUT DESIGN IN CHILDREN TEACHING-LEARNING SITUATIONS The design in teaching-learning situations enhances the process of construction of knowledge and “each design I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 1-9

Digital Games and Interactive Activities: Design of Experiences to Enhance Children Teaching-Learning Process

solution represents the search for balance between the interests and needs of the teacher and the student, as well as the ones of educational institutions” (PORTUGAL, 2013 p.17). Regarding some of the possible solutions, the use of games, drawings and dramatizations, according to Piaget (1975), may contribute for the cognitive development of the child between 2 and 7 years old. In this period, the child creates mental images even without using objects; it is a phase of fantasy and “make-believe”. Regarding the content to be taught, Shulman (1986) understands that once knowledge is identified as a teaching object, a series of adaptations is needed to transform it into something that can be taught and learned. Even because, according to Freire (1996), teaching is not a synonymous of transferring knowledge, but of creating possibilities for its production or building. Under the same light, Prensky (2001) believes that digital games are an example of the successful adaptation of teaching materials to the current language. Teaching materials created today must instigate the exploration of the knowledge, the critical behavior and be focused on the “learning to think” and on the “learning to learn”. Arne Duncan (2015) explains precisely the vision that must be used to design them by stating that innovation in education must not focus only on the most recent gadget or application, but in how the technological tools may capacitate students to become who they want to be and what the world needs then to be. Thus, by developing games and activities, the designers, teachers and developers must wide their vision beyond the objects themselves. They need to think about the whole system in which those artifacts will be used, considering the behavior of the target and of all parts involved, the objective, the process and the results, because this is how the good experiences of teachinglearning will be born.

III. BENEFITS AND DIFFICULTIES OF DIGITAL ACTIVITIES AND GAMES In the teaching-learning context, digital activities and games have similarities, but cannot be considered as the same product. This paper will consider both objects as being similar regarding their projects, types and educational uses. Digital activities focused on education are materials that may aggregate different elements such as simple games, audios, exercises, simulations and animations. Those objects may work both independently as well as be related with others, being a complementary part of a set, which makes the teaching material of a given curriculum. Regarding games, many authors (Huizinga, 1971; Bruner, 1992; Battaiola, 2000; Vianna, 2013) talk about the attributes that differentiate them from other activities, detailing the specific characteristics and possible classifications. In common with interactive activities, there is the existence of an objective (goal), interactivity and entertainment. Specific characteristics of games are, for instance, the presence of a player and adversary, defined rules and conditions of victory, draw and defeat. Copyright © 2016 MECS

Huizinga (1971) and Vianna et al (2013) claim that the game must be a free and non-structured activity. Mcgonigal (2012) adds to this list the presence of a feedback system and voluntary participation. Regarding the rules, Vygotsky (1991) makes a counterpoint stating that “the imaginary situation of any kind of toy already has behavior rules, although it may not be a game with formal rules established a priori” (VYGOSTKY, 1991 p.63). Vianna et al (2013) classifies games as analogical, digital and pervasive, as follows: •

• •

Analogical: table games (Mikado, RPG), card games (UNO, Magic), dice games (Craps), games with paper and pen (Crosswords, Tic-tac-toe, Stop/Adedonha), field (Soccer) or court games (Basketball), group dynamics and entertainment games. Digital: videogames, games in application format and simulators. Pervasive: games using equipments such as Kinect, Xtian and Rift glasses.

According to this classification guideline, this paper will approach the digital and pervasive games. Under the perspective of applications modes, the games and interactive activities may be used by direct interaction of the student or by means of an educator; individually or in group; with or without the simultaneous use of other materials/objects. Regarding their objective or teaching function there are also different approaches such as presenting new content, content fixation, revision or evaluation. Those educational objectives create an active interest on children, because they are an essential part of the interaction and experience performed. The generated emotion creates a situation of engagement and flow (CSIKSZENTMIHALYI, 1990), favoring the learning and memorization of the educational content. Those materials are also excellent tools for performing simulations because they explore and build situations beyond text and image, which become kinesthetic experiences. They are versatile to all disciplines and contexts, from the basic and essential ones such as learning colors, presented in two cases on this paper, until mathematics, biology or geography foundations, for instance, that have not easy to learn concepts. In order to understand the fundamental functions of the game, ideas of Bruner (1992) are here used, suggesting approaching the theme of the relationship between game, language and thought, examining its practical implications such as organizing the activities of the children in game groups in order to help them to develop their potential and to live more fully. The fundamental functions of the game in children activity are then synthesized. •

Function 1 – first of all, in the game the severity of the consequences of errors and failures is reduced. In effect, the game is a serious activity that has no frustrating consequences for the

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 1-9

Digital Games and Interactive Activities: Design of Experiences to Enhance Children Teaching-Learning Process

•

children and is justified by itself. The game may be considered an excellent way of exploring that awakes stimulus by itself. Function 2 – secondly, the game is characterized by a quite fragile connection between the means and the goals. It does not mean that children are not looking for finality and not using the means to obtain them in the game, but what happens is that children change objectives while actuating, in order to adapt themselves to the new means or vice-versa, and also by emotion and happiness. The game serves as a way of exploring and also of invention. In the game children are not very worried with results, but they modify what they are doing in order to leave the way free for their fantasy. If they cannot interfere on it, they tend to become quickly bored with the activity. When observing a child stacking wood blocks, it could be surprising the diversity and richness of combinations that it introduces on the game, offering a unique opportunity to enrich the banality. Function 3 – on the third place, besides its variety, the game is seldom random or casual, on the opposite, it normally has rules. Sometimes those rules are harder to discern, however, it is always worth to look closely, which is the formal finality of a game. Function 4 – on the fourth place, it is normal to say that the game is a projection of the inner life towards the outer world, contrasting with learning, by means of which the external world is internalized and becomes part of the individual. The game is an extremely important activity for growing. Playing creates a very particular feeling of omnipotence that may be entrancing and sometimes even scaring.

To all that it must be added the fact that the game entertains and entertains a lot. Even objects placed on the game to be overcome become fun. In fact, those obstacles seem to be necessary, because with the lack of challenges, the child tends to become quickly bored. For McGonigal (2012), reality does not motivate people effectively, because it is not inherently designed to make them happy. In this sense, Bruner (1992) believes that it is possible for people to assimilate the game in order to solve real problems in a more pleasant way. Thus, if the game is not considered as a source of entertainment, people will not really understand what it is all about. (BRUNER apud PORTUGAL, 2010, p: 163-164). Although it is clear that games may help the teachinglearning process, Tractenberg e Tractenberg (2012), alert that, among the several things that may go wrong in educational projects, one with a large impact is the use of inadequate educational materials and technological resources. Costa (2009) points to a lack of planning for integrating games in the teaching-learning environment, by highlighting a difficulty in the application of games: “what exists, most of the time, are well intentioned Copyright © 2016 MECS

teachers trying to make their classes more entertaining in order to keep the attention of the students about what is being taught or exercised” (COSTA, 2009, p.12). This is one of the difficulties of using educational digital games also pointed by Grando (2000). The author organized disadvantages raised by scholars such as Kishimoto, Machado, Corbalán and Giménez, as follows: •

•

• •

•

When games are misused, there is the danger of giving a merely random character to the game that becomes an “appendix” in classroom. The students play and feel motivated only by the game, not knowing why they are playing it. Time spent with game activities in classroom is larger and, if the teacher is not ready, there may be a sacrifice of other contents due to the lack of time. Misconceptions that all contents must be taught by means of games. Thus, classes normally become casinos, also making no sense for the students. The lack of “playfulness” of the game due to the constant interference of the teacher, destroying the essence of the game. The coercion of the teacher, demanding that the student play, even if it does not want to, destroying the voluntariness that is part of the nature of the game. The access and availability difficulty of materials and resources about the use of games in teaching, which may subsidize the teaching work.

For Grando (2000), those considerations propose that the teacher “takes a proposal of working with games as an option, based on a reflection with methodological assumptions, previewed on its teaching plan, linked with a coherent conception present on the school planning as a whole” (GRANDO, 2000 p.35). Those statements show that the effort for involving teachers in those new teaching experiences must be greater, so that in the same way as the students, they also integrate into a dynamics that already changed and is still changing. It is worth to remind that teaching materials are not only tools for the student learning as well as for the educator’s work.

IV. TEACHING-LEARNING EXPERIENCES WITH DIGITAL GAMES AND INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES Aiming to deepen the reflection about the ideas previously exposed, hereafter four cases are detailed reporting the application of games and digital activities in the context of childhood education, as well as the analysis of this interaction, in order to illustrate how those materials are being used, the systems in which they are inserted in and the important methods and techniques to project them. A. In Digestion and Treasure Puzzle: learning objects in schools of New Zealand and Australia I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 1-9

Digital Games and Interactive Activities: Design of Experiences to Enhance Children Teaching-Learning Process

In 2001 the governments of Australia and New Zealand funded with over 68 million dollars the development of learning objects for primary and high schools. Those objects were games and educational activities to be used in computers. After the development and use of those materials in schools, a field research performed in 2004 by Murdoch University analyzed their use in classroom. In a paper highlighting two games from this study “In Digestion” and “Treasure Puzzle”, Lowe et al (2010) talk about the usability and efficacy of those materials by investigating if/how students engaged with the learning objects. The methodology used had different techniques such as participative observation, interviews and questionnaires in order to answer if the students were able to easily use the materials, if they liked the experience and if they engaged with the content aimed to be taught. “In Digestion” game was one of the best evaluated among all developed objects and had the characteristics of being hard, surprising and fun. Besides, it related with the day-to-day by creating interactions from a theme that is of intrinsic interest and personal importance.

B. Beelight: digital manipulable to help children during the discovery of colors Shen et al (2013), researchers from Zhejiang University, started a study from the following paradigm: technology has being integrated into school, but the method for teaching colors for children continues to be the traditional one: adults show to children cards or colored objects and tell the name of colors. According to the researchers, this makes students learn and accept information instead of helping them to discover and explore the knowledge. This fact led to the “Beelight” project. In their paper “Beelight: helping children discover colors”, the authors describe the project of developing Beelight, a manipulable object to help children between four and six years to discover colors.

Fig.1. Interface of “In Digestion” game. Source: Lowe et al (2010). The “Treasure Puzzle” created a deviation from the content intended to be taught, with a mechanics that created lack of interested by the students. The game did not provide feedback from the data inputted by the students, had concepts and words that were not familiar to the students and some of its activities had very long texts.

Fig.3. Digital manipulable “Beelight”. Source Shen et al (2013).

In order to build the toy, the researchers used the method of participative investigation. They organized three workshops with the participation of the children and two educators. Initially, an observation about the traditional teaching of colors was performed and, on the next week, researchers carried the first prototype for tests with the children. Tim Brown (2010) defines that the prototype is any tangible thing that allows us to explore an idea, evaluate it and they carry it forward. The dynamics performed with the first prototype helped to improve it from the feedback of children and teachers.

Fig.2. Interface of “Treasure Puzzle” game. Source: Lowe et al (2010).

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Digital Games and Interactive Activities: Design of Experiences to Enhance Children Teaching-Learning Process

It is important to highlight that with this case in which the observation of users and context, the methodological decision by participative investigation and the technique of iterative prototyping were essential to improve the object, reaching the educational goal and getting engagement from children. C. The Goalkeeper: interactive game for motor development and English teaching

Fig.4. Details of “Beelight” components. Source: Shen et al (2013).

The manipulable worked as follows: a collector could be placed over any object in order to capture its color and then the collector was placed over a platform. When it was left over the platform, that one would assume the captured color.

Fig.5. Manipulable and platform composing the “Beelight”. Source: Shen et al (2013).

Interactive prototyping allowed the creation of a new functionality that was not imagined by the researchers. Beelight now has another mode, in which the platform randomly displays a color and the children should place the manipulable over an object of the same color. This last mode, in fact, was the one that created more engagement from students. According to researchers, some children quickly lost interest in using just the first mode of the toy.

Developed by researchers from Taiwan, Hsiao and Chen (2016), the Goalkeeper game combined the technology of gesture-based computing and game-based learning. According to researchers, the gesture-based technology of equipments such as Kinect and Xtion improves the gross motor coordination, memorization, motivation and learning capacity and performance on several disciplines. The game-based learning model, already well spread in schools today, engage students to learn by means of an interactive entertainment, promoting the flow state. Thus, a learning model aggregating characteristics from both and adequate for preschoolers was developed: the gesture-based games. The study was performed with the help of the gamebased learning from Garris, Ahlers, and Driskell (2002), known as Input-Process-Outcome (IPO). This model is a guideline for developing games and has the following guidelines: •

• •

Input: design of the instructional contends, following six different types of characteristics: fantasy, rule/objective, sensorial stimulus, challenge, mystery and control. Process: cycle (mechanics) of the game and feedback from the system. Outcome: performing the training goals and specific learning results.

Fig.7. Boy playing “The Goalkeeper”. Source: Hsiao and Chen (2016).

Fig.6. Children playing with “Beelight”. Source: Shen et al (2013).

The objective of the game was the learning of six colors and their respective names in English, the second language of children, while simultaneously performing movements. An experiment was performed comparing the traditional method of color teaching (control group) with the gesture-based games method (experimental method). Results show that the different learning approaches

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Digital Games and Interactive Activities: Design of Experiences to Enhance Children Teaching-Learning Process

affected the performance of content assimilation and the motor skills of participants.

partnership with PICTUS, a company of graphic and digital design, for development of activities. Having a structured briefing and the first scripts of activities, created by both teachers and editors, the production of the activities was started following a methodology in two phases, summarized as follows and detailed in the paper from Brunnet (2015).

Fig.8. Design of experiment detailing the Outcome stage, of IPO model. Source: Hsiao and Chen (2016).

There was improvement in learning and motor skills performance for those who used the gesture-based games approach to complete the tasks. This approach reinforces the memory of participants and they were able to understand more easily the educational materials, improving their learning performance and reinforcing their motor skills. Even being used only in the teaching of a foreign language, the gesture-based games model was considered as promising to be used in other cases. D. Meet Brownie: digital activities for children from bilingual schools Digital activities from project Meet Brownie were developed to be used in classroom with mediation of the teacher. Using languages HTML5, CSS and JS, the activities contain exercises, animations and interactive games to be used in different browsers and are designed for all students in the classroom. The digital material has two volumes: Meet Brownie Blue and Meet Brownie Yellow. Target group are three and four years old children studying in bilingual schools, where the English language is the mean for learning other disciplines and concepts.

Fig.10. Phases A and B of project “Meet Brownie”. Source: Brunnet (2015).

Phase A – Development of the product base. •

•

Stage 1: Knowledge about the market, target public, object and project concept. First analysis of activities content. Verification of technological feasibility and definition of technology to be used; Stage 2: Macro architecture of information, mechanics and gameplay. Definition of elements and resources to be used and navigational flow. Production of initial wireframes and storyboards. Validation and adjustments in wireframes and storyboards. Stage 3: Layout of main interfaces. Validation and adjustments in lay-out and navigational flow. Start of programming the base in HTML5+CSS+JS. Stage 4: Testing in the use place and finalization of programming the base.

Phase B: Development of activities •

•

• Fig.9. Layout of the main interface of “Meet Brownie Yellow”. Source: Project “Meet Brownie”.

•

Stage 5: Detailed analysis of the script of the activity to be executed, generation of ideas and creation of sketches of the other complementary illustrations and storyboards of the activity. Validation of concepts and sketches. Stage 6: Beginning of the art finishing of drawings. Validation and adjustments of trace, colors, shapes and sizes of elements created with tests in the place of use. Stage 7: Finishing of illustrations after testing and creation of animation frames using sprite technique. Stage 8: Programming of animations and programming of the first interactions of activities in HTML5+CSS+JS. Insertion of audios. Validation, tests and adjustments.

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Digital Games and Interactive Activities: Design of Experiences to Enhance Children Teaching-Learning Process

•

Stage 9: Finishing of programming and validation and feedback from activities with full operation. Adjustments in details of animations and interactions, when needed. Stage 10: Final tests in classrooms. Validation and final adjustments.

Analyzing the adopted methodology it is observed the use of the technique of prototyping and tests in several stages, which greatly contributed to integrate the multidisciplinary present in digital projects focused on education. During activity “On a Farm II”, the character walks in a farm, teaching vocabulary from this context such as fruits and vegetables, in English. Clicking over all the elements of the scene, the activity returns an audio feedback with a speech of the character containing the vocabulary intended to be learned by the children (e.g.: “Look! An egg!”) and an animation of the scene. The design of characters and scenes, the audios with children’s voices and the familiar elements with simple aesthetic and strong colors in the scenes makes easy for the children to identify themselves, creating engagement.

engagement of students during the activities in order to potentiate the teaching-learning process, the memorization and understanding of the educational content. In different ways, the analyzed papers also approach the importance of feedback, both to keep the engagement as well as to make teaching effective, by corroborating the understanding regarding what was presented. Regarding product development, participative observation was a technique used on the four cases, sometimes for analysis of experiences, sometimes to receive inputs used to improve those products, from students or teachers. Integration and participation of the target-public was essential during the development of “Beelight”, a significant contribution for improving the product being reported. During the studies of the experiences analyzed in this paper, improvements were reported and some problems identified for applying the materials. Limitations presented were normally regarding the small scale of the public in which the objects were applied, which disallows to be precise about their effectiveness.

V. CLOSING REMARKS

Fig.11. Print screen of animation of activity “On a Farm II”. Source: Project “Meet Brownie”.

In this project, the iterative prototyping and tests were essential to, for instance, setting colors and sizes of elements, the timing of some animations and games and the difficulty to understand some concepts. The visual and sound feedback included in the iteractions was very important, since each activity works with a different mechanics. Tests were executed with teachers from “Cultura Inglesa” who simulated the teaching-learning dynamics using the activities in the classroom space. E. Synthesis of the analyzed digital experiences The synthesis executed considers important aspects regarding the development process and the use of objects resulting from the four previously detailed experiences. Those aspects were evaluated as relevant also by the authors of the papers reporting the experiences. Regarding the use of the games/activities analyzed, both the “In Digestion/Treasure Puzzle” as well as “The Goalkeeper” illustrate the importance of creating Copyright © 2016 MECS

In face of world technological changes, of new habits of children (and adults) and uncertainties in the field of teaching-learning, it is essential that educational materials, the system, utilization context and development processes are rethought both regarding their roles as well as regarding the concept, content and interactive possibilities. According with Portugal (2014), how the information is made available, transmitted and organized in learning environments implies a series of factors that shall contribute towards the teaching and learning process or not, altering relationships and implies interactions between teachers and students. Assuming that the work with the student of contemporary cannot be limited to the reading and writing process, but rather to an entire hypermedia language. During analysis of the studies presented in this paper, it was also possible to understand the impact of those transformations on the behavior of students and educators during teaching-learning dynamics. The engagement in one activity and the attitude of actively exploring the knowledge proved to be essential for the learning in current days. Besides, from the analysis of the process and results, it was possible to find good methodological solutions for the project of those materials, such as the participative investigation, the iterative prototyping, pilot tests in places where they will be used, as well as to understand some of the benefits and difficulties of using them in school environment. Those methods and techniques will contribute to the project of teaching-learning experiences. Finally, from the investigation performed, it is possible to understand that the methodologies adopted in game projects and digital activities must contemplate the effort I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 1-9

Digital Games and Interactive Activities: Design of Experiences to Enhance Children Teaching-Learning Process

of involving students and teachers in the process, seeking to improve the efficiency of the materials under an interactive production process. When new materials are created and tested and the way in which they may contribute in the process of knowledge building by the interaction subject-object is understood, it becomes possible to develop systems that use this potential and that better adapt to the needs of the students, teachers and educational institutions of today. REFERENCES [1] A. C. Ramal, Educação com Tecnologias Digitais: Uma Revolução Epistemológica em Mãos do Desenho Instrucional. In: Educação Online - Teorias, práticas, legislação e formação corporativa. Marco Silva (org.). São Paulo: Loyola, 2003. [2] A. Duncan, “What Can Technology Do for Tomorrow’s Children?”, 2015, available in: https://medium.com/bright/ what-can-technology-do-for-tomorrow-s-children3357831 990c7, access in april 13th, 2016. S.p. [3] A. L. Battaiola, “Jogos por computador –histórico, relevância tecnológica e mercadológica, tendências e técnicas de implementação,” XIX Jornada de Atualização em Informática, Curitiba, SBC, v. 2, p. 83-122, 2000. [4] C. Portugal, Design, educação e tecnologia, Rio Books, 2013. [5] "Hypermedia E-book as a Pedagogical Tool in a Graduation Course", IJMECS, vol.6, no.9, pp.8-14, 2014. DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2014.09.02 [6] “Design em Situações de Ensino-aprendizagem. Um diálogo Interdisciplinar”. Thesis (PHD in Design), Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 2009. [7] C. Portugal and R. Couto, Design em situações de ensinoaprendizagem In: Estudos em Design (Online), v. 18, p. 01-22, 2010. [8] H. Hsiao and J. Chen, “Using a gesture interactive gamebased learning approach to improve preschool children's learning performance and motor skills”, Computers & Education, v. 95, p. 151-162, 2016. [9] J. Huizinga, Homo ludens: o jogo como elemento da cultura Editora da Universidade de S. Paulo, Editora Perspectiva, 1971. [10] J. Mcgonigal, A realidade em jogo: por que os games nos tornam melhores e como eles podem mudar o mundo, Rio de Janeiro, BestSeller, 2012. [11] J. Piaget, O nascimento da inteligência na criança. Trad. Álvaro Cabral, Rio de Janeiro, Zahar, 1975. [12] K. Lowe et al. “Learning objects and engagement of students in Australian and New Zealand schools”, British Journal of Educational Technology, v. 41, n. 2, p. 227-241, 2010. [13] L. D. Costa, “O que os jogos de entretenimento têm que os jogos educativos não têm”. In: VIII Brazilian Symposium on Games and Digital Entertainment, 2009, p. 8-10. [14] L. S. Vygotski, “A formação social da mente”, M. Cole et al (Org.), São Paulo, Martins Fontes, 1991. [15] L. Tractenberg and R. Tractenberg, “Design Instrucional na Educação Corporativa” In: RAMAL, Andrea (Org.). Educação corporativa: fundamentos e gestão, Rio de Janeiro: LTC, 2012. [16] M. Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: the psychology of optimal experience, USA, Harper Perennial Modern Classics edition, 1990.

[17] M. M. Alves and A. L. Battaiola, “Recomendações para ampliar motivação em jogos e animações educacionais,” X SBGames, Salvador-BA, 2011. [18] M. Prensky, Digital natives, digital immigrants, On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001. [19] M. Silva, “Interatividade: uma mudança fundamental do esquema clássico da comunicação”, Boletim Técnico do SENAC, Rio de Janeiro, v. 23, n. 3, p. 19-27, 2000. [20] N. Brunnet, “A importância do processo de design na criação e desenvolvimento de materiais didáticos digitais”, In: C. G. Spinillo; L. M. Fadel; V. T. Souto; T. B. P. Silva & R. J. Camara (Eds). Anais do 7º Congresso Internacional de Design da Informação/Proceedings of the 7th Information Design International Conference | CIDI 2015 [Blucher Design Proceedings, num.2, vol.2], p. 243256, São Paulo, Blucher, 2015. [21] P. Freire, Pedagogia da autonomia: saberes necessários à prática docente, São Paulo, Paz e Terra, 1996. [22] R. C. Grando, O conhecimento matemático e o uso de jogos na sala de aula, Thesis (PHD in Education), Faculdade de Educação, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, São Paulo. 2000. [23] T. Brown, Design Thinking: uma metodologia poderosa para decretar o fim das velhas ideias, Rio de Janeiro, Elsevier, 2010. [24] V. Nacher, F. Garcia-Sanjuan and J. Jaen, “Game Technologies for Kindergarten Instruction: Experiences and Future Challenges” In: Proceedings of the 2nd Congreso de la Sociedad Española para las Ciencias del Videojuego, 2015. p. 58-67. [25] Y. Shen et al, “Beelight: helping children discover colors” In: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, ACM, 2013. p. 301-304. [26] Y. Vianna et al, Gamification, Inc: como reinventar empresas a partir de jogos, Rio de Janeiro, MJV Press, 2013.

