1Revision History

Editor / Version / Comment
Aarthi
Giridharan / 3.0 / Initial template
KumaranSenapathy, Vignesh Swaminathan / 3.1 / Section 2
GovindarajanPannerselvam, SriramSridharan / 3.2 / Section 3
BalajiShanmugam, KumaranSenapathy / 3.3 / Domain Requirements
Vignesh Swaminathan, AarthiGiridharan / 3.4 / Functional Requirements
SriramSridharan, GovindarajanPannerselvam / 3.5 / Non-Functional Requirements
NehaMalloli, AarthiGiridharan / 3.6 / Problems & Issues

2Process

We, the Andromeda team have followed a definite process in creating this HOPE system. We had gathered and discussed the requirements from lot of resources like web, by taking to elderly people who might use our system and based on our own experience from our grandparents and from the elderly people we had come across.

Any requirements which use the term shall indicate that that functionality is critical core functionality that will be implemented in the first version of the HOPE system. Other functionality that is identified by our requirements gathering process that is not considered critical core functionality and may be implemented instead in a later version of the HOPE system will be referenced using the word ‘will’.

The software process that we are using in this system is V-process model. Change is inevitable in software projects so our process is designed to adapt to the changes and allow modification where necessary to the requirements and other documents.

3Introduction

3.1Purpose

Unfortunately Old Age has now become a prevalent social problem in our society. In our modern society, where money is the scale of everything, old age people measured as an economic liability and a social load. In addition, old age is unavoidable and thus of concern to each of us. It is strange no one wants to grow old but everyone wants to live long. Old age watched as an inescapable, undesirable, problem- ridden stage of life that we compelled to live, marking time until our final exit from life itself. A statistics says, by 2050 there will be more people in the world who are 60 and over than children aged 14 and under. As people get older, they tend to experience difficulties with hearing, speaking, vision and memory loss, and muscle weakness.

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is a branch of study to assist or help people with communication difficulties. It comprises of many techniques, including sign language, gestures, visual aids, pictures, symbols, text-to-speech electronic communicating devices, and so on. It was aimed to help people who only had difficulties in speaking or speaking clearly - in communication. It has found many potential applications in helping people with development disabilities, speech and hearing disorder, autism, dyslexia, aphasia, and so on. But to help elderly or anyone who have more than speech disorder we need to go in depth beyond AAC to find their problem and needs towards their physical and mental disorders and provide a way to live them pleasantly.

So, this project is intended for helping the elderly population suffering from communication difficulties, such as lack of hearing, speech impairment and unclear speech, as well as low vision, weak memory, muscle weakness and much more elderly problem. We are going to help elderly people with above problems with the mobile communication device which serves as multi-functional help device. We hope that our ‘HOPE” system will Helping Our Elder People Easily.

3.2Project Scope

The broad scope of our HOPE project is,

  • To build an all-in-one solution where the user need not depend on any other device but the mobile phone to meet most of the basic needs and problem specified above.
  • To drastically reduce the level of dependency on a third person as many of the services are available in a pocket device.
  • To develop a user friendly application to support features like emergency contacts, speed dialing, drug reminders, speech recognition, profiles, etc.

3.3Project Deliverables

Phase / Deliverable / Date
Phase 0 / Preliminary Project Plan / January 25nd, 2012
Phase 1 / Interim Project 1
 Requirement Specification
 Requirement Analysis
 Presentation / March 6th, 2012
Phase 1 / Final Project 1
Improved Requirement Specification
Improved Requirement Analysis
 Presentation / March 26th, 2012
Phase 2 / Interim Project 2
Improved Requirement
Specification / Analysis
Implementation
Testing
Presentation / April 26th, 2012
Phase 2 / Final Project 2
 Modified Implementation
 Modified Testing
 Presentation / April 30th, 2012

3.4Project Responsibilities

Phase 1 / Deliverables / Developers / Reviewers / Team Lead
Preliminary Definition / AarthiGiridharan
BalajiShanmugam
GovindarajanPanneerselvam
KumaranSenapathy
NehaMalloli
SriramSridharan
Vignesh Swaminathan / NehaMalloli
SriramSridharan / AarthiGiridharan
Documentation and Presentation / AarthiGiridharan
BalajiShanmugam
GovindarajanPanneerselvam
KumaranSenapathy
NehaMalloli
SriramSridharan
Vignesh Swaminathan / BalajiShanmugam
Vignesh Swaminathan / AarthiGiridharan

