System, method and recording medium for user interface (UI)-level clone detection

1. A computer-implemented user-interface (UI)-level clone detection method, the method comprising:

receiving one or more screenshots of one or more running applications from an application database;

comparing a first object of a first screenshot of a first application with a second object from a second screenshot of a second application to determine a same-functionality code similarity between the first object and the second object, the comparison being based on at least two different techniques for comparison; and

analyzing the first object and the second object when the same-functionality code similarity is greater than a predetermined threshold value to identify a same-functionality code,

wherein the analyzing analyses the first and the second object without a sensitivity to an underlying technology.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the screenshot of each of the applications is processed to identify the first object and the second object using at least one of:

image processing to compute boundaries and extract the first object and the second object from the screenshots;

text recognition; and

machine learning for functionality recognition.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the analyzing analyses the first object and the second object without a code-clone and a code-similarity analysis,

wherein the analyzing uses a static analysis including a reachability analysis to detect the code and libraries used for the screenshot.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the analyzing uses a static analysis including a reachability analysis to detect the code and libraries used for the screenshot.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the analyzing uses a dynamic analysis including a run-time recording of each procedure invoked by the applications.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , embodied in a cloud-computing environment.

7. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform:

receiving one or more screenshots of one or more running applications from an application database;

comparing a first object of a first screenshot of a first application with a second object from a second screenshot of a second application to determine a same-functionality code similarity between the first object and the second object, the comparison being based on at least two different techniques for comparison; and

analyzing the first object and the second object when the same-functionality code similarity is greater than a predetermined threshold value to identify a same-functionality code,

wherein the analyzing-analyses the first and the second object without a sensitivity to an underlying technology.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the screenshot of each of the applications is processed to identify the first object and the second object using at least one of:

image processing to compute boundaries and extract the first object and the second object from the screenshots;

text recognition; and

machine learning for functionality recognition.

9. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the analyzing analyses the first object and the second object without a code-clone and a code-similarity analysis,

and

wherein the analyzing uses a static analysis including a reachability analysis to detect the code and libraries used for the screenshot.

10. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the analyzing uses a static analysis including a reachability analysis to detect the code and libraries used for the screenshot.

11. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the analyzing uses a dynamic analysis including a run-time recording of each procedure invoked by the applications.

12. A User Interface (UI)-level clone detection system, said system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory, the memory storing instructions to cause the processor to:

receiving one or more screenshots of one or more running applications from an application database;

comparing a first object of a first screenshot of a first application with a second object from a second screenshot of a second application to determine a same-functionality code similarity between the first object and the second object, the comparison being based on at least two different techniques for comparison; and

analyzing the first object and the second object when the same-functionality code similarity is greater than a predetermined threshold value to identify a same-functionality code,

wherein the analyzing analyses the first and the second object without a sensitivity to an underlying technology.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the screenshot of each of the applications is processed to identify the first object and the second object using at least one of:

image processing to compute boundaries and extract the first object and the second object from the screenshots;

text recognition; and

machine learning for functionality recognition.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the analyzing analyses the first object and the second object without a code-clone and a code-similarity analysis,

and

wherein the analyzing uses a static analysis including a reachability analysis to detect the code and libraries used for the screenshot.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the analyzing uses a static analysis including a reachability analysis to detect the code and libraries used for the screenshot.

16. The system of claim 13 , embodied in a cloud-computing environment.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the analyzing analyses the first and the second object without a sensitivity to an underlying technology.