Authors’ Profiles Natalia Brunnet was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on May 1st 1983. She is a Master student in Design at PUC-Rio (2016/2018). She is also an expert in Web Design, Strategic Design and Project Management. Her research interests are new technologies for Education, digital products and projects with multidisciplinar teams. She has a particular interest in developing learning objects for children. Since 2008, she is a partner at PICTUS, a design studio in Rio de Janeiro, where she leads projects for Education and Training.

Cristina Portugal is a Doctor, Master and Bachelor in Design from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). She hold two POSDOC in Design. She is a Researcher at the Post Graduate Program in Design at PUC-Rio, President of Information Design Brazilian Society (SBDI) and an Editor of the journal Studies in Design. Her research covers Visual Communication

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Digital Games and Interactive Activities: Design of Experiences to Enhance Children Teaching-Learning Process

within the research line Design, Technology, Education and

Society.

How to cite this paper: NatĂĄlia Brunnet, Cristina Portugal,"Digital Games and Interactive Activities: Design of Experiences to Enhance Children Teaching-Learning Process", International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science(IJMECS), Vol.8, No.12, pp.1-9, 2016.DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2016.12.01

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I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 10-16 Published Online December 2016 in MECS (http://www.mecs-press.org/) DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2016.12.02

Keeping Parents Involved Using 360-Class Monitoring Application Siti Fatimah Abdul Razak, Basyirah Abdurahim, Faizuniza Mashhod Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Multimedia University, Melaka, 75450, Malaysia Email: fatimah.razak@mmu.edu.my, basyirah@live.com.my, faizuniza.mashhod@mmu.edu.my

Abstract—Parents play a vital role contributing towards student achievement. They need to be actively involved in organising and monitoring student time, assisting with homework and discussing school matters. Hence, 360Class Monitoring application aims to foster better communication between teachers, students and parents. The application enables effective and prompt communication in terms of updating parents on students‟ school work and assignments as well as school activities. For example, the application provides a platform for a teacher to post assignments which require students‟ actions along with the submission date. New entries by teachers will trigger email notifications to alert parents. Students and parents are able to view the post once they logged into the system. Index Terms—Education technology, communication, mobile applications, monitoring students

I. INTRODUCTION Close and effective communication between teachers and parents has been proven to help students perform better in schools [1]. This type of communication can either be one-way or two-way or combination of both. In a one way communication, teachers usually use communication books, report cards, school newsletter or websites to inform parents about student activities or progress whereas parents are only information receivers. On the contrary, a two-way communication allows interactive dialogue or change of roles between teachers and parents which eventually allows interactive feedback or responses from parents to teachers and vice versa. Combination of both one way and two way communication is most ideal to ensure close and effective communication between both parties [2]. Nevertheless, students are often the one expected to be the intermediaries responsible to receive and deliver any messages or information between teachers and parents [3]. The ability of a student to share and convey messages to parents rely on the student abilities which differ from one student to another. In certain cases, some student especially those in primary schools may not be able to understand or misinterpret verbal messages by their teachers. As a result, miscommunication may happen between the three parties, i.e. teachers, students and parents.

To address this issue, common implementation is by issuing a circular or notice from the school or teachers to the parents [4]. This approach has been practised for so many years and is still being practised to support communication efforts between parents, students and teachers. However, the approach is less effective since students may forget, misplace or loose the paper prior to actually delivering it to their parents. Furthermore, the circular or notes may be accidently torn, ripped off or even exposed to rainy weather which may cause it to be unreadable. Recent advancement in information technology has enabled schools and teachers to share information and communicate with parents in a timelier manner. Dependencies on student to pass the information between both parties are alleviated by integrating technology [3]. Official school websites, social media group and emails may help teachers communicate with parents faster. However, the success and effectiveness depends on parents‟ access to the said platforms. Furthermore, these platforms are generally used to share information on school events and activities in general and on ad-hoc basis only. Apart from that, parents nowadays are torn between career and responsibilities towards their children. Their busy work schedule may cause them to be ineffective in planning a proper schedule [5]. Most of the time, parents are not aware or well-informed about their children‟s activities in school. As a result, this group of parents may face difficulties in monitoring and keeping track of their children‟s daily school activities. Given the opportunity, they prefer to be involved and promptly informed of their child‟s well-being and progress. This includes being aware of their child‟s activities in school, homework or tasks assigned by teachers, updates on schedule tests and exams as well as their child‟s need. As such, conventional method of communication may not be sufficient. Thus, other means of communication is deemed necessary to provide timely information and monitor the performance of a student. This study aims to provide an alternative for teachers and parents to communicate as well as alleviating the task as intermediaries from the students. An application known as the 360-class monitoring application was developed to improve communication between teachers, parents and students especially for monitoring task or homework assigned to students. The application is

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Keeping Parents Involved Using 360-Class Monitoring Application

accessible via smartphones 24/7 and each entry by the teachers will trigger email notification to alert the parents. This paper is organized in the following structure. Section I provides a brief overview of communication between teachers, parents and students. Section II described and compared similar technology-based and mobile applications which support communication between teachers, parents and students. Section III described the 360-Class Monitoring Application features. The testing procedures are described in Section IV whereas the last section, i.e. Section V concludes the paper by discussing future improvements and suggestions for the application.

II. RELATED WORK Technology creates opportunities to directly link home and school. In other words, technology may foster effective communication between teachers and parents as well as transform the role and status of homework which eventually extends learning opportunities [6]. In addition, technologies which are flexible, accessible and provide interactive resources may facilitate and support parents engagement in their child‟s learning process [7]. In this study, several technology-based approach and similar existing systems developed to support communications between teachers, students and parents are investigated and summarised in the following subsections. A. School Portal

grid. Its interactive content and user friendliness allows lively and prompt interaction. For example, Sekolah Kebangsaan Kuala Kubu Bharu Dua created a facebook page as a platform to communicate with parents (Fig. 2). Facebook pages are either created for the whole school or class groups. Group discussions are also set-up to allow parents to interact with teachers and school administrators directly. Parents may also refer to the page for updates on school activities. Apart from that, some Facebook groups or pages also allow teachers to post announcement regarding homework and assignments. In general, social media can support no-cost, fast and efficient information delivery to parents. However, security measures need to be enforced to avoid unlawful act of imposters posing as one of the parents to gain confidential information related to the students for the purpose of criminal intentions.

Fig.2. Example of facebook page for teachers-parents communication

C. Mobile applications

Fig. 1. Example of school portal for homework

School portal is a web portal for parents to monitor their children‟s activities and performance in school. For example, SJK(C) Bukit Beruang developed a school portal which enables teachers to list homework or assignments to be completed by students based on specific classes. Students and parents may log into the portal using pre-assigned unique ID to view the list (Fig. 1). A page admin is appointed to maintain the page. However, teachers need to request the page admin to update an entry on their behalves.

Class Dojo (App. A) Class Dojo is developed to enable the teacher to track student‟s behaviour and provide instant and positive encouragement. Students are allowed to create their own account and view their personal achievement and progress throughout the class. Teachers and parents are engaged through an instant messaging platform which is capable of broadcasting reminders and allow private chats (Fig. 3(a)). This application is unique in terms of motivating students to participate in class activities. Students are rewarded by allowing them to customise personal avatar every time they achieved a specified milestones or show positive behaviours.

Fig.3(a) Class Dojo messenger (b) Class Dojo progress Tracker

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Keeping Parents Involved Using 360-Class Monitoring Application

Even though the features are very appealing, the application does not provide remarks on the due date of tasks or assigned homework. In addition, teachers may have to broadcast from time to time, in order to remind parents to look into the homework or task given to their children. The size of the application is huge since it is enriched with animation and interactive interface. This may hinder parents from downloading and using the application. Rushyl Homework Application (App. B) This application aims to enable class homework postings via mobile phones. It also aims to provide early notification for parents so that parents may schedule the time for their children to work on the tasks and thus allow them to effectively monitor their children‟s work.

Teacher app. and grade book application (App. C) The goal of this application is to inform and increase parental involvement related to student education thus increase the student motivation, test scores, and individual school performance. Many interesting features are available which includes grade book, school messenger system, class, student, parent messaging, interactive class calendar, events, course grades, assignment graders, assignment notes, send assignments, attendance records instant back-up, task/checklist, instant grade sharing, parent absentee notices, class structure, cloud account recovery, forgot password recovery, and group codes for school district.

Fig.5(a). Teachers main page 5(b). Class calendar

Fig.4(a). Main pages of the application

In order to post homework, teachers need to take a picture of the instructions for the homework which they have written on the board. Then, they need to select the grade and subject, add optional description and select due date for the homework. Once they press Submit button, the homework will be uploaded in the application (Fig. 4(a)).

Teachers are able to send important messages to parents, students and other teachers in a matter of seconds. Teachers are also able to add events to the class calendar for parents and students information. Besides that, teachers are able to add attachments, grades, student notes, and student attendance records to keep parents and students informed (Fig. 5(a) adn Fig. 5(b)).

Fig.5(c). Parents main page

Fig.4(b). Student view

Students need to log in to the application and select their grade to view homework posted for the day. The homework may be filtered based on teachers, by week or by month (Fig. 4(b)). The application lacks in terms of providing specific instruction related to the homework given and is highly dependent on teachers‟ smartphones to capture the images. The images may be blur or not clearly visible which may cause confusion. Notifications on homework due dates as well as parents notification are not available. Copyright © 2016 MECS

Fig. 5(d). Messaging features

Parents may access sent messages (Fig. 5(d)), grades, notes and attendance records based on input data from the teachers (Fig. 5(c)). Parents have the opportunity to message teachers, view the class calendar, and also send password protected absence notes straight through the application. Furthermore, students are allowed to view their grades, send messages, and access their attendance records. Students will be aware of their progress, which will require them to accept ownership for their individual reports. The downside of this application is that parents and students are required to purchase an account in order to register and use this application. However, a fourteen days trial is available prior to actual purchase. The application has high complexity due to many features included even though the main focus is on student‟s

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grades and attendance records. The interactive calendar is applied to post about school events only



D. Comparisons



The reviewed mobile applications are compared and summarised based on application features or modules for teachers, parents and students role in Table 1.

Java An object-oriented programming language suitable for developing small-scale applications. Structured Query Language (SQL) Used to communicate with SQLite database and perform tasks such as data updates or retrieval.

B. System Architecture

Table 1. Comparisons between App. A, B and C. Modules Teacher

Parent

Student

App A Give awards and achievement marks to student based on their participation. Able to view student‟s achievement in class, receive broadcast messages from teachers and chat personally with teachers. Customize personal avatar and view personal achievement in class.

App B Able to add homework and attach a picture related to the homework.

App C Display assignment grades, record attendance, and upload student notes

Able to view student‟s homework pictures added by teachers.

Able to view student‟s class grades, checklist and event calendar as well as chat personally with teachers.

Able to view students‟ homework picture added by teachers.

Fig.6. System architecture

Fig. 6 illustrates the system works in general. First, user needs to key-in required data inside the application (1). Second, user input data are stored in the SQLite database (2). Third, once the application is launched, the relevant data are retrieved from the database (3). Data are displayed upon request by authenticated and authorised user (4).

Allow to view student‟s grades, checklist and event on the class calendar.

C. System Interface and Features

III. 360-CLASS MONITORING APPLICATION In this study, a mobile application known as the 360Class Monitoring application was developed with the aim to provide an effective communication tool between teachers, students and parents. This application intends to support information sharing related to students‟ homework or assignments as well as related information about upcoming lessons. A. System Requirements This application was developed using Java programming language, Android Studio, Java Development Kit (JDK), GenyMotion Emulator and SQLite as well as Structured Query Language (SQL). 

 

Android studio An Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for application development for android. The IDE consist an Android SDK tool and Android Virtual Device (AVD) Manager which enables debugging process. Java Development Kit (JDK) A tool use to compile, debug, run Java programming language (Java-based) applets and application. SQLite An open sources database which supports standard relational database features like SQL syntax, transaction and prepared statement as well as acts as library or storage for all project-related data.

A menu-based navigation approach was applied for flexible and easy navigation. Teachers are able to create, edit, and post homework descriptions for parents and students to view. Apparently, parents and students view are similar since these two parties share a similar objectives, i.e. to get details of homework or assignment posted by teachers. However, parents have an additional feature which is receiving alerts and email notifications of new posts [8]. Aside from that, this application also will be included with a calendar features. The homework and information of future lessons are presented in a calendar form in order for these three users to get a clear view on the homework‟s due date.

Fig.7. Main menu

Fig. 7 illustrates the main page of the 360-Class Monitoring application with four user options, i.e. parent,

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teacher, student and administtration. Administration refers to school administrator to provide master data for parents, teachers and students. Adminstrators need to log into to the system to manage the master data. The login page is shown in Fig. 7(a). Fig. 7(b) is displayed upon successful login. The applications allow three attempts to login, after which the application will automatically if the credential provided are still incorrect.

Fig.8(b). Calendar list view

Teachers can either email a specific parent of his students or send email notifications to parents of the whole affected class. In this case, email notification regarding the new added homework/task will be sent to all parents of 1 Cerdik. Teachers are not limited to post on homeworks or task only. They can also post other matters related to upcoming lessons like items to bring, tests or quizzes to be conducted and etc. Specific email may also be sent to specific parent to inform the parent of certain issues pertaining to a specific student or child.

Fig.7(a). Admin log-in page (b). Admin main menu

Fig.8. Teachers menu

In addition, upon successful log-in, teachers are able to add a new homework, send email notification to parents and view subject or parents list (Fig. 8). To add a new homework, the teacher must first choose a class. For example, class 1 Cerdik. Then, the teacher must add descriptions of the homework including subject, date assigned, submission date and details of the tasks (Fig. 8(a). Once submitted, the title of the homework appears in a calendar list view (Fig. 8(b)).

Fig.9. Parents and students view

Furthermore, parents and students share the same view (Fig. 9). Both parties may only view the homework or task posted by respective teachers for the studentâ&#x20AC;&#x;s class. They may view by selecting the month and filtering by date to get details of the homework or posted information. All parties may log-out from the application at anytime they wish by pressing the Logout button.

IV. TESTING During the development phase, functionality testing was performed to ensure that the application is able to produce the expected outcomes consistently and accurately. Results indicates that the application is performing as expected and free from error or bugs. Summary of the test is tabled in Table 2.

Fig.8(a). Add homework/task details

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Keeping Parents Involved Using 360-Class Monitoring Application

3. In conclusion, the application works best using Google Nexus 4 with android version 4.1.1 API 16. Hence, we assume that the appication will work well on other devices with similar android version.

Table 2. Summary of functionality testing Features

Expected Outcome

Actual Result (Pass/Fail) A. Login/Logout activity (Admin/Teacher/Parent/Student) Insert username and Usernmame and Password password in the match; User is directed to Pass given textfield. Admin Main Menu Click on Logout Successfully navigate to Pass button Main Page B. Admin – App. User Data Entry Enter Teacher / Successfully store input Parent/ Student data Pass details View Teacher/ Successfully list all Pass Parent/ Student List required details Edit Teacher/ Successfully updates/ Pass Parent/ Student List overwrite existing data C. Admin Activity – Add class and subject Add Class and Successfully store in the Pass Subject database Successfully list out all View Class and the class and subject Pass Subject List details Edit Class and Successfully overwrites Pass Subject the previous data. D. Teacher – Send Email To Parent Add parent‟s email Successfully store in the address in the text Pass database field. Selected email address is Select existing visible in the email text Pass email address field Successfully sends the Click on Send message to the desired Pass button email address. Click on Back Successfully direct to Pass button Teacher Main Menu. E. Teacher – View Subject and Parent List Click on Subject Successfully display list and Parent List Pass of subjects and parents button Select specific Successfully display the parent details and email address Pass of the parent F. Parent/ Student – View Homework Successfully display Select month homework list in the Pass calendar list view format Select date Successfully display the Pass homework details

V. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK 360-Class Monitoring application is an application aimed to support effective communication process between teacher, parents, and students. The main objective is to provide a communication tool which enable teachers to post information regarding homework or tasks for students and parents. Both parents and students will be able to keep track of the homework‟s due date using a calendar list view. In addition, parents are notified via email to alert them about the new homework. Literature search was conducted on different teacherparent technology based communication tools including three similar mobile applications. The three mobile applications were compared based on its functions. The 360-Class Monitoriung applications can be further improved. For example, a standard calendar view can be applied to represents the dateline of each homework. A simple marks or highlights on the date can be the right element to keep track of the homework‟s due date. Features can be enhanced by adding personal chats platform to support personal chats between teachers and parents, thus to keep up to date with the children activities in school. Instead of using email notifications, this application can be improve by using SMS (Short Messaging Service) to notify parents about newly added homework or task for their children. Teachers should also be made aware of the number of submissions required for a specific day. This allows teachers to re-consider their homework or task submission date should they found that students already have many tasks required to be submitted on the same day. REFERENCES [1]

Once the application has passed the functionality test, compatibility and usability of the application on multiple devices are assessed. This test is important since there are numerous types of mobile devices with vast software and hardware requirements [9]. Hence, the application was tested using a virtual device on the Genymotion Emulator.

[2]

[3]

Table 3. List of tested devices Virtual device

Android version

Google Nexus 4

4.1.1- API 16

Samsung Galaxy S3

4.1.1- API 16

HTC Evo

4.2.2- API 17

[4]

[5]

University of Illunois Extension. “Helping Children Succeed in School,” n.d. [Online]. Available: http://extension.illinois.edu/succeed/communication.cfm [Accessed: 23-July-2015]. Clay, S. G. “Communicating with Parents: Strategies for Teachers,” [Online]. Available: www.adi.org/journal/ss05/Graham-Clay.pdf [Accessed: 23-July-2015]. Ramirez, F. “Technology and Parent Involvement”, Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 75(1), 2001, 30-31. [Online]. Available: DOI:10.1080/00098650109599230 [Accessed: 15-March2016]. Lys, D. “Parental involvement : From Communication and Conference,” [Online]. Available: https://www.ecu.edu/cseduc/opd/upload/Parental_Involvement.pdf [Accessed: 23July-2015]. McCann, J. “No Time for the Family? You are Not Alone: Parents and Children Spend Less Than an Hour with Each Other Everyday because of Modern Demands,” 2013, July 14. [Online]. Available: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

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article- 2363193/No-time-family-You- Parents-childrenspend-hour-day-modern- demands.html [Accessed: 23July-2015]. Lewin, C. and Luckin, R. “Technology to Support Parental Engagement in Elementary Education: Lessons Learned from the UK”, 2010, Computers & Education 54 (3) pp. 749-758 [Accessed: 23-July-2015]. Harris, A. and Goodall, J. “Do Parents Know They Matter? Engaging All Parents in Learning”, 2008, Educational Research, 50 (3) pp. 277–289 [Online]. Available: DOI: 10.1080/00131880802309424 [Accessed: 23-July-2015] Thompson, B. “ The Role of Email in Parent-Teacher Communication”, 2008 [Online]. Available: https://www.natcom.org/CommCurrentsArticle.aspx?id=8 [Accessed: 23-July-2015] Flora, Harleen K., Xiaofeng Wang, and Swati V. Chande. “An Investigation into Mobile Application Development Processes: Challenges and Best Practices.” International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science 6.6 (2014): 1 [Online]. Available: http://www.mecspress.org/ijmecs/ijmecs-v6-n6/IJMECS-V6-N6-1.pdf [Accessed: 17-March-2016].

Basyirah Abdurahim is a final year student in B. IT (Hons Information Technology Management programme in Multimedia University. Her current research interest is in system development, android application and tutoring systems.

Faizuniza Mashhod is currently a lecturer in Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Multimedia University. She received her B. Sc. (Hons) in Information Technology from University Utara Malaysia and Master of Computer Science (Software Engineering and Intelligence) from University Teknikal Malaysia Melaka. Her primary research interest includes Web designing, information system development and educational technology.

Authors’ Profiles Siti Fatimah Abdul Razak received her B.Sc (Hons) with education where she majors in Mathematics and Information Technology and Master of Information Technology majoring in Science and System Management from the National University of Malaysia in 2004. She is currently a staff in Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Multimedia University. Her research interest includes rule mining, information systems development and educational technology.

How to cite this paper: Siti Fatimah Abdul Razak, Basyirah Abdurahim, Faizuniza Mashhod,"Keeping Parents Involved Using 360-Class Monitoring Application", International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science(IJMECS), Vol.8, No.12, pp.10-16, 2016.DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2016.12.02

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 10-16

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 17-22 Published Online December 2016 in MECS (http://www.mecs-press.org/) DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2016.12.03

The Strategic Performance Measurements in Educational Organizations by Using Balance Scorecard Thitirath Cheowsuwan School of Information and Communication Technology, University of Phayao, Payao, 56000 Thailand. Email: thitirath.ch@gmail.com

Abstract—The Balanced Scorecard has been adopted as a management and measurement system around the world. It is adopted as a measure to assess the efficiency of an organization’s activities. The Balanced Scorecard measures four dimensions of organizational activities – internal processes, financial, external customers and learning and growth perspective. These focus on critical issues impacting modern business organizations that are the effective measurement of corporate performance and evaluation of the success of implementation of corporate strategy. This study explores the Balanced Scorecard as applied in higher education through a case study of the, School of Information and Communication Technology, Phayao University. This study seeks to explore the application of the Balanced Scorecard as a measurement system and its effectiveness in organizational evaluation within the School. In identifying a strategy to implement the Balanced Scorecard within the School each dimension is considered such as internal processes, financial, internal customer and learning and growth. This research began by examining practices in place and linking them to a Balanced Scorecard approach. The intention is being to identify administrative and tracking systems for performance measurement within the School. A model is then identified to collect data across the dimensions of the balanced scorecard, and performance criteria identified. In implementing this phase scores will be associated with performance within the four dimensions. This will enable an evaluation of the model, contribute to software improvement and assist users in conducting accurate and effective strategic planning. It is then hoped to implement the model within the School in strategy plans and operation of the School to improve the assessment of the performance, and identify areas of improvement and change that is desirable. Index Terms—Balance Scorecard, Decision Support System, Strategic Measurements.