3.5Process Model

For the implementation of HOPE system, we will follow the V-Model. The V-model represents a software development process which may be considered an extension of the waterfall model. Instead of moving down in a linear way, the process steps are bent upwards after the coding phase, to form the typical V shape. The V-Model demonstrates the relationships between each phase of the development life cycle and its associated phase of testing. The horizontal and vertical axes represents time or project completeness (left-to-right) and level of abstraction (coarsest-grain abstraction uppermost), respectively.

The V- Model

3.6Definitions, Acronyms, and Abbreviations

HOPE - Helping Our People Easily

3.7Summary of Domain Requirements

DR1 / A smart phone is required
DR2 / The user needs basic knowledge about using the smart phone
DR3 / The phone must have HOPE in it.
DR4 / Click the icon to convert speech to text
DR5 / Click on icon will convert text to speech.
DR6 / Old people suffering from hearing problem will need a converter.
DR7 / Phone must have an in-built microphone, typically to record the speech.
DR8 / Some elderly people who have problem in hearing will find it difficult to understand what is being spoken to them. In order to help them, the system will provide a feature by which the word being told is converted into an image which will be displayed in the phone.
DR9 / When 2 people have problems in oral communication, they can use pictograms for communication.
DR10 / Some elderly people have the problem ‘Motor Aphasia’ i.e., they have problem with speech clarity. Our system must provide a feature for them to express their message clearly.
DR11 / The camera should give a brief description of the picture selected.
DR12 / When the user types a message, the person at the opposite must be able to realize the scenario and act to it
DR13 / Person assisting the old people must be near the phone
DR14 / User must know how to use message board
DR15 / Old people with visual imparities will need a tool for object recognition.
DR16 / Obstacles while walking must be detected by the camera.
DR17 / The camera should give a beep sound when the object is detected.
DR18 / Old people suffering from memory loss due to ageing will need help remembering people and places.
DR19 / Some elderly people who have memory loss will not remember to have their medicines at the correct time. This feature will generate reminders to help these people have their tablets at the correct time.
DR20 / Old people may have issues with managing daily finances effectively.
DR21 / Add a Finance planner application.
DR22 / Old people may find it difficult to keep track of investments in current assets.
DR23 / Elderly people may need immediate assistance in case of emergency situations.
DR24 / Remote devices such as weighing machine, sphygmomanometer, cardio belt, etc. must be blue tooth enabled

3.8Summary of Functional Requirements

FR1 / Displays list of Emergency contacts that could be called by a single touch.
FR2 / Converts Voice input in to textual form and if possible in picture format.
FR3 / Converts textual into a voice output.
FR4 / Displays all personal information stored by the user.
FR5 / Alerts the user at the stored time to consume the medicine and updates medicine stock.
FR6 / Text to speech converter is for people with unclear speech.
FR7 / Prompts the user about the location on selecting the item.
FR8 / Displays the list of food items one should and should not consume.
FR9 / Displays the distance covered and calories burnt in that session.
FR10 / Displays and produces the sound for the chosen picture.
FR11 / Elderly people can draft budgets; meet bill payment deadlines; manage current finances in bank accounts, property and other investments; procure the insurance amount when needed by linking the user's insurance and bank accounts for direct fund transfers.
FR12 / Elderly people perform speed dial to their relatives or doctors.
FR13 / Elderly people send the results of their blood pressure readings etc. to their doctors by taking readings from devices such as weighing machine, sphygmomanometer, cardio belt etc. via Bluetooth and transfer the data to a smart phone.
FR14 / Chalkboard helps user to create a message and send it to others.

