Vol. 22 No. 3/2018

Issue Topic: Augmented and Virtual Reality

Augmented Reality Uses in Interior Design
Mihai SANDU, Ileana Simona SCARLAT 5
Increasingly, interior design retailers rely on online stores to reach their customers as more and more people are connected to the internet. One of the issue in online shopping is that customers cannot visualize how new furniture pieces would blend in their home, but that is not the case anymore as Augmented Reality (AR) becomes more mainstream. This paper analyses several AR applications used in the interior design and highlights their pros and cons. Based on this analysis, we propose an AR application that solves most of the current issues of the interior spaces design.
Keywords: Augmented Reality (AR), Interior Design, Mobile, Application

A Glance into Virtual Reality Development Using Unity
Cosmina ISAR 14
Coming from the 2D and 3D games that everybody is very familiar with, these days the world has been taken by storm with the introduction of virtual reality technology. In this paper I covered the essence of this new empowering technology through things like: a short representative definition and classification, the hardware requirements for stepping into the VR world, and the most important aspect which is the applicability of this technology in the society that we live in. Also, the main purpose of this paper was to identify which VR game engine a beginner should be using for their first project. Through the research that has been done in this article, I come to the conclusion that the most suitable game engine in this case is Unity. To further prove my statement, I developed a small project that consists of a 3D VR maze which shows how easy it is to learn and develop using Unity.
Keywords: Virtual reality, Unity, Game engine


Automated Code Testing System for Bug Prevention in Web-based User Interfaces
Dragoș SMADA, Carmen ROTUNĂ, Radu BONCEA, Ionuț PETRE 23
Automation in testing user interfaces is a prerequisite for overcoming the major weaknesses of manual testing, such as time consumption, not being able to reproduce the sequence that generates a bug or the tendency to repeat only the successful steps. Continuous testing represents an important step in the agile software development cycle due to the fact that any features and changes added to the code need to be checked before their propagation to production environment. Manually testing is a resource and time-consuming process thus the solution would be to make the entire workflow from committing a change to publishing a new release completely automated. The solution proposed within this paper is a framework for automated code testing and bug prevention which relies on Selenium, a framework supporting also headless testing, integrated with a Continuous Integration (CI) server such as Jenkins.
Keywords: UI Testing, Web-Based Interface, Bug Prevention, Automated Testing, Bad Code Denial, Agile, Continuous Integration, Headless Automated Testing

Enriching Curricula with Mobile Solutions
Dinu MIHAIL-VĂDUVA 33
The most enduring appeal of a mobile learning application is to enrich a curriculum regardless a specific domain of study. Mobile technology is a very versatile industry with quick connection to any untethered requirements coming from the realm of teaching activities. This article is dedicated to transfer a general understanding of concepts linked to a statistics course wrapped with a good knowledge and practice about programming languages used in mobile devices. For this objective we are starting a quest for finding relevant references through scientific articles regarding the main practically intertwined features between statistics, programming languages and teaching activities. We are trying to show that developing an Android mobile application is a practical solution that, in a simultaneously way, helps teachers to do a better teaching and evaluating activities and, besides that, speaking about students, we explain that reading, understanding and solving specific issues is a key target. We find that scientific community involved into m-learning subject is convinced that a higher exam scores is obtained, against traditional methods of doing lessons, when an evaluation regarding learning activity occurs. This paper contains the salient facts about creating an Android mobile application considering basic concepts taken from econometrics.
Keywords: Mobile applications, Mobile learning, Android, Quality metrics, Econometrics

IoT Security Approaches in Oil & Gas Solution Industry 4.0
Cristian TOMA, Marius POPA 46
Oil and Gas Industry is a very complex one where very specialized equipment, tools and assets are used. The last years, the trend within that industry is to integrate digital technologies in the oil and gas extraction processes as ICT performance has increased and the price has declined. As effect, the productivity of the industry has increased by using digital technologies as IoT, cloud computing, industrial internet, artificial intelligence, block-chain etc. This paper highlights IoT approaches and solutions that could be applied in the oil and gas industry in creating new value in information generated by IoT infrastructures by integration the sensor data, communication channels and data analytics. Large variety of IoT deployments and protocols raises the IoT security assurance way. In this sense, the paper provides security solutions and examples.
Keywords: IoT, IoT Cloud Service, HTTP-REST API, Cyber Security, Cryptographic Security