I. INTRODUCTION The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) has been designed by R. S. Kaplan and D. P. Norton [1]. In order to improve and develop strategic measurements in educational organizations, BSC is a tool designed to support the Copyright © 2016 MECS

administration and to measure organizational performances. BSC is the organization assessment and tool for management to communicate with employees and external stakeholders [2]. It elevates the administrative standards to meet the highest customers’ satisfactions. Management control scholars who apply stakeholder theory to performance measurement, believe “performance measurement design starts with stakeholders” [3]. Moreover, it is a tool designed to put strategic organizations into actual practices as to enhance organization to become successful, alignment and focus to success of the organization [4]. The successes of the organization are the series of missions, visions, strategies, aims, related rules, and regulations. They would support the organization to reach its goals. The use of BSC in organizational administration requires accurate and practical performance indicators as to reflect four major aspects. Firstly, the internal process perspective, it emphasizes on administration within the organization such as the procedure of annual project, the concept of identifying key factors responsible for performance was well received by all concerned, the concept permits stakeholders to Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA), which follows a continuous improvement cycle [5]. Secondly, the financial perspective, it accentuates on effectiveness and capabilities of both monetary matters and budgeting. Thirdly, the external customer perspective, it focuses on customers’ satisfactions. Finally, the learning and growth perspective, it concentrates on initiating both new innovations and encouraging employees. The employees dominantly perform the performances of the organization within the arrays of BSC. For customers, the demands of the customers need to be response accurately and effectively in both strategic and practical levels. For leaders, they educate employees to become effective and qualified leaders of the organization. For information and technologies leaders, they elevate organizational standards by using both information and technologies as the tools. The provided tools would allow all employees to be able to make effective, accurate and prompt judgments for reaching major goals of the organization. Finally, for initiation leaders, they continuously develop the best and appropriate innovation for the organization. By covering all four strategic administration aspects, BSC was accepted and widely used worldwide by both profit and non- profit

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The Strategic Performance Measurements in Educational Organizations by Using Balance Scorecard

organizations as well as the leading educational organizations such as Glasgow Caledonian University, Napier University, University of California and Ohio State University [6]. There is challenge for Thai education system to utilize BSC. For university’s administrators, BSC is considered as a mechanism that encourages all administrative levels to be able to control and follow up the four dimensions of the organizational goals. The goals are combined with missions, visions, strategies, and aims. In addition, the BSC becomes a tool to measure the management abilities of the administrators whether their capabilities and effectiveness. Administrators need to be aware of the relationship between the BSC with strategy maps as well as management tools [7]. It levels of social expectation and evaluates an internal development process of the organization in accordance with the standard of high educational committee. For the use of the BSC in administration processes, it enables effective and punctual communications and administrations. The strategy is to develop a plan to achieve long-term objectives of the organization [8] to achieve the objectives and mission of the organization and its operations to ensure it is able to achieve the strategic objectives set [9]. The paper is organized as follows. Section 2, the methods of the proposed project is introduced. In section 3, all the results are presented. Finally, the conclusion is described in section 4.

II. METHODS 1.Prerequisites • SWOT Analysis

2.Model synthesis • Setting Vision • Strategy

• Strategy Map • KPIs

3. Technical implementation • Basic training for the persons building scorecards, Building of the scorecards (KPI’s) • Setting target and alarm levels, Setting calculation formulas to consolidate the data • Installation of the software • Defining graphical properties for graphs possible customized reports

4. Organizational integration • Definition of persons who are responsible for measure data and their empowerment • Explanation of objectives of BSC implementation to employees • Re-engineering the management and strategy process, Re-engineering the report process

5. Technical integration • Identification of imported measures and source systems • Analysis of database structure and exporting capabilities of operative systems • Defining procedure to get measure data from data sources including data identification, modification, scheduling • Implementation of link between scorecards and operative systems

6. Operation • Day-to-day operations • Update measure values • Analyze BSC results

• Report BSC results • Refine BSC model

Fig.1. The BSC Implementation Steps.

The purpose of this research is focused on School of Information and Communication Technology (SICT), University of Phayao. By using BSC in the processes, it develops the administration and tracking systems of the SICT Performance. The processes are Prerequisites, Model synthesis, Technical implementation, Organizational integration, Technical integration, and Copyright © 2016 MECS

Operation (QPR Software Plc., 2009). They are able demonstrated in Figure 1.

III. RESULTS From the study, the SICTP has been set both mission and vision. The mission of the SICT is “Wisdom for Community Empowerment” and the vision of the SICT is “Information and Communication Technology empower knowledge and open up international opportunities for a better life”. Both mission and vision take along with five major strategies. First, an effective and efficient management, it is committed to good governance. Second, a teaching and learning management (or live and learn), it is focused on students happiness so that they would become moral and qualified graduates. Third, an initiated research, it is focused on the creation of intellectual property rights (The Collective Intelligence supports the idea of One University One Province) along with the community. Fourth, the provided academic services, they are focused on the use of intellectual property rights as well as the development of strong community. Finally, minister wisdom arts, culture, and the environment of the local wisdom are provided to students [10]. By using all gathered data to develop strategic plans for the organization, there are four results. First, an internal process perspective, it emphasizes on developing the management plan in accordance with several parts such as the policies, the good governance principles in personnel development, the quality assurance system, and the graduate development. The goal is to meet the needs of the customers in accordance with core mission and two strategies, which are teaching and managing of eleven projects per activities with five strategies. Second, a learning and growth perspective described the goals for employees, information systems, and organizational alignment [11], it is concentrated on researching and initiating knowledge to improve organization growth under missions and strategies of two issues. The issues are researching and administrating in three projects per activities under strategy 1. Third, a financial perspective, it is focused on the sources of capital budget management in accordance with its value for money under mission and strategic issues with two projects per activities under two strategies because business needs information about activities, not accounting costs, to manage competitive operations and to identify profitable products and services [12]. Finally, an external customer perspective, it is concentrated upon the building customers’ satisfaction under fourteen projects per activities under strategy 2. However, if the organization has been accomplished the above processes, it was believed by organizational members. Moreover, it would enable the organization to reach its mission and vision. The processes are able to describe as the Figure 2.

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The Strategic Performance Measurements in Educational Organizations by Using Balance Scorecard

Converting Strategy into Action

Wisdom for Community Empowerment Information and Communication Technology empower knowledge and open up international opportunities for a better life

Strategy Academic Service Maintain •Provide the student Financial perspective which emphasize External Customer perspective •professional development on effectiveness and capabilities of emphasizes on customers’ satisfactions monetary matters and budgeting •1 school 1 model •Community development • Implementation of Management •Cultural Arts Publishing Research Financial strategies. •aesthetic development Learning and Growth perspective • Funding sources emphasizes on initiating new innovations • Monitoring/tracking/ and encouraging employees Strategy reporting. Strategy 1. Knowledge Management 3. Research and publication promotions

2. Network Development

Management

Financial

Main Objectives

Arts and culture

Management

4. QA research and benchmarking

Teaching

Internal process perspective which emphasizes on administration within the organization, HRD, Quality Assurance, Student Quality Development, Ethics, of good governance., University policy support, etc.

A Motivated and Prepared Workforce

Status and Equilibrium

Competency

KPIs

KPsI Performance Agreement KPIs

Main Objectives

Competency

Projects

Process Map (QA/KM) •Internal Process •Learning and Growth •Customer Service •Financial Management

Main Objectives Competency

Internal Process

Strategy KPIs

Competency

Learning & Growth

Arts and culture Maintain

Opportunity/Strange

Strategy • Manage the principles of good governance. • HR Development, Produce quality graduates • Development Graduate identities • Integrated teaching with other ministries • Student Development, moral, evaluation, etc.

Teaching 4 Research Academic Service

External Customer

Strategy KPIs Projects

Vision Management

Performance Agreement

KPIs

KPIs KPIs

Strategy KPIs

Strategy KPIs Projects

Performance Agreement

KPIs

Projects

Performance Agreement

KPIs

KPIs KPIs

Opportunity/Strange Competency

KPIs KPIs

Opportunity/Strange

Strategy KPIs Project KPIs PA KPIs

Competency

Fig.2. The Strategic Map.

Fig.4. The Converting Strategy into Action.

For the use of the strategic map to analyses and design as the main operation, it is able to reach organization stone miles towards its mission and vision. The organization needs to improve internal processes, which are included with a personnel development, an administrative process development, and a graduate development. The personnel development is included with both teachers and teaching assistants’ development. They have to elevate both the qualification and standards to support and stimulate working atmosphere to become familiar with the use of BSC. For an administration development process, it starts with conducting the order of operations including developing information systems. These systems create consumers reliability, seeking funds, developing academic services, building strong cooperation, stimulating continuous knowledge management for continuous growth, elevating qualification of the graduates by developing graduates within the frame of “TQF”, and developing graduates identities in accordance with the terms of the university. The processes have been conducted to reach the milestone “Knowledge Building for strong Communities” as shown in Figure 3 – 4.

It is start with to put strategic map and stone miles into practices in the organization. We determine both the strategies and the indexes that are complied with the view of BSC in the levels of several KPI classes such as strategy KPIs, project KPIs, and performance agreement KPIs. The above methods are also taken along with performance agreement of the SICT in the fiscal years of 2014-2016. Hence, the followings illustrate the percentile of using BSC at the levels of Strategy KPIs and performance agreement (PA) KPIs which can be categorized as the internal process (40%), the learning and growth (20%), the financial performance (20%), and the external customer (20%). The Table 1 illustrates the breakouts of previously mentioned figures.

Create new knowledge

Learning &Growth Learn to improve growth, Network expansion

Create Learning Social

Achieve the vision Generate more revenue

Quality of education service Internal Process Streamlines workflow/rules/quality.

Motivation/understanding the process of BSC.

HRD

Customer Satisfaction

Internal Process Graduate Quality Create network cooperation

Work System Development

Internal process (40%) 1. Management: The evaluation results of academic quality assurance in accordance with the measurement of the Office of the Higher Education Commission (Average 4.51 Points) 2. Management: The evaluation results of academic quality assurance in accordance with the measurement of the Office of the Higher Education Commission (Average Score 4.00) 3. Teaching: The success in supporting Cooperative Education (With numbers of student participants not less than 50 people) 4. Teaching: The success in establishing conventional academic project (1 assembly). 5. Teaching: The success in reducing the number of students who are not able to complete the study. (Reduced to not less than 5 percent). Learning and growth (20%)

External Customer

Creating PR system, Activities build confidence among clients, Partnerships with community activities

procedures development

Human resources development

Graduate qualified identity

breakeven

KM System MIS & DSS system

Wisdom for Community Empowerment

Financial Perspective Budget plan and costeffectively achieve the vision.

BSC Milestones

Table 1. The Example Of Criteria And Indication For Measuring Level Of Success In Strategic Mission Plan Of The Fiscal Year 2015

Funding for ongoing

Graduate development

A Motivated and Prepared Workforce

QA Development

1. Management and Research: Successful development of young researchers (not less than 10 contracts).

2. Management and Research: The success in bringing research and creative work of teachers and students to use (at least 10) Financial (20%)

Graduate unwanted identity development Student development within TQF

1. Management: The success in obtaining research funding, both within and outside the university (not less than 10 million Baht). External Customer (20%) 1. Arts & culture maintain : The Level of achievement identity development plan of the UP 2. Academic service: The success in integration of academic services with teaching and researching

Target value

Fig.3. The BSC Milestones.

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 17-22

The Strategic Performance Measurements in Educational Organizations by Using Balance Scorecard

It is assigned a score based on the perspective of the balanced scorecard. In order to present the results of progress in the implementation of the BSC perspectives and views on the strategic plan with easy clarification and understandings, the following charts define a score scale and a color indicator (or scorecard presentation) into five levels. The design of the strategic performance measurements in educational organizations by using balance scorecard affect decision support system shown in figure 5. Use Case Diagram. Strategic Plan Management

Fig.7. The Screen Capture of Graphs and Cockpits Management.

Action Plan Management Dean

Performance Agreement Management Projects Management Tracking Management

Associate Dean Assistant Dean Program Header

For Figure 8, the system evaluation, executives and employees of the SICT are the highest rate of satisfaction with the system design. In addition, both usability performance and system performance are still the same performance as the system evaluation, executives and employees of the SICT.

<<include>> Activities and Calendars

Cockpit Management Report Management

System Admin and Planning Officer

System Performance

Community Practices <<include>>

<<include>>

Employees

Report and News Letter

Fig.5. The Converting Strategy into Action.

User friendly

4.36

Effectively

4.21

4.4

Speed of response

4.21

4.3

Executives

Report Accuracy

4.43

3.9

Employees

Security and Usability

4.5

3.5

The executive decision support is designed by the technology that is connected with organization’s missions, visions, core strategies, operations, and performance agreements. The goals of the designed technology are several aspects. First, the tracking progressive performances in term of both the BSC and strategic planning are provided. Second, the progression of the achievement for the vision, mission, and main objectives of the strategic plans is given. Finally, the performance agreement evaluation is able to demonstrate. As the results, the goals are provided to executives and employees in term of the management cockpit as the individually. The system will automatically display in strategy data management, graphs and cockpits management as Figure 6 and 7 respectively.

4.5

Fig.8. (a) System Performance. Usability Performance Follow-up and Tracking

4.43

Documentation and reports

4.21

4.6

4.5

Decision support

4.36

4.2

Paperless

4.29

4.11

Support work faster

4.21 0

Executives

Employees

3.9

Fig.8. (b) Usability Performance. System Design Menu design & layout

4.64

Font size and style

4.43

4.16

Stylish and attractive

4.36

4.23

System layout

4.29

Clear language

4.43

Employees

3.89

4.14 0

Executives

3.54 4

Fig.8. (c) System Design. Fig.8. The Effectiveness of The Proposed System by Managers and Employees.

Fig.6. The Screen Capture of Strategies Data Management.

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The Strategic Performance Measurements in Educational Organizations by Using Balance Scorecard

IV. CONCLUSION The application of the balanced scorecard strategic management system to decision support of SICT has analyzed, designed and developed in accordance with the requirements of the executives and staffs. It is served as a tool to transform strategy into practice. The results of the comprehensive decision support system for strategic management of the organization enable organizations to track performance, processing, and display operations in four BSC dimensions. The process by which administrators assure that resources are obtained and used effectively and efficiently in the accomplishment of the organization’s objectives [13]. This system can be used to work in the organization. It is developed under the concept of flexibility in applications, enabling organizations to change strategies plan and easily measurable indicators in the organization. The system presents quantitative indicators on all dimensions. Moreover, it can be applied to organizations in both the business and education. However, the system is designed for the operation in the organization. It also requires planning, corporate strategy, consistent with the dimensions of the BSC can be applied effectively. And to measure the balance is to convert the vision, mission and strategy of the organization to a series of key performance measure that defines the strategy and management. The level of achievement of the organization including finance and non-financial [14]. This research is application of the BSC with educational institute compliance with Hanne’s research to study and focus on strategy and measurement of financial and NonFinancial. Results from the BSC application can be achieved to organizational goals [15]. It is evident, that the Balanced Scorecard method could help to our businesses not only to measure the performance but also to manage the strategies which are needed to be adopted so that the long-term goals are achieved. Thus, in other words, the application of this tool could help to ensure the consistency of vision and action which is the first step towards the development of successful businesses [16] REFERENCES [1] R. S. Kaplan and D. P. Norton, “Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategy Management System,” Harvard Business Review, pp. 75-85, 1996. [2] P.R. Niven, Balanced Scorecard step by step: Maximizing performance and maintaining result. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2002. [3] A. Neely and C. Adams, Performance Prism: The Scorecard for Measuring and Managing Stakeholder Relationships. Financial Times: Prentice Hall, 2002. [4] C. S. Moser, “Designing, Creating and implementing balanced scorecard guidelines for the architectural firm,” Ph.D. dissertation, California State University, 2004. [5] G. Propa, D.K. Banwet, and K.K. Goswami, “Sustainable Operation Management Using the Balanced Score Card as a Strategic Tool - A Research Summary,” Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 189, pp. 133-143, May 2015.

[6] P. Coronel and A. Evans, The balanced scorecard in facilities management, March 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.tefma.com. [7] K. Phusawat and P. Jaiwong, “Formulating the strategy map: Case studies on SMEs in Thailand,” International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, vol. 5, pp. 1-17, 2008. [8] S. C. Certo and S. T. Certo, Modern management concept and skills, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2009. [9] W. Wattananimitkul, An Application of Balanced Scorecard as A Technique for University Improvement, May 2016. [Online]. Available: www.kmutt.ac.th. [10] University of Phayao, University of Phayao Development Plan, October 2016. [Online]. Available: www.up.ac.th. [11] R. S. Kaplan, Conceptual Foundations of the Balanced Scorecard, May 2016. [Online]. Available: www.hbs.edu. [12] H. T. Johnson, “Managing Costs: An Outmoded Philosophy,” Manufacturing Engineering, pp. 44-45, May 1980. [13] R. N. Anthony, Planning and Control Systems: A Framework for Analysis. Boston: Harvard Business School, 1965. [14] P. Decharin, Balance Scorecard and Key Performance Indicators. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University, 2004. [15] H. Norreklit, “The Balanced on the Balanced Scorecard-A Critical Analysis of Some of Its Assumptions,” Management Accounting Research, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 6588, March 2000. [16] D. Lesákováand K. Dubcová, “Knowledge and Use of the Balanced Scorecard Method in the Businesses in the Slovak Republic,” Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 230, pp. 39-48, February 2016.

Authors’ Profiles Thitirath Chieowsuwan received the BA (General Management) degree from the Valaya Alongkorn Rajabhat University under the royal patronage, Ayutthaya, Thailand, in 1994, both the MBA (Business Administration) and the M.Sc. (Information Technology) degrees from the Naresuan University, Phitsanulok, Thailand, in 1999 and 2003 respectively, and the PhD. (Computer Science) degree from Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India, in 2008. Since 2011, she has been with the School of Information and Communication Technology, University of Phayao, Payao, Thailand, where she currently holds a faculty post of Associate Professor, and also currently as the Dean of the School of Information and Communication Technology, University of Phayao. From 2001 to 2009, she was the director of the Center of Training and Computer Network Control, and then, from 2009 to 2010, she was the head of the Business Computer, Faculty of Management and Information Science, both in Naresuan University, Thailand, respectively. Her research interests include system analysis and design, object oriented analysis and design, enterprise architecture, business process analysis, and database management and development.

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 17-22

The Strategic Performance Measurements in Educational Organizations by Using Balance Scorecard

How to cite this paper: Thitirath Cheowsuwan,"The Strategic Performance Measurements in Educational Organizations by Using Balance Scorecard", International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science(IJMECS), Vol.8, No.12, pp.17-22, 2016.DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2016.12.03

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 17-22

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 23-30 Published Online December 2016 in MECS (http://www.mecs-press.org/) DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2016.12.04

Examining Mindfulness in Education Asoka S Karunananda Department of Computational Mathematics, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka Faculty of Computing, Kotelawala Defence University, Sri Lanka Email: askarunananda@gmail.com

Philippe R Goldin University of California, Davis, United States Email: philippegoldin@gmail.com

P D Talagala Department of Computational Mathematics, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka Email: pritalagala@gmail.com

Abstract—Despite the availability of numerous learning opportunities ranging from face-to-face to computerbased learning, there is need for better understanding of how to support the development of cognitive skills in students. Research has shown that cultivation of mindfulness skills help to develop cognitive skills such as retention, thinking, problem solving, and emotional balance. However, there is only limited research on the effect of mindfulness training in educational settings. We examined cognitive abilities of university students as identified in Bloom‟s taxonomy and mindfulness skills during a single traditional face-to-face class room session. We hypothesized that mindfulness is a specific cognitive ability that supports the development of other cognitive skills. This pilot study included 148 students from undergraduate and postgraduate programs at two universities in Sri Lanka. The study assessed cognitive abilities, including retention, thinking, out-of-the-box thinking, note-taking and mindfulness at the end of a onehour lecture. The results showed that students‟ selfreported mindfulness following a lecture was significantly lower than other cognitive abilities. These results suggest conducting a more formal controlled experiment to investigate the effect of mindfulness training in education. Index Terms—Education, Cognitive skills, Mindfulness, Learning, Computing, Bloom‟s Taxonomy, Attention

I. INTRODUCTION Over the last three decades, there has been an explosion of interest in mindfulness meditation and its impact in medicine, psychology and promotion of wellbeing. Since the late 1970s, there has been an exponential growth of research publications related to mindfulness meditation [1]. In the early 1980s, Jon Kabat-Zinn introduced a mindfulness meditation program in the West as a tool to reduce stress [2]. From the early 1980s until the late 1990s mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) were limited to behavioral medicine. Copyright © 2016 MECS

However, mindfulness meditation is now a major area of study in clinical and health psychology, cognitive therapy, neuroscience, education, business, and leadership. Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of mindfulness to improve clinical symptoms and wellbeing. Research on mindfulness in educational settings, however, has been limited, despite evidence that mindfulness meditation may enhance cognitive capabilities [3], [4]. It is evident that students at all levels are increasingly facing greater challenges in regulating their attention and are experiencing increasing rates of anxiety [5]. For instance, about 12% of the population in North America suffers from social anxiety, and more importantly 80% of these individuals developed social anxiety before reaching the age of 18 years old. Undoubtedly, the increase in anxiety disorders in young adults is partially influenced by deficits in educational opportunities and systems that prepare students to face the increasing complexity of the modern world. We suggest that one possible remedy is mindfulness meditation because it has been shown to reliably reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression, as well as increase attention, emotional balance and cognitive abilities [6], [7]. To empirically test this hypothesis, we conducted a crosssectional study to determine whether trait mindfulness is related to cognitive abilities in 148 students from undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Using Bloom‟s taxonomy for teaching, learning and evaluation [8], we examined the cognitive capabilities of note-taking, retention, thinking, and out-of-the-box thinking following a one-hour lecture. More importantly, we examined mindfulness by assessing whether the students were aware of when their attention was diverted from the lecture, and whether they were capable of re-orienting their attention to the lecture. The objective of the research was to generate empirical evidence of the relationship between Bloom‟s taxonomy and mindfulness in a realworld learning context, namely a university lecture. Our intention was to conduct this pilot study as a basis for a subsequent controlled experiment to examine the effect of

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mindfulness training on cognitive skills development in educational settings. We observed that without such a preliminary study, students are not ready to participate in formal mindfulness training within the Sri Lankan culture. This is due, in part, to the existence of differing views and acceptance of mindfulness practice in Sri Lanka. For this pilot study, we hypothesized that university students would endorsement mindfulness skills at a significantly lower than any of the other cognitive skills identified in Bloom‟s taxonomy. Rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section II discusses the related work in mindfulness training to various sectors with a special reference to educational settings. Section III presents the theoretical background for our research. Section IV presents the Methods, while Section V is on Results. Section VI concludes the research with a discussion.