3.9Summary of Nonfunctional Requirements:

Nonfunctional requirements are further sub divided in to user specific and system specific

NFR1 / Speech to text converter should be able to convert spoken words to text quickly.
NFR2 / The output audio should be clear.
NFR3 / Conversion from speech to image must be done as quickly as possible.
NFR4 / Words spoken by the person should be loud enough.
NFR5 / The functionality of the message should be audible to the old person.
NFR6 / The image icon when clicked should read its functionality aloud immediately.
NFR7 / Conversion from text to speech must be as quickly as possible.
NFR8 / Speech should be audible.
NFR9 / The message should be clear to the listener.
NFR10 / The font should be readable to the user.
NFR11 / The camera must produce a beep sound when it recognizes an object around it immediately.
NFR12 / The retrieval of the photos should be fast.
NFR13 / Store few photos to identify a contact, pet or an object.
NFR14 / The reminder should be invoked at the correct time.
NFR15 / The phone should display the name or image of the medicine at the correct time.
NFR16 / An icon for latest news shall be available to the elderly people
NFR17 / Budgets should be drafted accurately.
NFR18 / User's details should be secure
NFR19 / The system should manage financial assets accurately.
NFR20 / The new and old investments should be kept track of to enable an understanding of current financial status
NFR21 / The system that implements Bluetooth communication should be usable and reliable. Completeness in connection is an important factor since all further actions depend on proper pairing of the devices.
NFR22 / Data transferred and recorded should be accurate and precise since it will be used in maintaining the case history of the patient.
NFR23 / The objects should be large enough to be recognized.

4Issues Related To Preliminary Project Definition

Here we address the various incompleteness, inconsistency and irregularity in the preliminary project definition. The issues are related to domain, functional and non-functional objectives.

4.1Domain Issues

The domain issues in the project are explained below:

4.1.1Issue IDR-01: Requires Smartphone

Description / The old people should have access to smartphone to use HOPE application.
Options / Option A: Apple-iPhone
  • User friendly environment (+)
  • Expensive (-)
  • No choice in handset (-)
Option B: Android phone is required
  • Comparatively Cheaper (-)
  • Choices in handset (+)
  • Frequent updates in software (+)
Option C: No Phone
  • Requirement not satisfied

Decision / Option B-Android platform to develop our application because it’s easier to develop and also give options in choosing handset.

4.1.2Issue IDR-02: Basic knowledge in using the smartphone

Description / The user must have some knowledge on how to use the smartphone
Options / Option A: User manual to assist the elderly
  • Understand the working of the application (+)
  • Time consuming in creating manual (-)
Option B: Assume the user know about the smartphone
  • Reduces the effort in development (+)
  • Saves development time (+)
  • If the user does not know to use smartphone, he/she cannot use the application (-)

Decision / Option A-Easily accessible to all users.

4.1.3Issue IDR-03: Help option in application

Description / Help is not clearly defined in the project definition
Options / Option A: State Help option
  • Improves the project definition (+)
  • User is comfortable when Help is available (+)
Option B : Remove Help from project definition
  • Important aspect of the project is removed

Decision / Option A-We redefine the project description and give details about Help. We also mark Help as important feature in the application.

4.1.4Issue IDR-04: Click the icon to convert speech to text

Description / Issue-Incompleteness
Does not specify the icon to be clicked
Options / Option A: Remove the specification
Option B: Clearly indicate the name of the icon
Decision / Option B-Specify the name of the icon to be clicked to complete the statement

4.1.5Issue IDR-05: Click on icon will convert text to speech.

Description / Issue-Incompleteness
Does not specify the icon to be clicked
Options / Option A: Remove the feature
Option B: Clearly define the icon to be clicked
Decision / Option B-Specify the name of the icon to be clicked to complete the statement

4.1.6Issue IDR-06: Elderly with hearing problem needs a converter

Description / Issue-Incompleteness
Does not specify the name of the converter
Options / Option A: Remove the conversion feature
Option B: Specify the name of the converter
Decision / Option B-Indicate the name of the converter that converts speech to text

4.1.7Issue IDR-07: Smartphone should have microphone typically to record speech

Description / Issue-Ambiguity
Implies there are many ways to use the microphone
Options / Option A: Remove ‘typically’ from the statement
Option B: Indicate all the possible ways to use the microphone
Decision / Option A-After removing the word ‘typically’ the statement indicates that microphone is for recording speech