Comparing Online Social Networks Ties as Tool for Entrepreneurial Learning Readiness in Small Economies
Oliana SULA, Tiit ELENURM 62
Online social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn create the opportunity to expand online and face-to-face ties. Diverse online social network composed by weak and strong ties is essential for the young student entrepreneurs. Online networks off diverse learning and online expertize opportunities to the young student entrepreneur. This paper explores the entrepreneurial learning leverage that young students enrolled in higher education system can get from online ties in small economies through comparing Western Balkan region and more precisely a small developing country such as Albania with a small-developed county such as Estonia. The paper explores how online ties support young student readiness to use online networking platforms for online entrepreneurial learning and entrepreneurial opportunity recognition focusing in online ties established in Facebook and LinkedIn. Further online learning strategies are explored through focus group analysis, blog analysis and interviews with young experienced entrepreneurs. Young students use online ties for entrepreneurial knowledge sharing but there a difference between the Facebook tie and the LinkedIn tie. The study concludes with the suggestion of development of entrepreneurial learning orientation strategies and tools that facilitate the online learning process in both online networks focusing in specific online tie that is the group tie.
Keywords: Online Entrepreneurial Ties, Online Entrepreneurial Learning, Online Knowledge Sharing, Facebook Ties, LinkedIn Ties, Group Ties

An Ecological View on Software Reuse
Laura-Diana RADU 75
The increase of consumption is an important motivation for the reuse of either physical or virtual products. As the software market has risen, software reuse has become a practice with favourable effects for software development companies and their clients. The most important benefits are increased productivity, reduced costs, better and easier maintenance, decreased development lead times and the improved quality of software products. Successful reuse depends on several technical and non-technical factors. The ecological impact of software is an important non-technical factor of software reuse that needs to be analysed in the context of the rapid evolution of optimization techniques. The main goal of this study is to identify ecological perspectives on software reuse. These will complete the framework of software reuse together with other technical factors, such as compatibility, and non-technical factors, such as economic and ethical implications.
Keywords: Software reuse, Green software, Ecological impact, Domain engineering

Web-Based Architecture for Building Management Systems
Gabriela MEHEDINŢU, Camelia Ramona SILVESTRU (BERE), Cătălin Ionuț SILVESTRU, Vasilica-Cristina ICOCIU 86
Optimization in terms of functionality, comfort and people’s safety, while also ensuring cost minimization may imply automation, including building automation, which can be achieved using Building Management System (BMS). This emerging area is yet to be explored and analyzed, with various approaches in practice, yet little scientific analyses available, especially in terms of system architecture. Based on most frequent functions encountered in office buildings from Romania, we propose a minimal web-based architecture for BMS using modular approach, which enables fast exchange of information among its various components and central-ized surveillance of subsystems through minimal human operator intervention. The architecture proposed may be further developed so as to include additional functions in the respective type of building, moreover, such architecture may also be considered for use in buildings with other destinations, taking into account all the characteristics of each building.
Keywords: Building Management System, Infrastructure, Web-based architecture


The Quality Trading Coefficient. General Formula to Qualify a Trade and a Trading Methodology
Cristian PĂUNA 97
Trading the financial markets is a wide activity nowadays. There are several indicators to measure this activity. The drawdown, the profit factor and the trading efficiency are some of them. This paper will present a different one: the quality trading coefficient. The new formula will indicate several particular aspects originating from the human psychological emotions and fears during transactions on the way to make profit. If the trade was fast and the price moved continuous to the profit target level, the quality trading coefficient will have a positive value close to one. When most of the time the trading position was on loss and the profit was made on the last part of the trade time, the coefficient will have a positive value more close to zero. If the trade is closed on losses, the coefficient will have a negative value tends to minus one if the market goes against the direction of the trade on the entire interval. Measuring this coefficient for all trades made with a trading strategy we can compare and categorize the strategies for any market and for any time interval. The quality trading coefficient became a new optimization criterion for the trading strategies used in automated trading systems.
Keywords: Algorithmic trading, Financial markets, Quality trading coefficient, Trading

The 11th International Conference on Information Technology and Communications Security, SECITC 2018 106

Publishing Guide for Authors 107

INFOREC Association 109