II. RELATED WORKS IN MINDFULNESS TRANING Advances in computer technology have opened numerous computer-based methods for supporting education. Such initiatives range from delivery of course material, assisting in the learning process, evaluation and giving feed-back to the learner. For example, Davar has described the use of modern ICT/computing for enabling, reading, hearing, seeing and doing in the learning process [9]. This project has gone from traditional classroom learning to what is called smart classroom. One specific result of this project is the achievement of higher levels of employment in students who trained in the smart classrooms. Despite the power of computer-based learning, research by Chou and colleagues has shown the importance of face-to-face teaching, and the importance of evaluating combinations of learning methods [10]. There are also numerous studies on the commuter-based learning for computing areas such as open source [11], computer programming [12], web learning [13] and so forth. Much research has been conducted on different forms of web-based learning such as e-learning [14], and effectiveness of MOODLE [15]. However, there is little research in computer-based learning that has investigated the development of the cognitive skills during learning sessions. Lavy and Yadin used SOLO taxonomy for assessing cognitive skills developments in system analysis and design modules in computing [16]. They concluded that SOLO taxonomy is inadequate for assessing cognitive skills in students. We suggest that the study of cognitive skills in students would benefit from measurement of retention power, thinking power, note taking and maintenance of attention. These cognitive skills are considered very essential to support focused reading and processing of material online and to reduce overlearned maladaptive habits of mindless browsing which is counterproductive to learning. Next we discuss research on cognitive skills developments, with a particular emphasis on cultivation of mindfulness in the traditional classroom setting. Mindfulness training programs in educational settings have taken root in several countries, including England Copyright © 2016 MECS

(Mindfulness in Schools project, DotB), USA (Mindful Schools and MinUp), Canada (Mindfulness Education), Israel (The Mindfulness Language), and India (The Alice Project) over the last ten years[17]. The majority of education focused MBIs [18]–[20] are based on modifications of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program developed by Kabat-Zinn. At the Preschool level, simple exercises have been developed to introduce and train mindfulness [3]. These include developing awareness of pictures, sound, and coordination of hearing and physical actions. Lillard has studied the parallels between practices at the Preschool level and mindfulness training strategies [3]. We suggest that early childhood learning is largely based on simple awareness rather than through a complex thinking process or referring to a body of prior knowledge. Activities related to mindfulness practices can be seen in Montessori education. Knowing the parallels between mindfulness training and Montessori activities might reveal that cultivation of mindfulness is more of a natural process than a purposely created series of exercises in preschool children. Stated another way, mindfulness can be developed while engaging in day-to-day life activities. Research by Geeta and colleagues has shown that use of an abacus enhances attention abilities and may support the development of other cognitive features such as momentary storage of transitional data, number identification, and quick manipulation [21]. Thus, the relationship between mindfulness and cognitive skills may be more of a natural process that can be developed during simple daily life activities. Several MBIs have been implemented in school settings at the primary and secondary levels as well. Mindfulness training has been shown to improve attention in students in first, second and third grades of elementary school [22]. In K-12 educational settings, MBIs have demonstrated increases in students' working memory, academic skills, social skills, emotional regulation, self-esteem, and decreases in anxiety and stress [23]. The same study also revealed that mindfulness training improves teachers‟ sense of wellbeing, teaching self-efficacy, class room management and supportive relationships with students. Another program called Mindfulness-Based Wellness Education (MBWE) [19] produced increases in teaching self-efficacy and physical health. The Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE) program has shown that mindfulness training enhances present-moment awareness, compassionate and listening ability of teachers, as well as improved well-being and more autonomous motivation in students [24]. Stress Management and Relaxation Techniques (SMART) [25] produced decreased occupational stress, increases in mindfulness skills and work motivation and improved the interaction between students and co-workers. Thus there is growing evidence for the positive impact of MBIs in primary and secondary educational settings. Some studies have begun to examine the effects of mindfulness training in the college and university settings. These studies are primarily concerned with students‟ well

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being or/and development of cognitive skills in college settings. Ritvo and colleagues have pointed out that mindfulness interventions started to gain popularity in view of the high cost and inefficiencies in traditional counseling of university students [20]. Eisenberg and colleagues have pointed out that almost one third of university students suffer from symptoms of depression and anxiety [26]. Mrazek and colleagues demonstrated that a mindfulness intervention can increase performance in the Graduate Record Exam perhaps via reducing mind wandering and increasing working memory[27]. Furthermore, mindfulness meditation reduced the frequency of negative automatic thoughts of undergraduate students [20]. With regard to wellbeing in students, several studies have shown that mindfulness meditation influences emotional regulation [28], focused attention, sensory-motor awareness [22] and attention stability [29]. Thus, there is growing evidence that mindfulness meditation in school settings may be useful in improving mental health and psychological functioning.

III. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND This section presents a theoretical foundation for our research based on Bloom‟s taxonomy [8] and Buddhist theory of mindfulness [30]. As such, we explain how Bloom‟s taxonomy can be used to identify cognitive skills relevant to the following of a lecture and also point out the association between mindfulness and other cognitive skills. Bloom‟s taxonomy has been used extensively to evaluate students‟ performance. However, there are no studies that have examined the relationship between Bloom‟s taxonomy and mindfulness skills in a classroom setting. A. Bloom’s Taxonomy Bloom‟s taxonomy has been the most popular educational theory of assessment of students [8]. Bloom defines learning as a process that develops cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills in an individual. The cognitive domain refers to knowledge acquisition and the development of intellectual skills [31]. The affective domain [32] focuses on the capacity to deal with emotions, values, appreciation, enthusiasm, motivations, and attitudes. The domain of psychomotor skills [33] refers to the development of physical movement, coordination, and motors skills. Our research is primarily focused on the cognitive domain of Bloom‟s taxonomy, which is further elaborated into subcomponents: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating [34]. Using Bloom‟s taxonomy, we point out that the basic level of cognitive capacity is remembering or retention ability. The next level comprises understanding, applying, analyzing and evaluating, which are necessarily associated with the capacity to think. The highest level of cognition involves creativity or the capacity for out-of-the-box thinking. Thus, on the basis of Bloom‟s taxonomy, we postulate retention, thinking, and out-of-the-box thinking as three essential cognitive skills required to follow a lecture. We Copyright © 2016 MECS

also consider note-taking as an integral part of following a lecture. Note-taking can also be considered under psychomotor skills domain in Bloom‟s taxonomy. B. Mindfulness We go beyond Bloom‟s taxonomy and postulate that mindfulness is also as a cognitive skill that may support following a lecture successfully. As stated earlier, mindfulness can be seen as a cognitive feature that contributes to developments of cognitive skills that map onto Bloom‟s taxonomy. Next we present an overview of mindfulness. The origin of mindfulness training is rooted in Buddhism [30], [35], [36]. In its simplest form, mindfulness can be understood as paying attention in a particular way, on purpose in the present moment in a non-judgmental manner [2], [36]. Within Buddhism, there are diverse views of mindfulness [1] that refer to its myriad functions in different contexts. Here, we focus on the connection between mindfulness and Bloom‟s taxonomy. We focus our discussion of mindfulness on its relationship to educational cognitive skills including sustained attention, reorientation, executive control, thinking, retention and understanding. Attention: Sustained attention is essential for a person listening to a lecture. One of the major obstacles to sustained attention during a lecture is mind-wondering. Many Buddhist texts [30], [37] identify attention to the present-moment as an essential characteristic of a state of mindfulness. All other roles of mindfulness, which are discussed below are also dependent on the ability to maintain attention. When attention is sustained, a student may be able to retain knowledge. Thus attention is required but not adequate for a learning process. Reorientation: Ability to notice when the attention is misdirected and to redirect it back to the relevant task is yet another characteristics of mindfulness. This is also an essential ability for successful learning. The gate-keeping role of mindfulness in Buddhism [35], [38] is analogous to the reorientation feature of mindfulness. A gatekeeper should be aware of the main entrance, while being alert to what happens in the proximity of the entrance. We do not expect a gatekeeper to maintain focused attention on the main entrance all the time, but to be aware of events in the surrounding area. This characteristic highlights the fact that mindfulness is not only concentration or sustained attention. Therefore, if a student is unable to reorient the mind while listening to a lecture, he/she will not be able draw from past experience to nurture the current learning process. Executive control: Mindfulness also entails executive control, which is a set of goal oriented cognitive control processes that support the ability to shift attention volitionally to a desired object. Buddhist texts refer to executive control feature of mindfulness as indriya in Pali [38], [39] or the power to override other mental factors as needed. This characteristic of mindfulness enables the student to control the allocation of attention during a lecture.

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Examining Mindfulness in Education

Retention: Mindfulness also enables the retention of information or experience. Smrti, the Sanskrit word translated into English as “mindfulness,” refers to remembrance, memory, reminiscence, or recollection [40]. In this context, smrti refers to „momentary memory‟, or memory of the present-moment, and not the recollection of the past. Students know very well that the mind drifts away during a lecture, and involves forgetting to bring the mind back into the current activity of following the lecture. When the student remembers that he/she is following a lecture, then the student can bring the mind back immediately to the lecture. Note that although mindfulness refers to momentary memory, this also aids long-term retention or memory power. There is debate on the role of mindfulness in memory [39], [41], but it is beyond the scope of this paper. However, in the context of education, the value of retention power is undisputed. Thinking: Mindfulness includes the capacity to think clearly in a meaningful manner. This requires sending the mind to the past and future to understand the present moment. Learning has a strong connection with prior knowledge. By its very nature, thinking sends the mind from one object to another, and in the absence of mindful adherence to the object of attention, thinking may be unrestrained or uncontrolled. Thinking without mindful

adherence activates mind wandering. For example, if a student is not mindfully attending during a lecture, he/she may not notice that the mind has wandered to another object. Obviously, if the student is aware at the moment when the mind drifts away, he/she can take action to redirect the mind back. As a person develops mindfulness, it might result in a stronger focused thinking ability. Enhancing thinking ability is essential for successful learning. Understanding: Scaffolding the ability to learn and understand is a primary goal of education. Mindfulness might enhance the cognitive skill of understanding. Buddhist theory suggests that mindfulness enables understanding and insight that lead to freedom from mental distress and suffering [42]–[44]. In conjunction with cognitive skills such as retention and thinking, understanding is an essential outcome of education. In Bloom‟s taxonomy, understanding is a prerequisite to higher level cognitive skills such as applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating. Fig.1 depicts the relationship between some characteristics of mindfulness and cognitive skills related to education. The innermost two circles show some characteristics of mindfulness, while the outer circle depicts cognitive skills identified in Bloom‟s taxonomy.

Analyzing Applying

Understanding

Thinking

Evaluating

Attention Reorientation Executive Control

Understanding

Creating

Retention Remembering Fig.1. Summary of Characteristics of Mindfulness and Bloom‟s taxonomy

IV. METHODS We conducted a study to examine mindfulness and cognitive capabilities (i.e., retention, thinking, out-of-thebox thinking, note-taking and mindfulness) in university students during a one-hour lecture. Each of the five constructs (retention, thinking, note-taking, out-of-boxthinking and mindfulness) was measured from 0 (poor) to 20 (excellent) performances. A. Participants and Data Collection Participants included 148 students (66% male) comprised of 136 undergraduate (92%) and 12 postgraduate (8%) students in six different course modules from two different universities in Sri Lanka. The study sample reflects the current observed proportion of males and females in higher education in Sri Lanka. Four different lecturers delivered the lectures in this study. The Copyright © 2016 MECS

lecturers were briefed about the nature of study. This was essential given that neither the lecturers nor the students had prior experience in mindfulness meditation. Lecturers were instructed to explain the study to the students and obtain informed consent prior to the beginning the lecture. To reduce error, an interviewer administered each questionnaire and recorded student responses. We examined note-taking ability by analyzing the contents of notes produced by each student during the one-hour lecture. Students' notes were examined to determine how much students wrote notes that went beyond what the lecturer wrote on the board and spoke. In the assessment, marks were given for the notes with the consent of each student. To assess retention, each student was asked to list major topics covered in the lecture during the last hour. Those who spontaneously recalled the major topics in the same order discussed were given higher marks. To assess thinking, students were asked a short question that required analyzing and synthesizing 3 major topics

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Examining Mindfulness in Education

covered in the lecture. Out-of-the-box thinking was assessed by asking a question related to major topics in the lecture that was not discussed. For example, a question could be: Which of the topics covered might be developed within next five years? Please justify your answer. To measure mindfulness, the lecturers were instructed to ask questions that assessed essential parameters of mindfulness and three components of attention (vigilance/alerting, reorienting, and executive control), Each student was asked (a) whether the student was aware when their mind wandered away from the lecture, (b) whether it was possible to bring the mind back to the lecture, (c) how frequently the mind drifted away from the lecture, and (d) when your mind wandered, did it have an impact on your retention, thinking, note taking and out-of-the-box thinking. We used an interview-based data collection method to assure that the questions were clearly understood by students. B. Data Analysis First, a descriptive analysis was performed for the data obtained from the questionnaire survey to obtain a general summary. Then one-way ANOVA was used to compare the mean values across the five cognitive skills: retention, thinking, out-of-the-box thinking, note-taking and mindfulness. We tested the null hypothesis of no difference between the means of any of the five cognitive skills. When the null hypothesis was rejected, pair-wise comparisons were conducted using Bonferroni corrected post hoc tests to examine differences between five cognitive skills. As in all applied analytical methods, p <

0.05 was considered as the a priori level of significance. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 16.

V. RESULTS Based on normative data, the students' ability in note taking, retention, thinking and out-of-the-box thinking were in the positively moderate level. However, mindfulness values were significantly lower. The corresponding descriptive statistics are given in Table 1. More specifically, the level of performance in note taking showed a range from 10 to 20. This indicates that all students in the study sample had moderate to high levels of performance in note taking. Among them half of the students show considerably high level of performance as the corresponding median value is equal to 15. Compared to their ability in note taking, their retention power is low. Among them, one fourth show poor level of retention power. However, in contrast, another one fourth of the study sample shows high level of retention ability. The corresponding 75th percentile was equal to 15. The students‟ ability in thinking and out-of-the-box thinking are rather low. In both aspects, one fourth of the study sample has shown poor level of performance. The corresponding 25th percentile which is equal to 10 provides the evidence. Compared to the above four skills, ability to stay in class with mindfulness was considerably lower, with a range from 1 to 10. This suggests that all the students found it difficult to generate mindfulness in class.

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics Of Level Of Performance In Cognitive Skills Note Taking

Retention

Thinking

Out-of–the-Box Thinking

Mindfulness

Sample size

148

Mean

13.97

13.00

12.91

12.61

6.76

Median

15.00

12.00

5.00

Mode

Std. Deviation

2.634

2.745

2.967

2.873

2.679

Variance

6.938

7.537

8.802

8.252

7.175 9

Range

Minimum

Maximum

12.00

10.00

5.00

15.00

12.00

5.00

15.00

10.00

Percentiles

The results of a one-way ANOVA revealed that the mean level of performance in different cognitive skills differed significantly (p-value < 0.001). Post hoc t-tests using a Bonferroni correction further revealed that the students‟ ability in note taking was significantly higher than that of other four skills: retention (p-value= 0.027), thinking (p-value = 0.011), out-of-the-box thinking (pvalue = 0.0003) and mindfulness (p-value = 0.000). It further revealed that there was no significant difference between their ability in thinking, out-of-the-box thinking Copyright © 2016 MECS

and retention. The corresponding median value of 12 (out of 20) reveals that their ability in those aspects is in a positively moderate level, but they need further assistance and guidance in developing those skills. However, compared to the above four aspects, their ability to generate mindfulness in class was significantly low (pvalue=0.0000). This highlights the need for training to help students improve mindfulness and their cognitive performance.

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The students who obtained 15 or above rating for all the four aspects; note taking, retention, thinking and outof-the-box thinking were selected from the study sample and further analyzed. Just over one fourth (~27%) of the study sample reported high ratings for all the four aspects; note taking (mean= 16.08, SD = 1.526), retention (mean = 15.95, SD = 1.535), thinking (mean = 16.35, SD = 1.511) and out-of-the-box thinking (mean = 16.02, SD = 1.609). Even this subsample who scored high in these four skills reported considerably low mindfulness values (mean = 4.75, SD = 1.891). Similarly the students who obtained 10 or below rating for all the three aspects; retention, thinking and out-ofthe-box thinking were selected from the study sample and further analyzed. Since all the students in the study sample have shown favorable performance in note taking, the factor note taking was not considered when filtering. Nearly one fifth of the study sample was found with poor level of performance in all three aspects; retention (mean = 9.75, SD =1.005), thinking (mean = 9.82, SD = 0.945) and out-of-the-box thinking (mean = 9.68, SD = 1.056). However their note taking ability was found to be considerably high. The corresponding median value (15) provides the evidence to confirm that. Further it must also be noted that, compared to the high-performing students, poor-performing students in the study sample have a little higher ability to stay in class with mindfulness with a mean value of 7.79 (SD = 2.833). That may be due to the reason that high-performed students usually try to argue facts and concepts while others pay less effort on arguing things on their own during the lecture.

VI. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The goal of our pilot study was to examine the relationship between cognitive skills defined in Bloom‟s taxonomy and mindfulness skills during a single lecture in university level students. Our research demonstrated that students have a considerable ability in note-taking, but poor abilities in retention, thinking and out-of-the-box thinking. In fact, students with lower performance, getting below 10 for all cognitive aspects, scored well in note-taking. One explanation is that students who have poor cognitive skills tend to take more notes. Students‟ level of mindfulness was far lower than the level of other cognitive features. Given the lack of training in mindfulness or other meditation techniques, it is not surprising that students scored so low in mindfulness skills. We also confirmed that in the subsample of students with higher scores in thinking, still had low scores for mindfulness. This suggests that mindfulness and thinking may be de-coupled or unrelated. However, this interpretation needs to be confirmed in future studies. In conclusion, our research provides empirical evidence that mindfulness training may be warranted for university students. In the future, we intend to investigate the effects of longer-term mindfulness meditation training in university students and to examine the effect of mindfulness on other cognitive skills and educational Copyright © 2016 MECS

performance. Furthermore, we intend to conduct such experiments for conventional face-to-face learning and also for computer-based learning. REFERENCES [1] J. M. G. Williams and J. Kabat-Zinn, Mindfulness: diverse perspectives on its meaning, origins and applications. London, England; New York: Routledge, 2013. [2] J. Kabat-Zinn, Wherever you go there you are: Mindfulness meditation in everyday life. Hyperion, 1994. [3] A. S. Lillard, “Mindfulness Practices in Education: Montessori‟s Approach,” Mindfulness, vol. 2, no. 2, 2011. [4] B. Mirabai, “Mindfulness in Higher Education,” Contemp. Buddhism, vol. 12, no. 1, 2011. [5] M. W. Otto, M. H. Pollack, K. M. Maki, R. A. Gould, J. J. Worthington 3rd, J. W. Smoller, and J. F. Rosenbaum, “Childhood history of anxiety disorders among adults with social phobia: rates, correlates, and comparisons with patients with panic disorder,” Depress. Anxiety, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 209–213, 2001. [6] S. G. Hofmann, P. Grossman, and D. E. Hinton, “LovingKindness and Compassion Meditation: Potential for Psychological Interventions,” Clin. Psychol. Rev., vol. 31, no. 7, pp. 1126–1132, Nov. 2011. [7] S. G. Hofmann, A. T. Sawyer, A. A. Witt, and D. Oh, “The Effect of Mindfulness-Based Therapy on Anxiety and Depression: A Meta-Analytic Review,” J. Consult. Clin. Psychol., vol. 78, no. 2, pp. 169–183, Apr. 2010. [8] L. W. Anderson and B. S. Bloom, A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: a revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Longman, 2001. [9] P. Davar, “Adoption of Innovative Education Strategies to the Needs of the Time: A Case Study of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU),” Int. J. Mod. Educ. Comput. Sci., vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 1–13, Jan. 2013. [10] C.-T. Chou, C. Chuang, and B. Zheng, “The Study of Blended Learning on a Vocational High School in Taiwan,” Int. J. Mod. Educ. Comput. Sci., vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 1–7, Apr. 2013. [11] V. Nehra and A. Tyagi, “Free Open Source Software in Electronics Engineering Education: A Survey,” Int. J. Mod. Educ. Comput. Sci., vol. 6, no. 5, pp. 15–25, May 2014. [12] B. Isong, “A Methodology for Teaching Computer Programming: first year students‟ perspective,” Int. J. Mod. Educ. Comput. Sci., vol. 6, no. 9, pp. 15–21, Sep. 2014. [13] M. Mitra and A. Das, “A Fuzzy Logic Approach to Assess Web Learner‟s Joint Skills,” Int. J. Mod. Educ. Comput. Sci., vol. 7, no. 9, pp. 14–21, Sep. 2015. [14] B. Kadda, and L. Ahmed, “Semantic Annotation of Pedagogic Documents,” Int. J. Mod. Educ. Comput. Sci., vol. 8, no. 6, pp. 13–19, Jun. 2016. [15] F. MMT Marikar and N. Jayarathne, “Effectiveness of MOODLE in Education System in Sri Lankan University,” Int. J. Mod. Educ. Comput. Sci., vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 54–58, Feb. 2016. [16] I. Lavy and A. Yadin, “Extending the SOLO Model for Software-Based Projects,” Int. J. Mod. Educ. Comput. Sci., vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 1–10, Mar. 2014. [17] L. Waters, A. Barsky, A. Ridd, and K. Allen, “Contemplative Education: A Systematic, Evidence-Based Review of the effect of Meditation Interventions in Schools,” Educ. Psychol. Rev., Mar. 2014. [18] P. C. Broderick and S. Metz, “Learning to BREATHE: A pilot trial of a mindfulness curriculum for adolescents,” Adv. Sch. Ment. Health Promot., vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 35–46, 2009.

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[36] J. Kabat-Zinn, “Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Context: Past, Present, and Future,” Clin. Psychol. Sci. Pract., vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 144–156, 2003. [37] A. Brahmavamso, The Basic Method of Meditation. The Buddhist Society of Wester Australia, 1998. [38] B. Nanamoli, The Path of Purification -Visuddhimagga. BPS, 2010. [39] B. Bodhi, “What does mindfulness really mean? A canonical perspective,” Contemp. Buddhism, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 19–39, May 2011. [40] M. Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit-English dictionary, etymologically and philologically arranged, with special reference to Greek, Latin, Gothic, German, Anglo-Saxon, and other cognate Indo-European languages. Oxford Clarendon Press, 1872. [41] R. Gethin, “On some definition of mindfulness,” Contemp. Buddhism, vol. 12, no. 1, 2011. [42] R. Gethin, “On some definition of mindfulness,” Contemp. Buddhism, vol. 12, no. 1, 2011. [43] U. Jotika and U. Dhammindo, Maha Satipatthana Sutta. Migadavum Monasery, Burma, 1986. [44] T. Nyanaponika, Heart of Buddhist meditation. Buddhist Publication Society, 2012.

Authors’ Profiles Asoka S Karunananda obtained his Doctoral Degree in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) from the University of Keele, UK. His research interests include ontological modeling, multi agent systems, machine learning, artificial cognitive systems, natural language processing, theoretical computing and mindfulness interventions in educational settings. He is the former Dean of Faculty of Information Technology, University of Moratuwa, and currently working as the Dean of Research and Developments and the Dean of Faculty of Computing of Kotelawala Defence University, Sri Lanka. He has a particular interest in exploiting eastern philosophical perspectives for modeling of human mind. Recently, as a part of a collaborative project, he has launched, the first ever mind simulator, BMind, which is based on an eastern model of mind. He has secured more than 150 publications in International Journals and Conferences. So far he has produced 8 MPhil/PhD students and has currently been supervising 5 doctoral candidates. He is a Senior Professor at University of Moratuwa. Prof. Karunananda is a member of IEEE, life member of Sri Lanka Association for Advancement of Sciences, and Founder member of Sri Lanka Association for Artificial Intelligence. He is a commonwealth scholar and won many awards for promoting computing education and research in Sri Lanka.

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Philippe Goldin earned a PhD in Psychology at Rutgers University, directed the Clinically Applied Affective Neuroscience laboratory at Stanford University for a decade and is now an assistant professor and founding faculty in the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at the University of California Davis Health System. His NIH-funded clinical research focuses on functional neuroimaging of emotion regulation mechanisms of mindfulness meditation, compassion meditation, cognitivebehavioural therapy and aerobic exercise in adults with anxiety, mood, and chronic pain disorders. Dr. Goldin helped develop the Search Inside Yourself program at Google and also the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI.org) which delivers mindfulness-based emotional intelligence and leadership skills training programs world-wide.

Priyanga D. Talagala is currently a first year PhD student at Monash University, Australia. Her research interests include Data Mining, Statistical Computing, Outlier Detection and Education. She obtained her BSc (Special) degree in Statistics with a First Class Honors from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. She was awarded the Professor R.A. Dayananda Gold Medal for the best academic excellence in Statistics (2012) by the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. Currently, she is a Lecturer (Probationary) in the Department of Computational Mathematics, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. Miss. Talagala is also a life member of Institute of Applied Statistics, Sri Lanka (IASSL), Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS) and Sri Lanka Association for Improving Higher Education Effectiveness (SLAIHEE).

