Watt Innovation Center Application User S Manual

Peter Stewart

Donnie Reichenbach

Team Watt

Project Draft Proposal #3

3/24/14

Watt Innovation Center Application User’s Manual

Peter Stewart

Donnie Reichenbach

Table of Contents

1. Abstract

2. Introduction

3. Major Components

4. Authoring Tool

5. Acknowledgements

Abstract

This application is for users of the Watt Innovation Center. It is compatible with both smartphones and tablets. The application’s main purpose is as a guide to the Watt Innovation Center. Users can carry their smartphones or tablets with them from room to room, using the application as a tool to help learn about the technologies available in each part of the building. The application will automatically update and detect the user’s location to create a seamless experience.

Introduction

This application is for users of the Watt Innovation Center. The idea can be extended to users/visitors of similar buildings. It is for both smartphones and tablets.

The application’s main purpose is as a guide to the Watt Innovation Center. Users can carry their smartphones or tablets with them from room to room, using it as a tool to help learn about the technologies available in each part of the building. The application will automatically update and detect the user’s location to create a seamless experience.

Our application will have many benefits, all of which enhance the user’s experience and ensure moving from room to room in the Watt Innovation Center is as fluid and seamless as possible. The biggest benefit is expediting the learning process for users. The quicker the user becomes familiar with the different technologies in the building, the easier and more enjoyable the overall experience becomes. Our job is to create an application that puts descriptive and intuitive information at the user’s fingertips. It is worth developing because it provides a compact learning tool for a new user of the innovative technologies located in the Watt Center. Without such an app, a new user might get confused and not use the technologies optimally.

The application will have three main features and many otherseveral minor features. The most crucial (and most challenging) feature we plan to implement is the location detection. As the user moves throughout the building from room to room, the application will update based on the user’s location.

The next major feature is the information. Once the correct room is determined, the application must will show relevant information about the room and the technologies therein. This information will be in the form of text, pictures, and videos.

Application Views

There are a three major sections/components to our application: rooms, technologies, and feedback, as well as the home screen. Each of these three components has a corresponding screen (view) in our application. The transitions are natural, with the user able to go from a room view to either a technology view (to learn about that piece of technology) or a feedback view (to provide feedback concerning a piece of technology or the room in general). The home view has two transitions, one to an information/acknowledgements view and one to begin learning about the rooms. At this point the application will decide which room the user is in and load the corresponding room’s view.

Authoring Tool

Our authoring tool will be designed so that our client can input data to populate the external database with information the user will experience while using the application. The authoring tool is currently still in development.

Acknowledgements

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Watt Innovation Center Application Technical Reference Manual

Peter Stewart

Donnie Reichenbach

Table of Contents

1. Introduction and Overall Technical Summary

2. Databases

3. Acknowledgements

4. Appendix

Introduction and Overall Technical Summary

This application is for users of the Watt Innovation Center. The idea can be extended to users/visitors of similar buildings. It is for both smartphones and tablets.

The application will have three main features and many other minor features. The most crucial (and most challenging) feature we plan to implement is the location detection. As the user moves throughout the building from room to room, the application will update based on the user’s location.

We plan on using the camera, audio player, and location detection, although not in the conventional GPS sense. The camera and audio player will be used for feedback and room information. The location detection will be what determines the room the user is in at a given time.

Databases

For our application, we use both an external and internal database with identical schemas. Our internal database loads information from the external and store each room’s information. This way, if a user returns to a room they have previously visited, the application can read the information from the internal database as opposed to having to reload it from the external database. The application loads the relevant information for each room from an external database using the PHP scripts we will construct. In addition, user feedback can be uploaded from the device and loaded into the external database.

The intent of the type field in the Room table is to put a label like “Social Media Room” or “Technology Room” to give the user context as to where they are. The type field in Technology is similar to Room, giving the user a label for the piece of equipment. The type field in feedback represents video, image, voice recording, or text. The type field in Tech Information is identical to Feedback, where type represents video, image, voice recording, or text. Each entry in the Feedback table will be a piece of feedback, so users can have multiple pieces of feedback per room.

