ImagIngDev: A New Approach for Developing Automatic Cross-Platform Mobile Applications Using Image Processing Techniques

Abstract The aim of this work is propose and describe ImagIngDev, a new approach for developing automatic cross-platform mobile applications using image processing techniques. As proof of concept, we presented ImagIng Tool and compared its performance with respect to similar cross-platform application development tools. Our main contribution to software development is ImagingDev, a new, intuitive and agile approach aimed at novice developers for automatically developing cross-platform mobile applications. Our proof of concept, ImagIng Tool, can generate mobile applications on four different software platforms: Android™, Windows Phone™, iOS™ and FirefoxOS™. Also, it relies on image processing techniques to recognize user interface design patterns (UIDPs) inside user interfaces, and generates the source code for cross-platform and multi-device applications. As proof of concept, we developed ImagIng Tool for automatic generation of cross-platform mobile applications by using image processing techniques. Results from the evaluation demonstrated that ImagIng Tool has attractive benefits if compared to similar cross-platform application development tools. Such benefits include higher learnability and usability. ImagIngDev and ImagIng Tool can effectively solve current problems in mobile applications development, such as automatic code generation for cross-platform mobile applications, since they allow users to generate cross-platform and multi-device mobile applications in an easy and intuitive way.