How to cite this paper: Asoka S Karunananda, Philippe R Goldin, P D Talagala,"Examining Mindfulness in Education", International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science(IJMECS), Vol.8, No.12, pp.23-30, 2016.DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2016.12.04

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 23-30

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 31-37 Published Online December 2016 in MECS (http://www.mecs-press.org/) DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2016.12.05

Computer Modeling and Simulations of Logic Circuits Gergana Kalpachka South-West University „Neofit Rilski“, Blagoevgrad, 2700, Republic of Bulgaria Email: kalpachka@mail.bg

Abstract—In thе article are presented possibilities of computer modeling and simulations of logic circuits using the software CircuitMaker. CirciutMaker is one of the widely used software product for quick and easy synthesis and simulating the work of the various electronic circuits. By using CirciutMaker are created logical elements and synthesized logic circuits such as decoders, multiplexers, counters, programmable logic device, etc., that allow conducting computer simulations and experiments to solve specific experimental tasks. The work of the shown circuits is illustrated with the timeimpulse diagrams. The application of the software product CirciutMaker for students who study the course „Analysis and synthesis of logic circuits“ is also considered. The computer modeling and the simulations of logic circuits can be used in the lectures and in the laboratory exercises on the course „Analysis and synthesis of logic circuits“ to conduct computer (virtual) interactive experiments. Index Terms—Computer Modeling, Computer Simulations, CircuitMaker, Logic Circuits, Analysis and Synthesis of Logic Circuits. I. INTRODUCTION Continuous development and improvement of the computer systems and the application software allows their use in to solve various tasks and problems of activity and life of contemporary person. Computer modeling is mathematical modeling, which uses computer tools to create models and to conduct computer (virtual) interactive experiments with them. Computer equipment and software (universal and specialized) are the most important parts of computer modeling. Different computer configurations and software products are created for use in certain areas – science, technique, education, healthcare, manufacturing and others. In the area of computer modeling of analog, digital and analog-digital circuits there is a huge variety of interactive environments, enabling synthesis, simulating and testing various modules, blocks, devices and others. This facilitates the synthesis of new electronic circuits. Interactive environments with such applications are: CircuitMaker, OrCAD PSpice, CADSTAR, LabVIEW,

AutoCAD, Electronics Workbench MultiSim, Protel, Logisim, Logic Circuit, etc. The actuality of this article is determined by global trends in the development of:  the automation of circuit design;  the computer modeling of various electronic circuits;  the computer simulations and optimization of projects;  the computer processing and visualization of results. In this article are presented possibilities of computer modeling and simulations of logic circuits using the software product CircuitMaker. The application of this software for students who study the course „Analysis and synthesis of logic circuits“ is also considered in the article. In section II of the article is presented briefly the software product Circuit Maker. Main possibilities for its use in the computer modeling and simulations of logic circuits are described. In this section are presented created logic elements and synthesized logic circuits such as decoders, multiplexers, counters and other using CirciutMaker. In section III of the article are presented application possibilities of the software product CircuitMaker in teaching on the course „Analysis and synthesis of logic circuits“. The software product CircuitMaker can be used in the lectures and in the laboratory exercises for computer modeling and simulations of logic elements and circuits. In section IV of article the main conclusions that are formulated are presented. The references on the subject of the article are presented in section V. The used literature is in English and in Cyrillic.

II. COMPUTER MODELING AND SIMULATIONS OF LOGIC CIRCUITS USING THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT CIRCUITMAKER CirciutMaker is one of the most used software for synthesis and simulating of analog, digital and analogdigital circuits. CirciutMaker provides opportunities for quick and easy design of electronic circuits, testing their work and visualizing and tracking the signals from inputs to outputs of circuits, etc. [1]; [2]; [3].

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 31-37

Computer Modeling and Simulations of Logic Circuits

The software product CircuitMaker supports two modes of simulations – analog and digital. The software product CircuitMaker allows simulations when analog and digital elements are included in one circuit. In computer modeling and simulations of logic circuits CircuitMaker can be used for:  synthesis of logic circuits by using finished elements included in program item „Library“ or by synthesis the necessary logic elements and their inclusion in the „User library“;  study of the work of logic elements and circuits by conducting computer simulations;  observation of internal transition states and processes;  computer processing and presentation of the results (for example, by time-impulse diagrams, etc.), derived from computer experiments. CirciutMaker supports an extensive library of analog and digital elements which are necessary for the synthesis of various electronic circuits. It also supports finished exemplary circuits of certain electronic devices such as counters, security alarms, optocouplers, etc. The available items are organized into groups by name or purpose (Fig. 1). CirciutMaker enables creation of new elements and adding them into libraries with other elements. Creating a new element involves the following stages: synthesis of its circuit (Fig. 2), simulating of his work, creating a character by which the element is named in the program (Fig. 3). Adding an item to the libraries is accomplished by saving it as a macro with a name and choosing the category in which to be involved.

On Fig. 2 is shown a synthesized logic circuit of a decoder with four inputs and seven outputs (de 7447, Fig. 3). Its outputs are connected to the seven-segment indicator, and on its inputs the signals are from the outputs of the binary counters for example [4]; [5]; [6]; [7]; [8]; [9]. On Fig. 3 are shown some of the additional logic elements created as macros: multiplexers 2:1 and 4:1, decoder with three inputs and eight outputs, decoder with four inputs and seven outputs. For conducting computer simulations of logic circuits in the software product CircuitMaker is used digital simulations mode, because it aims measuring and researching of digital parameters. In digital simulation mode important are only the logical levels of the signals in the logic circuits. The digital simulations mode offers a variety of options:  running the simulations step by step with options for determining the size of the step;  visualizing the signal levels by connecting LEDs or oscilloscopes to certain points;  visualizing the changes in the signals at different points of the circuits by time-impulse diagrams, etc. Integrated circuits and logic elements do not have pins for supply voltage and grounding, so that their unrelated to them does not prevent the conduct of simulations. While conducting computer simulations of logic circuits activities are summarized as follows:  set the values of the input signals (variables);  conducting a series of simulations to achieve the objectives;

Fig.1. Screen of CirciutMaker (Device Selection).

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 31-37

Computer Modeling and Simulations of Logic Circuits

 observation of internal transition states and processes;  analyzing the information displayed on the screen during the simulations and then in the form of a time-impulse diagram at one point, as high or low

logic level signals at inputs and outputs of a logic element or circuit, etc.;  recording of the obtained results;  analysis and interpretation of the results and formulating conclusions.

Fig.2. A logic circuit of a decoder with four inputs and seven outputs.

Fig.3. Logic elements created as macros.

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 31-37

Computer Modeling and Simulations of Logic Circuits

As a result of the actual application of the software product CircuitMaker are synthesized various logic circuits that allow conducting computer simulations and experiments to solve specific tasks. Logic elements, electronic devices from the library of CircuitMaker and macros created as additional elements are used for these purposes. The software product CircuitMaker allows storage of synthesized logic circuits and, if necessary, their structure can be edited. On Fig. 4 is shown a logic circuit of a reversible binary trigger counter of impulses with random coefficient of division and its simulation in a random moment of time. In this case the counter operates as a adder with coefficient of division D = 7. On the time-impulse diagram are shown input and output signals of the counter (Fig. 4). The wires which are colored in red are with high logic level signal, while the others wires colored in blue are with low logic level signal. On Fig. 5 is shown a logic circuit of a decoder with three inputs and eight outputs. This decoder is synthesized with logical NOR elements. The input and output signals of the decoder are shown on the timeimpulse diagram (Fig. 5).

On Fig. 6 is shown a logic circuit of a programmable logic device and its simulation in a random moment of time. The synthesized programmable logic device includes AND-matrix and OR-matrix. With it can be realized logic circuits of systems with three logical functions of three variables. Opportunities offered by the software product CircuitMaker for computer modeling and simulations of logic circuits, significantly reduce the time for synthesis and study of their work.

III. APPLICATION OF THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT CIRCUITMAKER IN THE THEACHING ‘ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS OF LOGIC CIRCUITS’ The specific aspects of the education (content, teaching methods, used teaching aids and others.) directly dependent on the achievements of science, technique and technologies. In the teaching of students in technical specialties are increasingly used software products for synthesis, simulating and testing of analog, digital and analogdigital circuits, etc. [1]; [2]; [10]; [11]; [12]; [13]; [14]; [15]; [16].

Fig.4. A logic circuit of a reversible binary trigger counter with random coefficient of division.

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 31-37

Computer Modeling and Simulations of Logic Circuits

Fig.5. A logic circuit of a decoder with three inputs and eight outputs.

Computer modeling and simulations of logic circuits through the software product CircuitMaker can be used in the lectures and in the laboratory exercises on the course „Analysis and synthesis of logic circuits“. In the lecture course of „Analysis and synthesis of logic circuits“ already synthesized logic circuits can be used to:  illustration of educational content by conducting computer demonstration experiments (quantitative and qualitative);  improving the accessibility of the statement of lectures on the course;  creating of problematic situations and solve technical problems and tasks;  introducing new concepts, values, etc.;  researching and establishment of functional dependencies and disclosure of causal relationships;  analyzing of specific situations;  formulating laws, regularities and conclusions;  facilitate the transition from the concrete to the abstract and back;  constructing logical and creative style of thinking among students;  creating cognitive interest, etc. Copyright © 2016 MECS

After students learned the opportunities of the software product CircuitMaker, they can synthesize logic elements and circuits and they can study their work in the laboratory exercises by conducting computer simulations and experiments. The shown logic elements and circuits on Fig. 2–6 can be used in the lectures and in the laboratory exercises in teaching on the course „Analysis and synthesis of logic circuits“. While conducting computer interactive experiments and exercises students see in practice applications of computers and computer technologies. They learn some of the contemporary methods and tools used in science and technique for synthesis, researching and studying of logic circuits and processing and presentation of the obtained results.

IV. CONCLUSION The computer modeling is an effective method of scientific knowledge for research the work of logic circuits. The opportunities that software products on the type of CircuitMaker offer in terms of synthesis, simulations and studying of logic circuits are widely used in science, technique, education and others.

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 31-37

Computer Modeling and Simulations of Logic Circuits

Fig.6. A logic circuit of a programmable logic device.

Computer modeling and simulations of logic circuits can be used and conducted in order to obtain results, which in real terms is need suitable material and technical basis or specific equipment. One of the modern and actual applications of computer modeling and simulations of logic circuits is in the education of students from the technical specialties at the universities. Computer modeling and simulations of logic circuits can be used in the lectures and in the laboratory exercises in the teaching on the course „Analysis and synthesis of logic circuits“. The computer modeling and simulations of logic circuits with different software producs can be used also for distance learning students. The software product CircuitMaker can be used for computer modeling and simulations not only to the logic circuits, but also to electronic circuits with different functional designation. REFERENCES [1] V. Milovanski and G. Kalpachka, „Numerical Modeling and Computer Simulations of Voltage Resonance“, Научно-теоретический журнал „Вестник современной науки“, № 4, pp. 34–38, 2015.

[2] В. Миловански и Г. Калпачка, „Числено моделиране и компютърни симулации на токов резонанс“, Computer & Communications Engineering, vol. 9, № 1, pp. 19–22, 2015. [3] http://www.circuitmaker.com (time accessed: June 2016) [4] А. Атанасов, Основи на цифровата информационна техника, София: Страшен Вълк, 2007. [5] Л. Даковски, Анализ и синтез на логически схеми, София: Сиела, 1998. [6] Л. Даковски и Н. Николов, Ръководство по логика и програмируеми автомати, София: Техника, 1990. [7] М. Димитрова и И. Ванков, Импулсни схеми и устройства, Ч. 1, 2, София: Техника, 1989. [8] Б. Янков и П. Мартинов, Синтез на цифрови устройства с интегрални схеми, София: Техника, 1980. [9] http://www.ti.com (time accessed :June 2016) [10] V. Hristov and G. Kalpachka, „Use of Web Based Calculator of Genetic Algorithms For Optimal Coding the States of Finite State Machines“, in Proceedings of the 10th France–Japan Congress, 8th Europe–Asia Congress on Mecatronics, MECATRONICS 2014, IEEE, Tokyo, Japan, pp.274–278, 2014. POD Publ: Curran Associates, Inc., pp. 274–278, 2015. DOI: 10.1109/MECATRONICS.2014.7018571 [11] G. Kalpachka, „Computer-aided Educational Technologies in the Laboratory Exercises in Physics“, Chemistry, vol. 21, issue 5, pp. 700–707, 2012.

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Computer Modeling and Simulations of Logic Circuits

[12] Marsono and M. Wu, „Designing A Digital Multimedia Interactive Book for Industrial Metrology Measurement Learning“, I. J. Modern Education and Computer Science, vol. 8, № 5, pp. 39–46, 2016. DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2016.05.05 [13] S. Singh, S. Pandey and S. Wairya, „Modular Design of 2n:1 Quantum Dot Cellular Automata Multiplexers and its Application, via Clock Zone based Crossover“, I. J. Modern Education and Computer Science, vol. 8, №. 7, pp. 41–52, 2016. DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2016.07.05 [14] V. Gautam and R. Pahuja „Web-enabled Simulated and Remote Control Virtual Laboratory of Transducer“, I. J. Modern Education and Computer Science vol. 7, № 4, pp. 12–22, 2015. DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2015.04.02 [15] V. Nehra and A. Tyagi, „Free Open Source Software in Electronics Engineering Education: A Survey“, I. J. Modern Education and Computer Science, vol. 6, № 5, pp. 15–25, 2014. DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2014.05.03 [16] M. Ferdjallah, Introduction to Digital Systems: Modeling, Synthesis, and Simulation Using VHDL, WILEY, 2011.

Authors’ Profiles Gergana Kalpachka is a Chief Assistant Professor of Computer systems, complexes and networks at the South-West University „Neofit Rilski“, Blagoevgrad, Republic of Bulgaria, since 2008. She is a lecturer on the course „Analysis and synthesis of logic circuits“. Gergana Kalpachka’s research interests include Computer Science and Engineering, Computer-aided Educational Technologies, etc. Gergana Kalpachka is а participant in several national and international projects. She has published papers in various international and national journals.

How to cite this paper: Gergana Kalpachka,"Computer Modeling and Simulations of Logic Circuits", International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science(IJMECS), Vol.8, No.12, pp.31-37, 2016.DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2016.12.05

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 31-37

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 38-45 Published Online December 2016 in MECS (http://www.mecs-press.org/) DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2016.12.06

The Stability of Equilibrium Situation in Lexicographic Strategic Games Guram N. Beltadze* Departaments Control Systems and Interdisciplinary Informatics, Georgian Technical University, Georgia, Tbilisi, 0175, str. Kostava 77 Email: gbeltadze@yahoo.com

Jimsher A. Giorgobiani N. Muskhelishvili Institute of Computational Mathematics, Georgian Technical University,Georgia, Tbilisi, 0175, str. Kostava 77 Email: jimgio53@gmail.com

Abstract—The present work deals with lexicographic noncooperative (strategic) games in which the set of strategies of the players are metric compact spaces and the vector-functions of winning are continuous on the set of situations. In such games we introduce the definition of a weak nonstrict (determined by usual nonstrict lexicographic inequality) of Nash equilibrium situation in pure strategies. It has been defined the stability of such equilibrium situation and of lexicographic noncooperative game in relation to change of vectorfunctions of the winning of players, a problem of an equilibrium stable situation and availability of lexicographic noncooperative game has been studied. The conditions of their stability have been brought. The identification of the indicated conditions has been connected with those features of the task of lexicographic maximum that differs from the task of scalar maximum: the set of points of lexicographic maximum in the task of lexicographic maximum of continuous vector-function defined on metric compact is compact. And in the lexicographic noncooperative game the set of equilibrium situations may not be compact. In particular, it is certified that if in lexicographic game there is only one equilibrium situation then it is a stable situation and the relative game is stable.

In classical game theory the main basic model is a noncooperative game that is defined by

Index Terms—Games, Lexicographic, Noncooperative, Strategic, Equilibrium situation, Stability.

situation

I. INTRODUCTION Game theory is a branch of modern mathematics and decision making theory [1,2,3,4,5]. Its aim is to study conflict situations, where players' interests are collided. Mostly we see such situations in every field of human activities and that is why it is often used. A mathematical model of conflict situation is called a game.Thus, game theory is a mathematical decision theory in conflict situations. Such game‘s main task is not to describe a conflict, but the solutions by making compromise decisions [6].

  N ,{ i }iN ,{H i }iN 

(1)

system, where N  {1,2,..., n} is a set of players‘, its set of pure strategies we note by

 i  {xi1 ,..., xip } and i

such kind of strategies set of situations - by

    i . H i :     i  R1 - i  N iN

player‘s

real-valued

payoff (utility) function. In

  N ,{X i }iN ,{H i }iN  game X i is player‘s

(2)

iN

set

1 Hi : X   X i  R

mixed

iN strategies,

is i  N player‘s

payoff

iN

function, it tries to maximize the function. It means that,  and  game is finite i.e. the players‘ sets of pure strategies are finite. In  and  game players choose their strategies xi  X i , i  N and we get a independently

x  ( x1 , x2 ,..., xn )  X . Players

payoff

functions H i (x), i  N are defined for every x  X . In  and  game players simultaneously and independently choose their strategies so that they don‘t inform each other about it. Therefore  and  game is called noncooperative or noncoalition. Player‘s strategic behaviors are studied in such games, with the help of such strategies they get this or that kind of guaranteed payoffs (utilities). Hence, the task is to find such kind of situation which are multicriteria x*  X , max ( H 1 ( x),..., H m ( x)) task solution [7]. x

By means of Game Theory the main exclusivity of modelling of strategic conflict is finding of J. Nash

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The Stability of Equilibrium Situation in Lexicographic Strategic Games

equilibrium (equilibrium, stable, steady) situation on the basis of analysis of the model of corresponding game. Consequently, in  game the main principle of optimality is Nash equilibrium situation. For its determination let‘s indicate

xi  ( x1,..., xi 1, xi 1,..., xn ), x  ( xi , xi ), where i  N , x  X and

(3)

equilibrium situation in  game if for i  N and

xi  X i is fulfilled H i ( x * )  H i ( xi , x*i ), where i  N , x  X and xi  X i . Nash equilibrium situation is the only steady and reliable situation for agreement on collective action. Such situation is characterized by the following features: In situation given by any party by unilateral change of its strategy this state should not be improved. It means that none of the participant is able to increase its own payoff if other players acting rationally will correctly estimate their strategies. Consequently, of the principle of Nash equilibrium in noncooperative games there are available the various equilibrium situations. This principle of optimality and Pareto optimality principle the first is the strategic principle, and the second - is a compromised one, they are the main principles of optimality in all fields. Thus, Game Theory considers the independent mechanisms which lead us to ―a good equilibrium‖ to rationally solve the tasks of the collective interrelations. Realizing the corresponding actions the players receive finally the utilities (payoffs). The aim of the players is to choose the optimal strategies by which they receive an optimal utility. Definite generalization of classical noncooperative games is the lexicographic noncooperative games [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. Let‘s discuss  game‘s modification using the following rule: suppose, that H i  ( H i1 , H i2 ,..., H im ) is

i  N player‘s payoff‘s vector-function, for every i  N vector H i has identical measurement m and their comparison on the X   X i set of the situations iN

happens lexicographically, or criteria in payoff‘s vectorfunction are strictly ranking. We call such game lexicographic noncooperative game with m measurementand we note it in the following way

 L  N ,{X i }iN ,{H i }iN   (1 ,...,  m ) . (4) mean

that

for

two a  (a1 ,..., am )

and

b  (b1 ,..., bm ) vectors lexicographic preference a  b means that it fulfills one of the following m conditions: L

a1  b1 ; 2) a1  b1 , a2  b2 a1  b1 , . . . , am1  bm1 , am  bm

; . . . ; m ) (5)

and

a ≽ L b, if a  L b or a  b . Definition 1.2. The situation x *  X is called Nash

xi  X i .

Definition 1.1. The situation x *  X is called Nash

equilibrium situation in  xi  X i is fulfilled

game if for i  N and

H i ( x * ) ≽ L H i ( xi , x*i ), where i  N , x  X and

(6)

xi  X i .

Let‘s note a set of equilibrium situationsin  standard mixed extension by

 ( L ) .

games

In such kind of

games the main problem is that in every  game there doesn‘t exist the equilibrium situation or maybe this set L

will be empty -  ( ) =   . Note 1.1. By 1.1 and 1.2 definitions weak nonstrict Nash equilibrium is given in classical  and L corresponding in lexicographic  games. In these games strict (strong) Nash equilibrium is defined L corresponding to  and  inequalities. In strategic game the usage of Nash strong equilibrium and lexicographic preferences are studied in [16]. In general, in classical noncooperative (strategic) game a problem of stability of Nash equilibrium situation concerns the small changes of functions of the players‘ winning and it is essential for solution of the game. It is interesting to review the same problem for the lexicographic noncooperative games but here the main complexity is that, as we have already mentioned, not in every finite lexicographic noncooperative games there does not exist any Nash equilibrium situation neither in pure nor in mixed strategies. In this work we shall review the lexicographic noncooperative games having the continuous vectorfunctions of winning which are defined on the Decart product of the metric compact sets of strategies and for them we introduce: the definition of stable lexicographic equilibrium noncooperative game, the definition of weak non lexicographic equilibrium situation and definition of its stability in pure strategies. It is approved that the space of lexicographically noncooperative games is finite by the set of weak nonstrict nonempty lexicographic equilibrium situations. The conditions of stability of weak non-severe equilibrium noncooperative game and the conditions of stability of weak equilibrium situation have been shown. The compromised lexicographic set and its stability has been defined in the weak sense. L

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The Stability of Equilibrium Situation in Lexicographic Strategic Games

Definition 2.4. The F :   C () multi-image II. BASIC DEFINITIONS Let‘s bring several known definitions and the result which are connected with the multiform mapping, with their continuity and upper and lower semicontinuity. Let‘s admit that  and  are the typological spaces, and C ( ) is the family of all nonempty subsets of  space. Let‘s undermine that F :   C () is a multi-image mapping. Definition 2.1. The F :   C () multi-image mapping is called alower semicontinuityin

x0   point

if the any space of  is such open for U set for which the intersectionof U and F ( x0 ) sets is not empty, there exists such an area V , of

x0 point that for each

x  V point the intersection of F (x) and U set is as well nonempty. Definition 2.11. The multi-image mapping of F :   C () is called a lower semicontinuity in

x0   pointif for each sequence of ( x1 , x2 ,...), points of X space which is converging to

x0 point and

y  F ( x0 ) point is available for each n  1,2,... yn  F ( xn ).

for each

It is known that for  and  topological spaces which satisfy the first axiom of countability, the 1 definitions 2.1 and 2. 1 are equivalent to each other. Definition 2.2. The F :   C () multi-image mapping is called the upper semicontinuity in x0   point if for any open U set of  space which

F ( x0 ) there exists such an V ( x0 ), of x0 point which comprises the F ( x0 ) as well. comprises

Definition 2.3. The F :   C () multi-image mapping is called the upper semicompact in x0   point if from the xn  x0 , n  ,

xn  X , yn  F ( xn ) conditions it follows that from the sequence of

( y1 , y2 ,...) points it can be distinguished

such a subsequence ( yn1 , yn2 ,...), which is converging to

y0  Y point and at the same tine y0  F ( x0 ).

Definition 2.31. The F :   C () multi-image mapping is called a semicompact from the top in F :   C () point if mapping of F is an upper semicontinouty in

x0 point and the F ( x0 ) set is

compact. If  space satisfies the first axiom of countability and  space satisfies the second axiom of countability than the definitions 2.3 and 2.31 are equal to each other.

  point if for any y0  F ( x0 ) point there are the areas of x0 and y0

mapping is called the locked in x0

V ( x0 ) and U ( y0 ), that from x  V ( x0 ) - results the F ( x)  U ( y0 )   .

points correspondingly for

Definition 2.41. The F :   C () multi-image mapping is called a locked in

x0   point if from the

( x1 , x2 ,...) sequence to x0 point results the convergence of ( y1 , y2 ,...) sequence to y 0 point, simultaneously, from y n  F ( x0 ) there results yn  F ( x0 ). convergence of

If  and  spaces satisfy the first axiom of countability than the definitions 4 and 41 are equal and if  is of Hausdorff and locked than the mapping F :   C () is semicompact from the top then and only then, when it is locked in

x0 point.