The filepath field contains the path string to the piece of technology information or feedback in the form of a video, text file, picture, or voice recording. The comment field is for supplemental text for images, videos, or voice recordings. The remaining fields are self-explanatory. There are many pieces of feedback per room, many pieces of technology per room, and a one to one relationship between technology information and pieces of technology. The schema is below.

Acknowledgements

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Appendix

This section will contain our list of PHP file names when they are finished being developed. Each of the files will also have a description outlining the functions of that script.

Watt Innovation Center Application

This application will be developed for future users of the Watt Innovation Center. The idea can be extended to users/visitors of similar buildings. It will be made for both smartphones and tablets.

The application’s main purpose will be as a guide to the Watt Innovation Center. Users will carry their smartphones or tablets with them from room to room, using it as a tool to help learn about the technologies available in each part of the building. The application will automatically update and detect the user’s location to create a seamless experience.

We plan on using the camera, audio player, and location detection, although not in the conventional GPS sense. Part of the challenge of designing this application is discovering a way to utilize the wireless routers in the building to pinpoint the user’s location to determine which room he or she is currently in.

Throughout the rest of the semester, we will provide many deliverables to Drs. Howard and Pargas. The deliverables are as follows:

· Functional modules of app code developed and delivered incrementally (schedule is discussed in detail below). The key to tackling this assignment efficiently is utilizing good object-oriented design principles and coding modularly.

· We will develop an authoring tool that the client can use to populate the external database with information associated with each room, area, or floor of the Watt Center

· As our application will utilize an external database to store and access the data displayed to users, creating PHP scripts will be necessary. We will store the PHP scripts on our own webserver. At the end of the semester, they will be moved to a more permanent web server.

· User’s Manual, developed incrementally

· Technical Reference Manual, developed incrementally

· One minute video summary of app previewing features and use, delivered the final week of classes

The application will have three main features and many other minor features. The most crucial (and most challenging) feature we plan to implement is the location detection. Currently we are planning on trying to utilize the wireless routers positioned around the building in order to triangulate the user’s location. If specific hardware is necessary to achieve a seamless effect, we will need to discuss with Dr. Howard about whether the equipment is within the university’s budget. We will perform extensive research in order to get a clear answer to this problem. Ideally we can achieve the effect with only routers, but this will be determined by our March 31st deadline.

If the positioning of the routers makes what we hope to do impossible, and no external equipment can be purchased, we will have to settle for a less than ideal way of determining the user’s current room. The current back-up plan is selecting a building name and a room number from a list. The user would select the room they are in and the application would display the correct information. This approach is less automated but would still provide an almost perfectly seamless experience as the user moves from room to room. If this strategy ends up being the direction we are forced to go, it will also have to be discussed with Dr. Howard. Peter and Donnie will both work on this feature, but Peter is ultimately responsible for a smooth implementation one way or the other.

The next major feature is the information. Once the correct room is determined, the application must show relevant information about the room and the technologies therein. This information will be in the form of text, pictures, and videos, at Dr. Howard’s and the university’s discretion. Our job is to ensure the application works on dummy data and to provide an interface (most likely in the form of PHP scripts) so that the university employees can populate the finished application with the correct data using our authoring tool. Donnie will be primarily in charge of ensuring the transactions between the application and the database are handled properly.

The third and final major feature is user feedback. The user will be able to input feedback regarding how useful/pertinent they found the information on any given room. This feedback can be in the form of textual messages, images, short video clips, and short audio clips. The artifacts will be date and time stamped and the room in which the artifacts were produced will be noted. Utilizing these artifacts will allow users’ experience to be continuously improved so that subsequent visitors to the Watt Center have an even more seamless experience. In addition, this feedback will be extremely valuable to future students of this class to potentially extend the app as the Watt Center grows and evolves. Donnie will be primarily in charge of this feature.

Peter will be the group leader. He will be in charge of finalizing and reviewing the product, as well as keeping the group on track and motivated. Both Peter and Donnie will work on all of the features, however ultimate responsibility for each feature is as mentioned above. We plan on meeting with Dr. Howard in person at least two or three times as well as visiting the site for the Watt Center. All other communication will be via email.