Benchmark tests on heuristic methods in the darts game

Games are among problems that can be reduced to optimization, for which one of the most universal and productive solving method is a heuristic approach. In this article we present results of benchmark tests on using 5 heuristic methods to solve a physical model of the darts game. Discussion of the scores and conclusions from the research have shown that application of heuristic methods can simulate artificial intelligence as a regular player with very good results

Available bandwidth estimation in smart VPN bonding technique based on a NARX neural network

Today many applications require a high Quality of Service (QoS) to the network, especially for real time applications like VoIP services, video/audio conferences, video surveillance, high definition video transmission, etc. Besides, there are many application scenarios for which it is essential to guarantee high QoS in high speed mobility context using an Internet Mobile access. However, internet mobile networks are not designed to support the real-time data traffic due to many factors such as resource sharing, traffic congestion, radio link, coverage, etc., which affect the Quality of Experience (QoE). In order to improve the QoS in mobility scenarios, the authors propose a new technique named "Smart VPN Bonding" which is based on aggregation of two or more internet mobile accesses and is able to provide a higher end-to-end available bandwidth due to an adaptive load balancing algorithm. In this paper, in order to dynamically establish the correct load balancing weights of the smart VPN bonder, a neural network approach to predict the main Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) values in a determinate geographical point is proposed

The impact of parallel programming on faster image filtering

Parallel programming is a field of science with a great potential nowadays due to the development of advanced computers architectures. Appropriate usage of this tool can be therefore highly beneficial in multimedia applications and significantly decreases the time of calculations. In this article, we analyze how the speed of calculations is influenced by the usage of parallel algorithms in image filtering processes. We present a method based on multithreading and the division of the image for rectangles. The filter is applied parallel on each part of the image. Results show that in some cases our proposition can bring over 90 % benefit when compared to the classical approach