Definition 2.5. The F :   C () multi-image mapping is called the continuous in

x0   point if it is

simultaneously lower and upper semicontinuity in x0   point. Definition 2.6. The F :   C () transformation is called the continuous (correspondingly lower and upper semicontinuityon the  space), if it is such in each x point of X space. Now let‘s say that (X, d) - is a metric space and () is a family of all locked subsets of this space. For

,   () let‘s indicate l (, )  max d ( x, ). x

It is known that

h(, )  max{ l (, ), l (, )},

(7)

is a metric on () and it is called the function of Hausdorff h : ()  ()  [0, ), defined as a metric Hausdorff. It is approved that if  is a complete metric space than () is as well full (complete) metric space: if  is a compact metric space than the () is a compact metric space as well [17]. Let‘s indicate by K () the metric space of all compact subsets of  space on which is defined the h metric. If the X space is complete than K () space is complete as well: if X is a separable space than K () is as well separable.

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 38-45

The Stability of Equilibrium Situation in Lexicographic Strategic Games

For the continuous H  ( H ,..., H ) function defined on metric compact X set let‘s indicate the set of points of its nonstrict lexicographic maxima 1

III. THE MAIN PART

m -dimensional Let‘sdiscuss noncooperative games class Υ

lexicographic

by Arg max H . Let‘s consider the compact set X

A1  Arg max H 1. If A1 set is not one-pointthan on

 ( H )  N ,{( X i ,  i )}iN ,{H i }iN  L

 (1 ,  2 ,...,  m ),

(8)

A1 set let‘s consider the function H 2 and the compact set A2  Arg max H  A1 . In case if A2 set is not 2

where N  {1,2,..., n} is a set of players‘,

( X i , i ) -

i  N is a compact metric set of the player and H i  ( H i1 ,..., H im ) : X   X i  R m - is iN

i  N player‘s real-valued continuous payoff (utility) function. For noncooperative  (H ) games for Υ class with L

the spaces of fixed

X i (i  N ) strategies let‘s introduce

a distance by the following formula:

 ( L ( H ),  L ( H ))  max || H ( x)  H ( x) ||, xX

(9)

Where iN ,1k m

For situations

x, x '  X let‘s indicate as well

 ( x, x ' )    i ( xi , xi' ). Let‘s indicate the set of equilibrium situations of lexicographic noncooperative  (H ) game by  (H ) . Let‘s indicate the following fact that characterizes the task of lexicographic maximum in contrast to the task of scalar maxima: in the lexicographic maximum of the continuous vector-function defined on the metric compact the set of points of lexicographic maximum is compact but at the sametime the set of equilibrium situations in lexicographic noncooperative game could not be a compact. Let‘s prove this fact. Let‘s introduce the following definitions. The x *  X point is called the point of nonstrict lexicographic maxima of the function L

H  ( H ,..., H ) : X  R 1

(11)

if for each y  X or x  y or x  y. And the *

x*  ( x1* ,..., xn* )  X is

equilibrium

situation in  (H ) game if for i  N x is a point of L

* i

nonstrict lexicographic maxima on * i 1

let‘s

consider

the

A3  Arg max H  A2 and 3

compact

set

etc. The received

consequence of compact sets A1  A2  ... are finite, their intersection is nonempty and compact. It is a set L

Arg max H . X

The validity of the second evidence is the consequence of the fact that the lexicographic inequality might be violated while going beyond the limit. E.g., for any positive   0 number there occurs the lexicographic inequality (1,2)  (1   ,3   ). If we go beyond the limit in this inequality when   0, we receive that L

* i 1

* n

x ,..., x , x ,..., x strategies.

In scalar case, in conditions of compactness of continuous function of winning sets of strategies both the set of equilibrium situations and that of solutions of the task of maxima are compact. Let‘s consider the subspace Υ1 of Υ space of noncooperative  (H ) games which comprises of such games the set of equilibrium situations of which is  (H )   . L

iN

* 1

than

(1,2)  L (1,3), which is inequitable.

|| H ( x)  H ( x) || max | H ik ( x)  H ik ( x) | . (10)

situation

xA1

one-point

X i fixed for

Definition 3.1. Equilibrium situation x  ( H ) of *

noncooperative lexicographic  (H )  Υ1 game is called the stable if for each   0 number there is found L

such a   0 number that if for  (H )  Υ1 game the L

distance  ( ( H ),  ( H ))   , then in  (H ) game there is searched out an equilibrium situation L

x ' , for which  ( x* , x ' )   . L Definition 3.2. The  (H ) Υ game is called stable if its all equilibrium situations are stable. Let‘s indicate the set of stable equilibrium situations of

 L (H ) game by  * ( H ) . Let‘s

consider

new multi-image mapping acts in the form of

 : Υ1  X , which  ( L ( H ))   ( H ).

It has appeared that in comparison to the case of scalar functions of the players‗ winning this transformation is not semi continuous from the top. This circumstance together with the fact of incompetence of above indicated  (H ) is the reason of various complexities which are

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The Stability of Equilibrium Situation in Lexicographic Strategic Games

originated while using of lexicographic optimality and the notions of equilibrium for the lexicographic noncooperative games. Let‘s effect the demonstration of indicated by the m

example. For this let‘s indicate by C X all continuous set of H : X  R m set of vector-functions defined on X and simultaneously they are provided with the equal L

norm, then the mapping of Arg max H : C X

m X

indicate

set

all

such

magnitudes

vw arg max H . xX

From the definition follows the validity of the following Lemma. Lemma 3.1. The mappings

W : C Xm  K ( X ), V : C Xm  K ( R m ),

W ( H )  w arg max H ,

H  ( x)  x, H  ( x)  1  x, H   ( H  , H  ), (12)   0. 2

(13)

which act by the following rules

xX

 X is

not the upper semicontinuity. Example 3.1. In the role of X space let‘s take [0,1] segment X  [0,1]. Let‘s indicate

the

(14)

V ( H )  vw arg max H , xX

Here  [0,1] is a numeric parameter. It is easily L

indicated that for each   0 Arg max H  ( x)  {1}. xX

Besides, when   0, then the limit of sequence of L

Arg max H 0 ( x)  {0} and x  {1} does not belong xX

is the upper semicontinuity. Now let‘s go on to the lexicographic noncooperative games. Let‘s indicate locking of C  graphic of

 : Υ1  K (X ) mapping by C and locking of C v graphic ofmapping v : Υ1  K ( R m ) which

Arg max H 0 ( x) set.The categorized ( X , H )

 L (H ) game will correspond to the set of magnitudes of

where X is a metric compact and H : X  R m - is continuous vector-function let‘s call a task of lexicographic optimization. Definition 3.3. Let‘s call the weak nonstrict lexicographic maxima of ( X , H ) task to x *  X point

H function in its points of equilibrium let‘s indicate by Cv .

xX

for which there exists a sequence limit of {H  } functions when

  0 ,

which by the norm is convergent to

H 0 H  H and exists the sequence of points 0

x  Arg max H  is convergent to x * - x  x * , xX

when

  0. L

Let‘s indicate by w arg max H the point of weak xX

nonstrict lexicographic maxima of ( X , H ) task. Let‘s call the value of weak nonstrict lexicographic maxima of ( X , H ) task in x point to such y point for which there exists such sequences of {x } points and

{H  } functions that when    0 , there will be fulfilled x  x and H   H 0 conditions, as well there exists such a sequence of { y } points for which of nonstrict y  y, where y is the value lexicographic maxima of H  function in x point. Let‘s

Definition 3.4. The weak nonstrict lexicographic equilibrium situation of the  (H ) game is called the point of image mapping of  : Υ1  K (X ) (the L

graphic of this mapping is C ). Definition 3.5. The magnitude of the function of winning in weak nonstrict lexicographic equilibrium situation of  (H ) game to the image mapping point L

of v : Υ1  K ( R ) (It‘s graphic is C v ). m

Lemma 3.2. The space of (H ) games by weak nonempty set of weak nonstrict lexicographic equilibrium situations is finite. For proving of Lemma it is enough to check up the locking of Υ1 subspace in finite Υ space. Let‘s consider the sequence of games { L ( H k )}, which is convergent towards the  (H ) game, when k  . According to the condition of Lemma for each k  1,2,... it takes L

place

 ( H k )   . Let‘s show that  (H )   .

We consider the sequence {xk }. of weak nonstrict lexicographic equilibrium situations in  L ( H k ). In the force of compactness of X space if all situations there exists the convergent subsequence {x kl }. Let‘s indicate its limit by x . So as the mapping  : Υ1  K (X ) is

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The Stability of Equilibrium Situation in Lexicographic Strategic Games

the upper semicontinuity that is why a condition should be fulfilled, therefore,  (H )  . Definition 3.6. The x situation of weak nonstrict equilibrium in  (H ) game is called stable if for any   0 number can be found such a number   0, when L

Sufficiency. Let‘s say that  (H ) game is a point of continuity of  mapping. Then for each number   0 in force of the lower semicontinuity of  mapping there is possible to find such a   0 number that what L

kind

were

the

 -area of game  L (H ) in L game U ( ( H ), ) for each

for each  (H ) game the inequality will be fulfilled

U ( L ( H ), )

 ( L ( H ),  L ( H ))   , it will be possible to find ' such a situation x  ( H ), for which it will be ' fulfilled the inequality  ( x, x )   . Let‘s call the

equilibrium x  (H ) situation it is possible to find

 L (H ) game a weak nonstrict lexicographically stable

 (H ) game.

if all its weak nonstrict lexicographic equilibrium situation is stable. Lemma 3.3. The lexicographic noncooperative

Lemma 3.4. Let‘s say that X is a metric space and Y is a compact metric space F : X  K (Y ) is the

 (H ) game is weakly nonstrict lexicographically L stable then and only then when  (H ) is the point of continuity of  mapping. L

Proof. Necessity. Let‘s say that the lexicographic game  (H )  Υ1 is stable. So as the mapping  is the upper semicontinuity it is necessary to check only its lower semicontinuity. According to the definition of stability of the equilibrium situation for each x  (H ) situation and for any   0 it is possible to find such number  ( , x)  0, that if the game L

 L (H )  Υ1 satisfies the inequality (15)

 ( x, x ' )   .

And this approves the stability of

upper semicontinuity multi-image mapping. Then the set of points of interruption of F mapping is in Bera‘s opinion (categoria en Bera) is the set of the first category (i.e. it can be represented nowhere in the form of countable unification of the firm subsets). Proof see in [18]. The result 3.1. If X is a metric space than the set of points of interruption of F is everywhere dense in X space (i.e., the set of continuity points is in opinion of Bera is the set of the second category). Proof see in [18]. Theorem 3.1. The set of weakly stable lexicographic noncooperative games everywhere is dense in Υ1. Proof directly results from the definition and from last two Lemmas. Theorem 3.2. If in  (H ) game there exists the only weak equilibrium situation x, then it is a weak equilibrium stable situation and  (H ) game is stable. Proof. Let‘s take the number   0. So as the mapping  is the upper semicontinuity in x point that is why there should exist such an area VH , of the game L

then there exists a situation of equilibrium x , of

 L (H ) game for which  ( x, x ' )   . The lower semicontunuity of  mapping indicates that for each   0 number it can be found such L L '  '  0 number that if  ( ( H ),  ( H ))   , then there will occur inclusion of  ( H )  U ( ( H ),  ), where U ( ( H ),  ) is the  -area of  (H ). Now

 L (H ) that if  L ( H ' ) VH , then the inclusion of

 ( L ( H ' ))  U ( ( H ),  ).

(16)

So as  ( H )  {x} comprises only one x point that is

 '  inf  ( , x). x ( H )

why it should be fulfilled  ( H )  U ( ( H ),  ). Thus, the mapping  is continuous. '

The necessity will be proved if we show that  '  0. Let‘s admit the contrary, let‘s say  '  0. Let‘s consider the sequence  k  0, k   and the sequence of the situation of its corresponding equilibrium situations x( k ), k  . Let‘s say x0  lim x( k ) is the k 

limiting point of this sequence. On the one hand x0 point is unstable equilibrium situation. And on other hand, in force of compactness of  (H ) set it should be fulfilled

x0  ( L ( H )) and by it we received the opposite one.

 ( L ( H ),  L ( H ))   ( , x),

let‘s indicate

such an equilibrium situation x  ( H ), for which

IV. CONCLUSION A classical strategic (the same noncooperative) game is a game with the scalar functions of winning. The set sof strategies are possible to be given in various images. Lexicographic noncooperative games are given by onedimensional vector-functions. Lexicographic games have been considered in this article when the sets of strategies are the metric spaces and consequently the vectorfunctions of winning are continuous. In classical games the Problem of Nash Equilibrium situation stability

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 38-45

The Stability of Equilibrium Situation in Lexicographic Strategic Games

concerns the small changes of scalar functions of players‘ winning which is essential for their solution. The same problem has been studied in the given article for the lexicographic games the complexity of which is caused by the situation that in such game the equilibrium situation can be not existed. The study of the issue caused introducing and using of many definitions. The given result - if in lexicographic strategic game there exists the only weak equilibrium situation, then it is a weak equilibrium stable situation and the game is stable.

[14]

[15]

[16]

REFERENCES [1] J. von Neuman, O. Morgenstern. ―Theory of Games and Economic Behavior‖. Prinston University Press, 1944, 625 p. [2] G. Owen. ―Game Theory‖. Academic Press, Third Edition, 1995, 459 p. [3] N. N. Vorob‘ev. ―Foundations of Game Theory. Noncooperative Games‖. Birkhauser Verlang, Basel – Boston – Berlin, 1994, 496 p. [4] G.Beltadze. ―Game theory: A mathematikal theory of correlations and equilibrium‖. Georgian Technical University, Tbilisi, 2016, 505 p. (in Georgian). [5] G.N.Beltadze. ―Game Theory - Basis of Higher Education and Teaching Organization‖.International International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science. Hong Kong, Volume 8, Number 6, 2014, pp. 41-49. [6] M.Salukvadze, G. Beltadze. ―The Optimal Principle Principle of Stable Solutions in Lexicographic Cooperative Games‖. International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science. Hong Kong, Volume 6, Number 3, 2014, pp. 11-18. [7] G.N. Beltadze. ―Foundations of Lexicographic Cooperative Game Theory‖. International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science.Hong Kong, Volume 5, Number 3, 2013, pp. 18-25. [8] G.N.Beltadze. ―Sets of equilibrium situation in lexicographic noncoalition games‖. Bulleten of the Academy of sciences of the Georgian SSR, Vol. 98, № 1, 1980, pp.41-44 (in Russian). [9] G.N.Beltadze. ―A mixed extension of finite noncoalition lexicographic games‖. Bulleten of the Academy of sciences of the Georgian SSR.Vol. 98, № 2, 1980, pp. 273276 (in Russian). [10] G.N.Beltadze. ―Analysis of the finite dimensional lexicographic games‖. Bulleten of the Academy of sciences of Georgian. Vol. 141, № 2, 1991, pp. 241-244 (in Russian). [11] G. N. Beltadze, A. L. Topchishvili. ―Multicriteria noncooperative games with strictly ordered criteria‖. A. Gopfert, J. Seelander, Chr. Tammer (Eds). Methods of Multicriteria Decision Theory, Proceedings of the 6 th Workshop of the DGOR- Working Group Muiticriteria Optimization and Decision Theory, Alexisbad 1996, Egelsbach, Washington, Frankfurt, 1997, pp. 69-86. [12] M. Salukvadze, G. Beltadze, and F. Criado. ―Dyadic theoretical games models of decision -making for the lexicographic vector payoffs‖. International Journal of Information Technology and Decision Making, Vol. 8, Issue 2, 2009, pp. 193-216. [13] G.N. Beltadze, ―Lexicographic noncooperative game‘s mixed extension with criteria‖. International Journal of Systems and Software, Asian Research Publishing

[17] [18]

Network (ARPN) Publishers, Vol 1, № 8, November 2011, pp. 247-250. G.N. Beltadze. ―Lexicographic Multistage Games with Perfect Information‖. Informational and Communication Technologies - Theory and Practice: Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference ICTMC-2010 Devoted to the 80th Anniversary of I.V. Prangishvili. Nova Publishers, 664 pp. USA, 2012. pp. 275-281. G.N. Beltadze. ―Lexicographic Strategic Games‘ Nonstandard Analisis‖. International Journal of Intelligent Systems and Applications. Hong Kong, Kong, Volume 5, Number 7, 2013, pp. 1-8. T.Harks, M.Klimm, R.H.Moehring. ―Strong Nash Equilibria in Games with the Lexicographical Improvement Property‖. Preprint 011-2009, arxiv.org/pdf/0909.0347.pdf, 2 Sep. 2009, 20 p. K.Kuratowski. ―Topology, Volume 1‖, Elsevier, 2014, 580 p. M. K. Fort. „Points of continuity of semicontinuousfunctions―. Publ. Math., Vol. 2, 1951, pp.315322.

Authors’Profiles Guram N. Beltadze: is a professor at Informatics and Control Systems Faculty. He is a mathematician. Finished Tbilisi State University. He got a postgraduate education in the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in St.-Petersburg. 1982 - Ph.D. at St.-Petersburg State University, 1992 - Dr. of Sci. of St.Petersburg State University. He was teaching at Tbilisi State University and other Universities. At present he is teaching BA and MA Game Theory, Operation Research, Decision Theory, Mathematical Programing, Mathematical Statistics, Mathematics. The research area is: Game Theory, Operation Research, Decision Theory, Learning Organization, Mathematical modeling of social economics and political processes.

Jimsher A. Giorgobiani: is a Senior Scientist. He is a mathematician. Finished St.-Petersburg State University. He got a postgraduate education in the Georgian Academy of Sciences. 1965 - Ph.D. at Tbilisi State University. He was teaching Game Theory and Operation Research at Tbilisi State University. At present he is a professor at Ilia State University, teaching at the School of Natural Sciences and Engineering MA Mathematical Programing and Mathematical Statistics. The research area is the Game Theory and Operations Research.

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 38-45

The Stability of Equilibrium Situation in Lexicographic Strategic Games

How to cite this paper: Guram N. Beltadze, Jimsher A. Giorgobiani,"The Stability of Equilibrium Situation in Lexicographic Strategic Games", International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science(IJMECS), Vol.8, No.12, pp.38-45, 2016.DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2016.12.06

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 38-45

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 46-55 Published Online December 2016 in MECS (http://www.mecs-press.org/) DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2016.12.07

Modeling of Haze Image as Ill-Posed Inverse Problem & its Solution Sangita Roy Department of Electronic & Communication Engineering, Kolkata,India Email: roysangita@gmail.com

Sheli Sinha Chaudhuri Department of Electronic & Telecommunication Engineering, Jadavpur University,Kolkata,India Email: shelism@rediffmail.com

Abstract—Visibility Improvement is a great challenge in early vision. Numerous methods have been experimented. As the subject is random and different significant parameters are involved to improve the vision, it becomes difficult, sometimes unsolvable. In the process original image has to be retrieved back from a degraded version of the image which is often difficult to perceive. Thus the problem becomes ill-posed Inverse Problem. This has been observed that VI (Visibility Improvement) is associated with haze and blur. This complex nature requires probability distribution, estimation, airlight calculation etc. In this paper a combination of haze and blur model has been proposed with detail discussions. Index Terms—DCP, Deconvolution, Deconvolution, IP, Priori, Posteriori.

Blind

I. INTRODUCTION It is an area of applied mathematics, but traditional mathematics tries to avoid it where no solution, many solutions or missing conditions appear. In some cases equation produces matrices which are singular and as a result non invertible. In those situation multi –precision arithmetic is of no use. Therefore this can be concluded that inverse problem is a situation where answer is given, and the question has to be found out from a series of questions. Example is TV game Jeopardy. Forward or direct problem is the counterpart of inverse problem. Example of inverse problem is medical imaging, seismology, geoscience, remote sensing etc. They belong to deterministic problems. It has been found that majority of the real world problems are inverse in nature. Jacques Hadamard, French Mathematician 1923 proposed well posed problem in mathematics whose characteristics are 1. A solution always exists, 2. The solution is unique, 3. A small change in the initial condition produces a small change in the solution. The complement of this condition is ill-posed problem with charesteristis 1. Solution may not exist, 2. More than one solution may exist, 3. A small change in the initial condition may lead to large change in the solution. Thus inverse problem leads to ill-posed problem. Inverse problem was first identified by Victor Ambartsumian, Soviet Armenian theatrical astrophysicist . Copyright © 2016 MECS

Often IP does not follow well-posedness, and then IP becomes IP Ill-Posed Problem and becomes unstable. Visibility Improvement is also a class of inverse problem where best input or original image has to be found out from a series of probable input images. A well –posed problem may be ill-conditioned, i.e. a small error in the initial condition may produce significantly large error at the output /result. The trade-off between well-conditioned and ill-conditioned depends on the nature of the problem and its results[1,2]. Presence of haze degrades the outdoor images and videos to a great extent and thus has become a major problem for outdoor surveillance, driving, navigation in bad weather conditions. Poor visibility makes it difficult for the viewers to identify the object of interest. Dehazing has become an important research topic in many computer vision based applications such as video surveillance, remote sensing, object recognition, and tracking. Haze removal is a branch of Solving Inverse Problem. The focus of this paper is on the measure of effective haze removal algorithm with contrast control and sky masking from single image and video. Algorithm speed is an important parameter to measure complexity which is a linear function of image pixels. Therefore realtime application is can be correlated with algorithimic complexity, parameters like atmospheric veil inference, image restoration, tone mapping, smoothing are also the area of applications. The algorithm is equally equipped to handle both colour as well as gray image[3]. The nondeflected scene light reaching the camera together with the light reflected from different direction forms the airlight [4].Haze is caused due to scattering and absorption of light by tiny air particles known as aerosols in atmosphere before it reaches the camera [5]. This phenomenon fades the true color and contrast of the scene objects. Since haze is dependent on an unknown depth which cannot be measure accurately, dehazing an image completely becomes impossible but however improvement in visibility can be rendered by the various approaches of dehazing and visibility restoration. The various models that have been proposed till date includes, model proposed by Satherley and Oakley [7] and Tan and Oakley[11], assuming that the scene depths were known they formulated a physics-based technique to restore

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 46-55

Modeling of Haze Image as Ill-Posed Inverse Problem & its Solution

scene color and contrast without using predicted weather information. Narasimhan and Nayar[8] analyzed the color variation in scene objects under the effect of homogeneous haze based on a dichromatic atmospheric scattering model. They considered two images of the same scene taken at different time intervals. Scene contrast recovery using this model is somewhat ambiguous as the color of the haze and the scene points are almost same. Fattal [9] presented a method for estimating the transmission in hazy scenes taking into consideration that the medium transmission function and the surface shading are locally and statistically uncorrelated. The dark channel prior model by He et al[10]aimed at dehazing a single image based on the outdoor haze free image information, a common drawback of the above two methods being their computational cost and time complexity.The dark channel prior model is effectively used in this work for real time application with reduced timing complexity[6,12]. After dehazing, the artifacts in the resulting image present mostly in the sky pixels were removed by masking the sky portion from the image, which resulted in improved output. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 the proposed method has been described. Section 3 presents the experimental results on both image and video, a comparison with a few previous methods is also contained. Finally applications have been discussed in section 4. A. Elements of an Inverse Problem(IP) Inverse Problem(IP) deals with mapping between object of interest ( called Parameters) with the acquired information of the objects. The Mapping , also known as Forward Operator is detonated by Measurement Operator ‘M’ where ‘X’, normally a Banach or Hilbert space with parameters ‘x’, in the functional space of ‘M’ and acquired information ‘y’ in the data space ‘D’, also a Banach or Hilbert space. ( )