4.1.8Issue IDR-08: Conversion of Speech to Image

Description / Old people with hearing problem will find it difficult to understand what is being told to them. Hence we use a speech to image converter to display an image corresponding to the word.
Options / Option A: Remove the feature
  • Important functionality in the application is missed (-)
  • Development time is reduced (+)
Option B: Store the images of most frequently used words in the phone. When the phone senses the word, it displays the corresponding image.
  • Important for old people with hearing problem (+)
  • Increases the development time, since we must analyze the words and store their respective images (-)

Decision / Option B-The old people must communicate easily using the feature

4.1.9Issue IDR-09: Aiding in communication

Description / Old people with speech disorder will find it difficult to convey their message. They may need a converter to display images or icons to assist them.
Options / Option A: Remove the feature
Option B: Remove the word ‘may’ in order to indicate it is required
Option C: Clearly define the meaning of ‘need’ and ‘speech disorder’
Decision / Option A-State clearly what is expected to improve this feature

4.1.10Issue IDR-10: Difficulty in Speech

Description / Some elderly people have the problem ‘Motor Aphasia’ i.e., they have problem with speech clarity. Our system must provide a feature for them to express their message clearly.
Options / Option A: The user writes a message on the phone using stylus and it is converted to speech
  • Ease of use (+)
  • Difficult to implement (-)
Option B: Mechanism to type the message
  • Easy to implement (+)
  • Old people may not be expert in typing. Hence they will need time to express their message (-)

Decision / Option B-Implementation is easy.

4.1.11Issue IDR-11: When an image is clicked, the system tells the functionality

Description / Issue-Incompleteness
Statement does not specify what kind of images must be clicked.
Options / Option A: Remove the statement
Option B: Specify the name of images to be clicked
Decision / Option B-Clarify the specification by specifying the name of images

4.1.12Issue IDR-12: Understand the situation

Description / When the user types a message, the person at the opposite must be able to realize the scenario and act to it
Options / Option A: Remove the statement.
Option B: Clearly state the meaning of ‘scenario’
Decision / Option B-Clarify the statement

4.1.13Issue IDR-13: Person assisting the old people must be near the phone

Description / Issue-Ambiguity
Options / Option A: Clearly state the distance
Option B: Expand the statement by indicating that the person assisting the elderly must be able to understand the message
Decision / Option B-Make the statement understandable

4.1.14Issue IDR-14: User must know how to use message board

Description / Issue-Ambiguity
Options / Option A: Define the message board such that it is understood by anyone
Option B: State clearly whether user must know typing or understand the option
Decision / Option B-Message board clearly defined

4.1.15Issue IDR-15: Old people with visual imparity require a tool for object recognition

Description / Issue-Incompleteness
Describe the statement clearly
Options / Option A: Remove the feature
Option B: Camera will be used to identify objects.
Decision / Option B-A camera shall be used to recognize objects

4.1.16Issue IDR-16: Camera detection distance

Description / Issue-Ambiguity
The exact distance is not specified
Options / Option A: The camera can recognize objects up to a distance of 10 feet.
Option B: The camera can recognize objects up to a distance of 20 feet.
Option C: The camera can recognize objects up to a distance of 30 feet.
Decision / Option A-Camera can capture objects clearly only within a certain distance. Hence we increase the range to 10 feet to capture images.

4.1.17 Issue IDR-17: Camera should make a sound when an object is detected

Description / Issue-Ambiguity
The message may not be loud enough for the person to hear.
Options / Option A: Remove the statement
Option B: The message should be loud enough for the old person to hear
Decision / Option B- The sound should have high audible limit for old people to hear.

4.1.18Issue IDR-18: Remembering people and places

Description / Issue-Incompleteness.
The kind of help is not mentioned clearly.
Options / Option A: Remove the statement
Option B: Clearly specify the help needed.
Decision / Option B-Old people need this feature

4.1.19 Issue IDR-19: Help with medicines

Description / Old people may forget to take medicines at the right time. We need a feature to remind to take medicine.
Options / Option A: Remove the feature
  • Reduces development time (+)
  • People with memory loss find it difficult without this feature (-)
Option B: Display the name and(or) image of the tablet at the right time
  • When a new medicine is prescribed, it must be added to the list (-)
  • Assists the old people in taking tablets at right time (+)

Decision / Option A-We need a feature to help old people with memory loss

4.1.20Issue IDR-20: Old people may have difficulty in managing finances effectively