(1)

The above equation shows a relationship between parameters x and data y. It is clear from the the equation 1 that it is to find out parameters or points ‘ x’ in the functional space X i.e. from the knowledge of data y in the data set D i.e. . Therefore it is evident that MO ‘M’ provides optimum model from the existing data y which is considered to be reposed on parameters ‘x’. It is certain that a good modelling solely depends on the choice of search space ‘X’ and number of data ‘y’. ( )

( )

(2)

If the equation 2 holds true then MO ‘M’ is called injective, where data y distinctively characterize the parameters x. It is an ideal case. In practical case MO ‘M’ is discrete in nature and data ‘y’ contains noise. But such MO ‘M’ is no longer injective.If ‘M’ is injective then it is very easy to construct inversion operator ‘M-1 ‘ to uniquely define the ‘x’ , the elements of ‘X’. The main Copyright © 2016 MECS

attributes of MO is stability estimation. This estimation quantifies how errors in data influence measurement operator to reconstruct the points ‘x’ of ‘X’. ω is modulus of continuity. ‖

‖

(‖ ( )

( )‖ )

(3)

Where is an increasing function with ( ) which quantify the modulus of continuity of the inversion operator M-1 . This inverse operator contributes the assessment of reconstruction error ‖ ‖ based on data acquisition error on MO ‖ ( ) ( )‖ . A reconstruction is satisfactory if the noise in the data acquired does not amplified radically in the reconstruction when ( ) and it is called that the Inverse Problem is well-posed. Otherwise if the noise is amplified extremely, so that reconstruction becomes unstable or too noisy. When | | || a measurement error 10-10 produces a reconstruction error of 10 -1 and the Inverse Problem is termed as ill-posed. Therefore Ill-posedness ( ) (‖ ‖ ), of IP is subjective. If known as modulus of continuity equation, then the distance between two reconstruction x1 and x2 is confined between y1 and y2 which corresponds to a wellposed Inverse Problem. Therefore stability and continuity ( ) ( ) are subjective. ( ) are very important from the point of view error. B. Noise, modelling, prior information It has already been stated that MO is not sufficient condition to describe an IP. For practical or realistic modelling noise contributions have to be associated to the model, otherwise uninvited or unstable reconstruction will created. Therefore to stop this undesirable reconstruction prior information on the parameters have to be retrieved. Basic model of IP ( )

(4)

Equation 4 is an ideal model. But real model is ( ) (5) The noise n has two folds. One is detector error or noise which is contributed by instruments and the other is modelling error which is coming from physical inherent system parameters of x with the data y. Noise is mathematically defined as the discrepancy between measurement operator M(x) and acquired data y. ( )

(6)

1.3 Prior Assumption: IP is classified by two parameters MO (Measurement Operator) and noise . Noise is required to be modeled owing to stability estimation associated with MO. Three conditioned have been aroused out of this problem, i) acquire more precise

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 46-55

Modeling of Haze Image as Ill-Posed Inverse Problem & its Solution

data of lower size as at the time of stability estimation noise amplification may hamper reconstruction , ii) revise MO and attain altered data set if possible, iii) control the class where the unknown parameters are searched. There are various methods for prior assumption. 1. Penalization Theory. It is a deterministic theory. This is subdivided into a. Regularization, b. Sparsity Theory. 2. The Bayesian Framework, 3. Geometric constraint. C. Penalization Theory 1.3.1.1 Based on Regularization: Here is replaced by (

)

( )

(7)

Where δ is a regularization parameter and B is a positive definite operator with an invertible operator of bounded inverse, M* is an adjoint operator of M . In such a case IP becomes Linear system of equations. D. Sparsity Constraints of Penalization In this case

( )

replaced by

‖

( )‖

‖ ‖

(8)

Where δ is a small regularize parameter, D1 is L2 norm and X2 is L1 norm to promote sparsity. Such an IP becomes an optimization (minimization) solving problem. This equation eq (8) is more puzzling than equation (7).

of observed data. In case of signal to recover original signal from degraded signal with noise and distortion. Estimator receives the degraded signal and delivers an output which is as close as the original signal depending on the nature of the estimator and available data. Estimator may be a Dynamic Model (example, Linear Predictive (LP)) and/or a Probabilistic Model (PM) model (example, Gaussian model). Dynamic model predicts past and future values of the signals depending on its past course and present input. Whereas PM estimates the original signal depending on the given data fluctuations, SD, mean, covariance etc. [7].In statistics estimation is a newer data analytical model where probabilistic approximation of missing data is predicted. There are different estimators, like maximum likelihood, Bayes estimators, methods of moments, Cramer-Rao Model, minimum mean square error, minimum variance unbiased estimators, nonlinear system identification, best linear unbiased estimators, unbiased estimators, particle filter, Markov Monte Carlo , Kalman filter, wiener filter. If there are three equations and two unknown, it is known as over determined. If there are two equations and three unknown, that is known as Underdetermined. 1.3.3 Geometrical Constrain and Qualitative Methods: In this method available information cannot recovered wholly or partially the data set of x. This type of problem is computationally tractable than Bayesian Reconstruction [1].

E. Bayesian Frameworks

II. PROPOSED MODEL

This model is more complex than those of previous models. Here a prior distribution π(x) assigns a probability (density) to all eligible candidates x before any data are acquired. This is also anticipated the likelihood function of the conditional distribution π(y/x), data y prior knowledge of parameter x. This is equivalent to knowing the distribution of the noise n. Bayes theorem expresses as ( | )

( | ) ( )

(9)

Where C is normalization constant with probability density ( | ) and ∫ ( | ) ( ) with ( ) is a measure of integration on X. Two important Bayesian Methodologies are maximum likelihood, ( | )

( | )

(10)

This is MAP (Maximum a Posteriori Probability) Estimation and strongly resembles the equation 8 along with its computational cost and Equation 8 can be used as the MAP estimators of Bayesian Posteriori. Bayesian classical estimators are MAP( Maximum Posteriori), MSE (Mean Square Error), Maximum Likelihood(ML), Minimum Mean Square Error(MMSE),Maximum Mean Value of Error(MMVE). Hidden Markov model is an example of Bayesian model. Estimate-Maximize (EM) method. Estimation Theory (ET) is based on the selection of the optimum estimation of some parameters from a set Copyright © 2016 MECS

It has been observed that VI is a complex computational process. Any hazy image consists of haze as well as blur. Therefore both haze and blur removal algorithms have to be incorporated. In practice a lot of haze removal algorithms exist. DCP by He ET. AL, Fattal, Tarel, Tan name a few. In this paper DCP has been emphasised. Blur removal has been adapted by Regularization, Wiener, Inverse Filter, edge tapper, LucyRichardson, Blind Deconvolution. Haze removal is a time domain process, whereas blur removal is frequency domain process. Time domain operation always associated with colour shifting, so that image original colour may not be retrieved whereas frequency domain processing no such incident occurs. A. Improved DCP From the above discussion it is clear that VI (Visibility Improvement) is an IP. According to McCartney and H Kosmider in 1925[4] image visibility model is represented as ( )

( )( )

(

( ))

(1)

Where I(x) image viewed at a distance d. J(x) original scene radiance, t(x) transmission, A is the airlight scattered at the atmosphere. ( )

(2)

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 46-55

Modeling of Haze Image as Ill-Posed Inverse Problem & its Solution

β is the scattering coefficient of the medium. The above equation indicates that the scene radiance is attenuated exponentially with the scene depth d. βd is known as optical thickness. ( )

( )(

( )))

(3)

Jc represents the colour channel of J and Ω(x) is a patch around pixel x.The dark channel value of a haze free image Jdark generally tends to zero. This has been represented by the authors in [10] as: ( )

(

( )(

( )))

It is carried out in the dark channel on 0.1% brightest pixels. It has already been stated that dark channel of an image estimates the amount of haze. Out of those pixels the highest intensity pixels are considered as atmospheric light. These pixels may not be the brightest in the whole image, but the method is robust and stable [4]. 2) Estimating Transmission It is a heuristic model. To generate transmission map from a hazy image is an ill posed problem. To select an optimum transmission map is very difficult work. Haze free image along with good transmission map is the desired one .This can be evaluated from equation (1). Furthermore transmission t for the transmission patch of size 15x15 with 7x7 padding is given by (

( )

(

( )

))

(5)

From eq (7) it is observed that in case of sky intensity value is one, same as that of atmospheric light A. This turns (

( )

(

( )

))

Therefore this can be concluded that sky region has zero transmission. Eq (7) gracefully handles sky region without separating sky from rest of the image before processing. Now another interesting natural phenomena is being described that in sunny day little bit of haze prevails in the form of any free particle in the atmosphere. This is observed in very far object. Haze is a primary indication in the human perception of depth, called aerial perspective [7, 5]. Removing of haze completely from an image will make the image synthetic /unnatural and loose the sensation of depth. This pleasant phenomena is adapted artificially by introducing a parameter ω (0<ω<1) in the eq(7) ̃

(

3) Recovery of Scene Radiance It is an important term in association with poor visibility. The representation of scene radiance L(x, y, λ) enumerates the probability in visibility of noise, blur and colour difference in an image. A more complex depiction of scene radiance is L(x, y, z, θ, φ, λ) where transparency, depth of field and synthetic aperture are predicted. Therefore for efficient scene representation recovery of original scene radiance is essential. ( )

1) Atmospheric light estimation

The value of ω is 0.95 in [10]. The value of ω can be tuned by using optimization.

(4)

The colour of the most haze opaque pixels in I was taken as A.

( )

(

( )

))

( ) ( ( )

)

(7)

Here a threshold value t0 has been introduced, below which transmission is restricted. Typically the is assigned to 0.1. 4)

Contrast Controller

Most of the haze images suffer from degraded contrast of the scene objects. In this model contrast controller was applied after dehazing in order to shift the pixel values to fill the entire brightness range which results in high contrast .Here Michelson contrast has been used. (8) 5) Masking sky patches for removing artefacts and preserving the haze covered surrounding edges It is observed that the resultant dehazed image obtained consist of a lot of artifacts present mostly in the sky patches, moreover the separation of edges of scene objects closer to the sky is not clear. Since sky is mostly blue the pixels for the sky were selected by picking values in the blue plane that are very high. The primary sky pixels were selected by keeping a threshold >200 and a mask was applied to each colour plane setting the mask pixels to a maximum value of 255.The resultant image obtained was visibly clearer and contained less artefacts. However the masking is only effective in daylight.

Fig.1. Block diagram of Proposed Haze removal model

6) Results Here six available natural image set has been used. This has been shown in Table I with their entropies and size.. These images are different in quality wise, like indoor, outdoor, countryside, rainy, day, and night. But all of them have one similar quality, i.e., they are hazy.

(6) I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 46-55

Modeling of Haze Image as Ill-Posed Inverse Problem & its Solution

average. In case of i) He et al 0 to 175 , 250-255, ii) guided filter also25-255 and iii) our method 0-150. This observation validates that our method discards haze well as high intensity values are less in our method. At the same time by visual experience our method explores extreme far road clear vision which is not clear in case of other two methods. Therefore it has been established by qualitative as well as quantitative analysis that our method is superior to earlier two methods.

Table 1. Original Image Set Toys

Tree in rain

House

7.0414

7.8464

7.1653

500x360,jpg Road

532x352,jpg Foggy night

441x450,bmp City

7.4136

6.8289

7.2058

804x446,png

1800x1200,jpg

576x768,jpg

Imag e

Entro py Size Imag e Name Imag e

Entro py Size

The images of Table I have been passed through dark channel prior algorithm, then transmission estimation, after that radiance recovery stage, contrast controller and lastly through sky masking. The results of the dehazing technique are tabulated in Table II. From the above table it is clear that after the above mechanism images are clearer than those of their original hazy counterparts

Fig.2. Hazy canon image and its individual RGB channel intensity distribution

7) RGB Chanel Histograms It is already known that work of He et al takes minimum 45 minutes to process a 50% reduced image with all necessary steps of the DCP [10]. Whereas it takes 7 seconds to run the proposed algorithm on a 50% reduced image. Although authors have used Matlab Image processing Apps whose results are given below. Demonstration of this app has been given only for the image canon.jpg. This app gives RGB channel intensity spectrogram for the channels. For a hazy image intensity of the pixels ranges 75 to 255. In case of images dehazed by He et. al., intensity varies between 0 to 175, 250-255. Whereas our work of 50% reduced images take maximum 7 seconds. Now authors have used Matlab Image processing Apps whose results are given below. Here only one image named canon.jpg has been taken for explanation. In this apps each RGB channel intensity spectrogram has been shown. In the original hazy image intensity distribution occurs from 75 to 255 on and

Fig.3. Haze free canon image and its individual RGB intensity distribution using He et al algorithm with soft matting

Fig.4. Hazefree canon image and its individual RGB intensity distribution using guided filter

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 46-55

Modeling of Haze Image as Ill-Posed Inverse Problem & its Solution

Sl no

Na me

Table 2. Qualitative Analysis of the Images used in Table I using proposed model Dark Channel Prior Image

Transmission

Radiance

Radiance Clear

After Masking

Toys

Tree in rain

House

Road

Foggynight

City

1) Deconvolution

Fig.5. Hazefree canon image and its individual RGB intensity distribution using our method without soft matting

B. Blur Removal Numerous improved visibility Improvement methods have been developed which give more efficient real time with less computational complexity[5][6]. Still a stint of blur prevails in the recovered image. This can be eliminated by Deconvolution [13]. Copyright ÂŠ 2016 MECS

In signal processing most of the time original signal loses its originality due to the cumulative effect of noise and other factors from the source to destination. Main objective of signal processing is to retrieve back its original condition. But it is difficult to achieve as in time domain signal frequency components are mixed. This is easier to implement as in frequency domain all frequency components can be identified precisely and individually. In DE convolution frequency domain operation can be performed on the signals. DE convolution is a process by which image contrast and resolution improve[8]. This employs Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). At the time of transformation signal loses some information in the irregular region where pixel intensity changes abruptly. In image restoration deconvolution is one of the most useful methods of image blur restoration. Blur can be removed by Deconvolution with Regularize Filter, Wiener Filter, Edge Tapper, and Blind Deconvolution.

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Modeling of Haze Image as Ill-Posed Inverse Problem & its Solution

Table 3.Qualitative Analysis Sl. No.

Original Degraded Image

Improved Output of Algorithm 1

Improved Output of Algorithm 2

Improved Output of Algorithm 3

Improved Output of Algorithm 4

Improved Output of Algorithm 5

Improved Output of Algorithm 6

Opinion1 Opinion2 Opinion3 Opinion4 Opinion5 Average

6.5 6 6.2 6 5 5.94

7 7.1 7 6.8 6.5 6.88

7.4 7.5 7 7.1 7 7.2

8 8.2 8 7.7 7.2 7.82

7.8 7.9 7 7.6 7.4 7.54

9 9 8 7.9 7.5 8.28

7.7 7.9 7 7.8 7.6 7.6

Opinion1 Opinion2 Opinion3 Opinion4 Opinion5 Average

8 7 6.4 6 5.9 6.66

7.5 8 7.5 7.1 7 7.42

7 7.5 7.8 7.3 7.2 7.36

7.1 7.3 8 7.9 7.5 7.56

6.8 6.5 6 6.9 6.7 6.58

7.1 7.5 7.8 7.5 7.2 7.42

6 6.7 6 7 7 6.54

Opinion1 Opinion2 Opinion3 Opinion4 Opinion5 Average

6.5 6 7 6 6.2 6.34

7.1 7 7.4 7.1 7.3 7.18

7.2 7.1 7 7.3 7.2 7.16

8 7.5 7.3 7.2 7.4 7.48

7.4 7.3 7 7.6 7.5 7.36

7.5 7.6 7.6 7.8 7.7 7.64

7.6 7.7 7.8 8 7.9 7.8

Opinion1 Opinion2 Opinion3 Opinion4 Opinion5 Average

6.4 7 7.5 6.8 6.7 6.88

8 7.9 7.7 7.5 7.4 7.7

7.9 8 8 7.8 7.7 7.88

7.5 7.3 7.6 7.9 7.6 7.58

7.7 7.9 7.8 7 7.7 7.62

7.9 8 8 7.8 7.6 7.86

8 7.7 7.9 9 8.1 8.14

Opinion1 Opinion2 Opinion3 Opinion4 Opinion5

7 7.1 7 6.8 6.7

7.1 7.7 7.5 7 7.1

7.8 8 7.8 7.3 7.2

7.6 7.9 7.7 7 7.5

7.5 7.7 7.3 7.1 7.0

7.2 7.6 7.9 8.1 7.5

7 7.1 7.4 7.6 7.5

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Modeling of Haze Image as Ill-Posed Inverse Problem & its Solution

Average

6.92

7.28

7.62

7.54

7.32

7.66

7.32

Opinion1 Opinion2 Opinion3 Opinion4 Opinion5 Average

6.9 7 7.1 7 7.2 7.04

7.3 7.8 7.4 7.8 7.7 7.6

7.4 7.5 7.6 7.4 7.8 7.54

7.3 7.8 7.9 7.6 7.9 7.7

7.7 8 7.9 7.9 7.7 7.84

7.2 7.6 7.5 7.6 7.5 7.48

7.9 8.1 8 7.5 7.4 7.78

Table 4.Quantitative Analysis Sl. No.

Original Image

Dehazed DCP Output[6,12]

DCP Deconvolved Regularized Output

DCP Deconvolved Winer Output

DCP Deconvolved Edge Tapper Output

DCP with Deconvoled LucyRichardson Output

DCP with Blind Deconvolved Output

Entropy PSNR SSIM Visible Edge CNR Entropy PSNR SSIM Visible Edge CNR Image 3

7.0427 16313

6.6991 6.0386 0.3259 62767

6.7000 6.0411 0.3209 66963

6.7000 6.0412 0.3209 66963

6.7004 6.0388 0.3259 66963

6.6916 6.0313 0.3193 66963

6.6923 6.0325 0.3205 66963

48.2731 7.8464 19016

63.9694 7.5696 16.8702 0.8484 17809

60.5380 7.6228 16.4050 0.7851 16758

60.5380 7.6228 16.4010 0.7846 16758

60.5380 7.5657 16.8678 0.8481 16758

60.5380 7.6265 16.3766 0.7839 16758

60.5380 7.6221 16.4640 0.7940 16758

80.6731

100.5406

103.3261

Entropy PSNR SSIM Visible Edge CNR Image 4

7.1653 19499

6.0937 10.6565 0.5361 24605

6.2359 10.6697 0.5431 24722

6.2370 10.6697 0.5430 24722

6.0887 10.6537 0.5355 24722

6.2365 10.6675 0.5431 24722

6.2232 10.6679 0.5433 24722

96.9151

42.8313

47.8643

Entropy PSNR SSIM Visible Edge CNR Image 5

7.4136 19600

7.6156 12.7618 0.7359 23235

7.6731 12.5301 0.6737 22959

7.6729 12.5290 0.6733 22959

7.6135 12.7653 0.7349 22959

7.6762 12.5203 0.6729 22959

7.6750 12.5393 0.6773 22959

94.0200

100.3251

101.6580

Entropy PSNR

6.8289 -

6.4881 24.6196

6.4966 24.6068

6.4967 24.6066

6.4872 24.6099

6.4966 24.5999

6.4964 24.6005

Image 1

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Modeling of Haze Image as Ill-Posed Inverse Problem & its Solution

SSIM Visible Edge CNR Image 6

36418

0.9773 41546

0.9770 46403

0.9773 46403

0.9770 46403

14.4681

15.2308

15.0801

Entropy PSNR SSIM Visible Edge CNR

7.2040 41779

6.9515 14.6707 0.8252 43623

7.1698 14.4202 0.7604 40609

7.1707 14.4185 0.7600 40609

6.9690 14.6680 0.8192 40609

7.1686 14.4132 0.7599 40609

7.1589 14.4323 0.7641 40609

76.7152

86.1990

103.0721

III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS Image processing evaluation has been followed by two important steps, i)Subjective Evaluation or Qualitative and ii) Objective/ Quantitative Evaluation Here in Qualitative Evaluation human opinion has been considered in a scale of ten points. Five opinions have been taken for each image. This has been tabulated in Table III & Table IV . In table III and IV six different types of degraded image have been evaluated with respect to subject and object. Subjective evaluation has been carried out with the help of human opinion of five different persons and each of them has given in same position of different images, i.e., if human one has given his judgment for the opinion 1 in first image, then that person has given in opinion 1 for rest of the images. Average opinion has been evaluated for each image. This is clear that all algorithms are remarkable to remove degradation except rainy image of Image 2. Image 2 category is proven to be worsened. Parameters used for objective evaluation are entropy, PSNR, SSIM, CNR, and visible edges. Objective evaluation shows better result with respect to original image for all images, except Image2. Here number of visible edges degrades, SSIM increases, PSNRs are high with respect to other results, and entropies have been decreased. Whereas CNR in category 6 has been improved.

IV. APPLICATIONS This technique can be applied in surveillance, military, night vision, security, under water vision, remote sensing, driving aid, navigation, air traffic control, astronomy, old image restoration, and aerial image correction.

V. CONCLUSIONS In this work the technique used is a novel method for dehazing in the scene that has been done on both video as well as image frame by frame. We have completely masked sky patches, which has not only resulted in an enhanced image but has also reduced artifacts along the Copyright ÂŠ 2016 MECS

surrounding edges. The final output is comparable with the existing techniques and quite suitable for real time video processing as the time taken for processing each frame is very less. The novel method has been applied on six images which gives satisfactory as well as efficient result in eight quantitative parameters. According to human opinion which is the last and final option in case of image, qualitative performance has also been found to be satisfactory. However in case of dense fog on applying the dark channel prior model the resultant image turned dark. Thus the future work of this model will stress on improving visibility in case of denser fog. This method is very simple and fast compared to He Et. Al. work. He Et. Al. work takes 45 minutes to complete a 50% reduced single image. Whereas our work takes only maximum20 seconds to complete the same image. The above mentioned methods can be implemented on any type degraded image and better results are produced, even motion blur can be removed. This has also been noticed that degradation in visibility of images has a tendency towards blurring.. For this reason deblurring methods have been integrated for better visibility improvement. After IDCP steps , deblurring algorithms like regularize filter, wiener filter, edge tapper, Lucy-Richardson , and Blind deconvoluton methods have been applied and the output have been observed sequentially. In all of the cases improvements have been observed which have been validated thorough qualitative and quantitative analyses. It has also been reported that all types of degradation are improved through these algorithms except in rainy scene. In future rainy image will be taken care for evaluation for algorithmic improvement. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT In this paper authors have used Matlab Version R2014a for the experimental result. It is working under windows8 environment. Matlab Apps for RGB channel histogram has been used to show dark channel importance by visual representation. REFERENCE [1]

G Bal, Introduction to Inverse Problem, Columbia University, NY.2012.

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Modeling of Haze Image as Ill-Posed Inverse Problem & its Solution

[2]

https://www.math.utk.edu/~ccollins/M577/Handouts/cond _stab.pdf [3] Tarel, J.-P. , Hautiere, N.: Fast visibility restoration from a single color or gray level image, IEEE 12th international conference on Computer Vision (2009) 2201 – 2208. [4] H., Koschmieder, Theorie der horizontalensichtweite, Beitr.Phys.Freien Atm., vol. 12, 1924, pp. 171–181. [5] Lv,X.,Chen, W.,Shen,I-fan,:Real-Timedehazing for image and video,18th pacific conference on computer graphics and applications(PG),September(2010),pp-62-69. [6] Dibyasree Das, Kyamelia Roy, Samiran Basak,, Sheli Sinha Chaudhury ,Visibility Enhancement in a Foggy Road along with Road Boundary Detection , Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on Advanced Computing, Networking and Informatics: Volume 1,ISBN: 9788132225379. [7] Oakley, J.P, and Satherley, B.L,: Improving Image Quality in Poor Visibility Conditions Using a Physical Model for Degradation,IEEE Trans. Image Processing, vol. 7, Feb. (1998). [8] Narasimhan, S.G., Nayar, S.K.:Contrast restoration of weather degraded images, IEEE transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence, vol. 25, no. 6, June (2003) 713 – 724. [9] R. Fattal, Single Image Dehazing, Proceeding ACM SIGGRAPH 2008 papers,Article No. 72 ,Volume 27 Issue 3, August 2008 [10] K.,He, J., Sun, and X., Tang,: Single image haze removal using dark channel prior”, IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Miami, FL, 2009,pp1956 – 1963 [11] Tan, K., and Oakley,J.P,:Physics Based Approach to ColorImageEnhancement in Poor Visibility Conditions, J. Optical Soc. Am. A,vol. 18, no. 10, Oct. (2001), pp. 24602467. [12] S Roy, D Das, S S Chaudhuri, Dehazing Technique based on Dark Channel Prior model with Sky Masking and its quantitative analysis, CIEC16, IEEE Explore, IEEE

Conference ID: 36757 , IEEE Xplore Compliant ISBN No.: 978-1-5090-0035-7, IEEE Xplore Compliant Part No.: CFP1697V-ART, 978-1-5090-00357/16/$31.00©2016IEEE [13] Gonzalez,R.C.,Woods,R.,:Digital Image Processing Book, Third Edition,Pearson Education India, 2009

Authors’ Profiles Sangita Roy is an Assistant Professor at ECE Department of Narula Institute of Technology under WBUT .She has a teaching experience of more than eighteen years. She was in Bells Controls Limited (instrumentation industry) for two years and West Bengal State Centre, IEI (Kolkata) in administration for two years. She completed her Diploma (ETCE), A.M.I.E (ECE) and M-Tech (Comm. Egg.). Currently perusing her PhD under Dr. Sheli Sinha Chaudhuri at ETCE Department of Jaduvpur University since 2012. She is the member of IEI, IETE, FOSET, ISOC, and IEEE ComSoc. She has published Journals as well as conference papers.

Dr. Sheli Sinha Chaudhuri is an Associate Professor at ETCE Department of Jaduvpur University. She completed her B-Tech, MTech, and PhD at Jaduvpur University. She has a vast teaching experience of fourteen years. She has large number of papers in International and national level journals as well as conferences. Currently research scholars are pursuing PhD under her guidance. She is the member of IEEE and IEI.

How to cite this paper: Sangita Roy, Sheli Sinha Chaudhuri,"Modeling of Haze Image as Ill-Posed Inverse Problem & its Solution", International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science(IJMECS), Vol.8, No.12, pp.46-55, 2016.DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2016.12.07

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 46-55

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 56-63 Published Online December 2016 in MECS (http://www.mecs-press.org/) DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2016.12.08

Improvement in Copy -Move Forgery Detection Using Hybrid Approach Gurmeet Kaur Saini CGC Landran,Computer Science Department, Mohali,India Email: gurmeetsaini02@gmail.com

Manish Mahajan CGC Landran,Computer Science Department, Mohali,India Email: cgccoe.hodcse@gmail.com

Abstract—In this present digital world, digital pictures and videos are the main sources of information. However, these carriers of information can be easily tampered by using softwares such as Adobe photoshop, GIMP etc. Thus, the issue of verification of authenticity and integrity of digital images becomes necessary. Copy Move Forgery is a popular type of forgery that is commonly used for the manipulation of digital images. In this, a region of digital image is copied and then pasted to another location with in the same image with intension to make an object disappear from an image by covering it with small block copied from another part of the same image. There are several post processing operations that are applied by manipulators to obstruct the forgery detection techniques. Thus, for aforementioned problem, we in this paper proposed a method which is a combination of SIFT and SURF algorithms. In this firstly image is split in to sub-parts by DWT method and then SIFT and SURF are applied to actual components of image one by one. After this, features extracted by both methods are matched to locate the forged part in the image. The experiment shows that the proposed method is more efficient and provides better results than applying SIFT and SURF alone.

pasted somewhere else in the same image to hide the important information as shown in Fig. 1. In image splicing, a content of image is replaced by the content of some another image as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig.1. An example of image splicing forgery

Index Terms—Copy Move Forgery, SURF(Speed Up Robust Features), SIFT (Scale Invariant Feature Transform), DWT(Discrete Wavelet Transform).

I. INTRODUCTION Because of recent advancement in the imaging technology, it is very easy to preserve an important information in the form of digital images and this digital information is being used for multiple purposes like electronic media, scientific discoveries etc. due to development of editing softwares, even a novice person can tamper an image with an ease. As a result, the verification of authentication and integrity of digital images is becoming important. Digital image forgery detection has been growing very fast in the recent years as research domain [5]. Mainly, the digital image forgery is classified in to two categories: copy move forgery or cloning and splicing [6]. In copy move forgery, some content of image is copied and Copyright © 2016 MECS

(A) Original image

(B) Forged Image

Fig.2. An example of copy-move forgery

Digital Image Forgery detection techniques are classified in to two categories: active and passive as shown below in Fig.3. In active method, where some embedded digital information is required about the original image to detect the tampering. For example: Digital watermarking. In passive method, there is no prior information about the original image is required to detect the forgery. For example: Copy-Move Forgery.

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Improvement in Copy -Move Forgery Detection Using Hybrid Approach

Fig.3. Types of Forgery

Currently our focus is on copy move forgery detection because the task of forgery detection becomes difficult in this case. This is because when the content of image are copied and pasted on that very image they have similar characteristics of that of original image. For this DWT is applied on the image to partition the image in to different parts. After image decomposition, Surf and Sift algorithm will apply to extract image features and then matching of features that are extracted by SIFT and SURF is done to detect the forgery in the image. The remaining paper is organized as follows: section II explains a previous work related to copy-move forgery detection. Section III completely explain the proposed method. Section IV contains the result analysis of the proposed method on sample images. Section V concludes the work done and scope for future enhancements in the proposed work.

to dimension reduction and increases the accuracy of results. Firstly, DWT is applied on the image to divide the image in to sub-parts. After this, SURF is applied on the actual part and then search for the similarities between descriptor vectors to conclude whether the image is forged or not. Sridevi, M.et al. [6] surveys different types of image forgeries. This survey has been done on existing forgery detection techniques for images and also highlights some copy – move forgery detection methods based on their complexity. Jaberi, M. et al.[8] propose algorithm based on set of keypoint-based features, called MIFT, which contains the properties of SIFT features. This approach has been evaluated and compared with different competitive approaches through a comprehensive set of experiments using a large dataset of real images. Muhammad, N. et al. [9] proposed an efficient passive methodology for copy-move forgery detection which is based on image partition and similarity detection using DyWT. Copied regions and pasted regions are structurally similar and DyWT is used to detect this type of structural similarity. Cao, G. et al.[10] we propose two novel methods to detect the contrast enhancement involved manipulations in digital images. Firstly, detect global contrast enhancement applied to the JPEG-compressed images. Secondly, identify the composite image created by enforcing contrast adjustment on either one or both source regions. The consistency between regions is checked for whether the image is forged or not.

III. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN II. RELATED WORKS The literature review has been conducted in detail over the adequate number of techniques to know their advantages and shortcomings. The related work has been defined as following: Christlein, V. et al.[1] aims to perform best in various post-processing scenarios. The focus is to evaluate the performance of previously proposed feature sets by casting existing algorithms in a common pipeline. In this paper 15 most prominent feature sets are examined and analyzed the detection performance on a per-image basis and on a per-pixel basis. Amerini, I., et al.[2] proposed a methodology based on on scale invariant features transform. This method allows us to detect whether copy-move attack has occurred and also how to recover the geometric transformation used to perform cloning. This method deals with multiple cloning. Bo, X. et al. [3] proposed a method based on the SURF (Speed up Robust Features) descriptors, which are invariant to rotation, scaling etc. As the digital images can be manipulated easily without leaving any obvious visual clues. To overcome this problem, this method is proposed and also it is valid in detecting the image region duplication and quite robust to additive noise and blurring. Hashmi, M. F. et al.[4] developed an algorithm of image-tamper detection based on the DWT which is used Copyright © 2016 MECS

In this paper, the algorithms namely: SURF, and SIFT are used for detection of copy-move image forgery which are discussed below: A. Surf SURF (Speeded Up Robust Features) is a local feature detector and descriptor that can be used for different tasks such as object recognition or classification or 3D reconstruction. It is partly inspired by the scaleinvariant feature transform (SIFT) descriptor. This method is computationally very fast due to the use of integral images. In SURF, Key-point detection and descriptors are formed as explained below: (i) Interest Point Detection For interest point detection SURF uses a basic Hessian –Matrix with integral images which reduces the computational time. Consider a point X=(x,y) in an image I, the hessian matrix H(X,σ) in X at scale σ is calculated as shown in equation 1:

(1)

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 56-63

Improvement in Copy -Move Forgery Detection Using Hybrid Approach

In the above matrix, Lxx(X,σ) denotes the convolution of the Gaussian second order derivative with the image I at point. (ii) Interest point description For interest point description, Firstly SURF creates a circular region around the interest points that are detected to assign them a unique orientation. This is usually done to achieve invariance to rotation. Then for descriptor extraction, a square region is constructed around the interest points and centered to divide it in to 4*4 subregions. For each of these Haar-wavelet responses horizontal dx and vertical dy directions that are summed over each sub-region. For each sub-region, Feature vector is calculated as: V= ( ∑ dx, ∑dy, ∑│dx│,∑│dy│) Where │dx│,│dy│are sum of absolute values of responses. The working of SURF algorithm is shown in flow chart below:

Step 2: Check whether the given image is a gray-scale image or not. If it is not in Gray-scale, first convert it in to Gray-scale. Step 3:Then SURF method is used to perform the feature extraction and description vectors. Step 4: After this matching is done to locate the forged part in digital image. Step 5: Then Key-points are constructed and marked on the digital image. B. Sift Scale-invariant feature transform (or SIFT) is an algorithm in computer vision to detect and describe local features in images. SIFT is used to provide the interesting points on the object that can be extracted to provide a "feature description" of the object. This description can be extracted from the training image, and then it can be used to identify the object . To perform reliable recognition, it is necessary that the features that are extracted from the training image should be detectable even under situations like changes in image scale, noise etc. The working of SIFT algorithm is shown in flow chart below:

Fig.5. Flow chart of SIFT Algorithm

In order to determine copy move forgery, following steps are performed:

Fig.4. Flow chart of SURF Algorithm

In order to determine copy move forgery, following steps are performed: Step1: Given Forged Image.

Step 1: First of all discrete wavelet transform is applied on to the given image to decompose the image in to four parts LL, LH, HL, HH.

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 56-63

Improvement in Copy -Move Forgery Detection Using Hybrid Approach

Step 2: Most of the information is contained in LL part (actual as shown in flow chart below), so we apply SIFT feature extraction on LL part. Step 3: This will give feature extraction of interest key points. Step 4: Matching is done between these feature extractions to mark the forged regions. C. Combined Work of Sift and Surf To propose a new technique for copy-move forgery detection, at first ,image will be transformed into wavelet domain using DWT and SIFT is applied on the transformed image to obtain the features. For second level feature transformation SURF will be applied. As wavelet produces multispectral components, features are more predominant. After obtaining interest point feature descriptor we will go for finding matching between these feature descriptors to conclude either tampering is done with the given image or not at the post processing level. Our works confirm that combination of SIFT and SURF features are an optimal solution because of their high computational efficiency and robust performance. The working of proposed system is shown in the flow chart below:

IV. RESULT ANALYSIS The proposed method is implemented using MATLAB 2015 and tested on an Intel Core i3 with 4GB of RAM running Windows 7. This platform should be considered as the minimum hardware requirement since the image forgery detection algorithms could have been modified for increased accuracy on a more powerful testing platform. This section represents some computational results of our proposed program. A. Visual Results a.) Results of SURF method

Fig.7. Forgery detected by SURF method

This screen shows that SURF extracts the features and descriptor vectors of the image. After extraction , matching of features that are extracted is done to locate the forged part in the digital image. Then Key-points are constructed and marked on the image which are shown with different colors. b.) Results of SIFT method

Fig.6. Flow chart of proposed Algorithm

In order to determine copy-move forgery, following steps are performed: Step 1: Obtain the non-matching key points for SIFT Algorithm. Step 2: Obtain the non-matching key-points for SURF Algorithm Step 3: Apply SVM classifier to remove key-points for same pixel values. Step 4: Store all key-points in a matrix. Step 5: Mark all the key-points on the image.

Fig.8. Forgery detected by SIFT method

This screen shows that Sift extracts features vectors and texture descriptors of an image. As most of the information is contained in actual part of image, so Sift is applied on it and it will give feature descriptors of interest

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 56-63

Improvement in Copy -Move Forgery Detection Using Hybrid Approach

key-points. After this matching is done to locate the forged regions.



FN (False Negative): is the number of tampered images, which are classified as authentic. TN (True Negative): is the number of authentic images, which are classified as authentic. FP (False Positive): is the number of authentic images, which are classified as tampered ones



c.) Results of combination of SIFT and SURF method



For classification tasks, the terms true positives, true negatives, false positives, and false negatives compare the results of the classifier under test with trusted external judgments. The terms positive and negative refer to the classifier's prediction and the terms true and false refer to whether that prediction corresponds to the external judgment. a.) Accuracy

Fig.9. Forgery detected by combined work of SIFT and SURF method.

On this Screen, All the key-points that are marked by SIFT and SURF method uniquely are combined and then on the basis of theses key-points , matching is done to detect forgery. d.) Accuracy Results Screen

Accuracy measures the percentage of the images that are correctly classified by the classifier. It is computed as : Accuracy = (TP + TN) / (TP + TN + FN +FP) Table 5.1 Shows overall accuracy of proposed model

TOTAL IMAGE S TESTE D

100

TRUE POSITIVE (TP)

TRUE

FALSE

NEGATI VE(TN)

POSITI VE(FP)

NEGATI VE(FN)

ACCURA CY (IN %)

96.00%

In this table, 100 images are tested , out of which 95 images are successfully detected. The overall accuracy of proposed model is shown in the graph below:

120

Overall Accuracy (in % )

Results (in %)

100

Fig.10. Accuracy comparison of proposed method with existing methods.

This screen shows the comparison of accuracy of proposed method with SIFT and SURF alone .From this figure it is clear that the accuracy is increased by combining two methods rather than apply SIFT and SURF alone. The combined accuracy is recorded as 96.40% but the accuracy of SURF alone is 89.1% and SIFT is 3 %. B. Performance Display Evaluation Parameters

TP (True Positive): is the number of tampered images, which are classified as tampered.

60 40 20 0 True True False False Accuracy Positive Negative Positive Negative

Evaluation Measures

Fig.11. Shows overall accuracy of Proposed model.

The following are important terminology, which are necessary to understand the performance measurements: 

This graph shows the true positive value i.e 95 which is successful detection of proposed model and total five failures occur , out of which one is True negative and False negative and three are False Positive and accuracy of proposed model is recorded as 96% as shown in the graph above.

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 56-63

Improvement in Copy -Move Forgery Detection Using Hybrid Approach

Table 5.3. Shows overall Recall value of proposed model

b.) Precision Precision is the fraction of retrieved instances that are relevant. It is based on measure of relevance. This is also known as Positive predictive value. It is calculated as: Precision = TP / TP + FP Table 5.2. Shows overall precision of proposed model

TOTAL IMAGE S TESTE D

100

TRUE POSITI VE(TP)

TRUE NEGATIV E(TN)

FALSE POSITI VE (FP)

FALSE NEGATIV E(FN)

PRECISIO N (IN %)

96.93%

TOTAL IMAGE S TESTE D

100

TRUE POSITI VE(TP)

TRUE

FALSE

NEGATI VE(TN

POSITI VE(FP)

NEGATIV E(FN)

RECALL(I N %)

) 95

98.00%

This table shows that total 100 images are tested and out of which 95 are successfully detected. On the basis of this recall is calculated and the graph for recall is shown below:

Overall Recall (in %)

Overall Precision (in %) 120

100

120

100

Results (in %)

In this table, 100 images are tested, out of which 95 images are detected successfully which is known as True positive. The overall precision is shown in the graph below:

60 40 20

Results (in %)

True True False False positive Negative Positive Negative

Recall

Evaluation Measures

40 20 Fig.13. Shows overall Recall of Proposed model.

0 True True False False Precision Positive Negative Positive Negative

This graph shows the overall Recall of proposed model. The maximum precision that is recorded as 98 % which is shown in the graph above.

Evaluation Measures Fig.12. Shows overall Precision of Proposed model.

V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

This graph shows the true positive value i.e 95 which is successful detection of proposed model and total five failures occur and accuracy of proposed model is recorded as 96% as shown in the graph above. c.) Recall Recall is defined as the fraction of relevant instances that are retrieved. It is based on an understanding and measure of relevance. This is also called sensitivity. It is calculated as: Recall = TP / TP + FN

Since image forensics is a real world problem, a good forgery detection system should meet realistic requirements. In this paper various tampering detection tools can be applied to a wide variety of images. Two feature descriptor based algorithms namely SIFT and SURF are used together in a parallel manner. These algorithms are based on color and texture descriptor. The aim of these two algorithms is to extract features of digital image and then matching is done to check whether the image is forged or not. Parallel approach is used to increases the performance of the system. Feature detection algorithm works well for previously forged images. The proposed hybrid approach works well for both type of images: Bright color images and Low Brightness images. Also the accuracy of the results are increased by using these algorithms in parallel instead of using them separately. In future this work extended to

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Improvement in Copy -Move Forgery Detection Using Hybrid Approach

improve the feature descriptor algorithm for enhance the speed and reduce the cost. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This research paper is made possible through the help and support from everyone including teachers, parents, family and friends. Especially I would like to dedicate my acknowledgement of gratitude towards the following significant advisors and contributors. First and foremost, I would like to thank Mr. Manish Mahajan for his esteemed guidance and support. Finally, I sincerely thank my family for their patience and support. The product of this research paper would not be possible without all of them. REFERENCES [1] Christlein, V., Riess, C., Jordan, J., Riess, C., & Angelopoulou, E. (2012). An evaluation of popular copymove forgery detection approaches.Information Forensics and Security, IEEE Transactions on, 7(6), 1841-1854 [2] Amerini, I., Ballan, L., Caldelli, R., Del Bimbo, A., & Serra, G. (2011). A sift-based forensic method for copy– move attack detection and transformation recovery. Information Forensics and Security, IEEE Transactions on, 6(3), 1099-1110. [3] Bo, X., Junwen, W., Guangjie, L., & Yuewei, D. (2010, November). Image copy-move forgery detection based on SURF. In Multimedia Information Networking and Security (MINES), 2010 International Conference on (pp. 889-892). IEEE. [4] Hashmi, M. F., Hambarde, A. R., & Keskar, A. G. (2013, December). Copy move forgery detection using DWT and SIFT features. In Intelligent Systems Design and Applications (ISDA), 2013 13th International Conference on (pp. 188-193). IEEE [5] Birajdar, G. K., & Mankar, V. H. (2013). Digital image forgery detection using passive techniques: A survey. Digital Investigation, 10(3), 226-245. [6] Sridevi, M., Mala, C., & Sanyam, S. (2012). Comparative study of image forgery and copy-move techniques. In Advances in Computer Science, Engineering & Applications (pp. 715-723). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. [7] Sunil, K., Jagan, D., & Shaktidev, M. (2014). DCT-PCA based method for copy-move forgery detection. In ICT and Critical Infrastructure: Proceedings of the 48th Annual Convention of Computer Society of India-Vol II (pp. 577583). Springer International Publishing. [8] S., & Das, P. K. (2011). Copy-move forgery detection in digital images: progress and challenges. International Journal on Computer Science and Engineering, 3(2), 652663. [9] Jaberi, M., Bebis, G., Hussain, M., & Muhammad, G. (2014). Accurate and robust localization of duplicated region in copy–move image forgery.Machine vision and applications, 25(2), 451-475. [10] Muhammad, N., Hussain, M., Muhammad, G., & Bebis, G. (2011, August). Copy-move forgery detection using dyadic wavelet transform. In Computer Graphics, Imaging and Visualization (CGIV), 2011 Eighth International Conference on (pp. 103-108). IEEE. [11] Cao, G., Zhao, Y., Ni, R., & Li, X. (2014). Contrast enhancement-based forensics in digital images. Information Forensics and Security, IEEE Transactions on, 9(3), 515-525.

[12] Li, J., Li, X., Yang, B., & Sun, X. (2015). Segmentationbased image copy-move forgery detection scheme. Information Forensics and Security, IEEE Transactions on, 10(3), 507-518. [13] Ardizzone, E., Bruno, A., & Mazzola, G. (2010, September). Detecting multiple copies in tampered images. In Image Processing (ICIP), 2010 17th IEEE International Conference on (pp. 2117-2120). IEEE. [14] Qian, R., Li, W., Yu, N., & Hao, Z. (2012, July). Image Forensics with Rotation-Tolerant Resampling Detection. In Multimedia and Expo Workshops (ICMEW), 2012. [15] Li, J., Li, X., Yang, B., & Sun, X. (2015),“Segmentationbased image copy-move forgery detection scheme,” Proc. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, vol.10(3), pp.507-518. [16] Amerini, I., Ballan, L., Caldelli, R., Del Bimbo, A., Del Tongo, L., & Serra, G. (2013), “Copy-move forgery detection and localization by means of robust clustering with J-Linkage,” Proc. Signal Processing: Image Communication, vol.28(6), pp.659-669. [17] Hsu, C. M., Lee, J. C., & Chen, W. K. (2015, May), “ An Efficient Detection Algorithm for Copy-Move Forgery,” Proc. 10th Asia Joint Conference on Information Security (AsiaJCIS), pp. 33-36. [18] Wang, J., Yang, Z., & Niu, S. (2015), “Copy-Move Forgeries Detection Based on SIFT Algorithm,” Proc. International Journal of Computer Science, pp.567-570. [19] Panchal, P. M., Panchal, S. R., & Shah, S. K. (2013), “A comparison of SIFT and SURF,” Proc. International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering, vol.1(2), 323-327. [20] Cozzolino, D., Poggi, G., & Verdoliva, L. (2015), “Efficient Dense-Field Copy–Move Forgery Detection,” Proc. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, vol.10(11), pp.2284-2297. [21] Ferrara, P., Bianchi, T., De Rosa, A., & Piva, A. (2013, September), “Reverse engineering of double compressed images in the presence of contrast enhancement,” Proc. IEEE 15th International Workshop on Multimedia Signal Processing (MMSP), pp. 141-146.

Authors’ Profiles Gurmeet Kaur, she is pursuing the master of technology from the CGC college of engineering (COE), Landran, PTU. She received her Bachelor of Technology in computer science from CTIEMT , Jalandar in 2014. Her area of

interest is Digital Image Processing.

Manish Mahajan, He received his B.Tech in computer science from Kurukshetra University in 2004 and his M.Tech in 2006 from Punjab technical university (PTU). He is now a head of department, professor in CGC College of engineering, Landran, Mohali, India.. He has 11 years of teaching experience and 6 years of Research experience. His total publications are more than 50. His research interests include Image Processing and Information Security.

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Improvement in Copy -Move Forgery Detection Using Hybrid Approach

How to cite this paper: Gurmeet Kaur Saini, Manish Mahajan,"Improvement in Copy -Move Forgery Detection Using Hybrid Approach", International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science(IJMECS), Vol.8, No.12, pp.5663, 2016.DOI: 10.5815/ijmecs.2016.12.08

I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016, 12, 56-63

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