• Infrastructures, innovation and methods
• Mobile IT and telecom
• Computer-Supported Co-operative Work (CSCW)
• Human-Cumputer Interaction (HCI)

This is indeed good news!

Steinar will start working with us in the autumn semester this year.

The system consists of a sensor that is attached to the body, a proprietary radio link that is attached to the mobile device, and a software application that reads the data sent by the sensor.

The mobile device cannot be further away than 3 meters from the sensor, so it’s probably a good idea to always carry the device when useing the sensor.

I decided to skip the technical description and go straight for the user guide. Altough it didn’t spell it out, it seems to imply that you have already installed the PDA software, so that’s where I’ll start.

The first thing I noticed was the distinct (and welcome) lack of an autostart feature. The CD features a number of documents explained earlier in addition to a readme file explaining how to install the application. With my trusty iMate JasJar connected to the computer and synched via ActiveSync, this should simply be a case of running the install files. Sadly, the instructions ask me to run the file named “ARASANSDIO_UARTInstall.exe”, which does not exist on the CD. Instead, there’s a file called “ARASANSDIO-VirtualSerialInstall.exe” that I decide will have to make do.

The installation of the chip-driver went painlessly, although it complained about the application being designed for an earlier version of Windows Mobile and that it might not display properly because of that. The Toumaz ECGSoft application installed without any complaints.

After consulting with my in-house physician (well, actually in-house developer), I decide that the leads should be placed on the chest, on each side of the heart. According to the user guide, the leads should be placed before the device is turned on. After the leads have been fastened, the Zinc Air battery is to be exposed to oxygen (i.e. the protective tab should be removed), but not inserted into the device just yet. The battery needs about 60 seconds exposed to air before it activates, and only then should it be inserted. Prior to this, however, the receiver card should be inserted into the mobile device and the application should be running.

Running the application turned out to be less then a success. The application refused to start up, citing the lack of some library named “OSEA.dll”. This test had to abort at this stage, but will be resumed later.

About the conference (from the steering committee’s web-page): “The International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE) focuses on the practice and theory of software systems reliability engineering and analytics. The scope ranges from techniques and practices to verify, validate and test software, to those needed to estimate and predict its reliability, availability and dependability, to those that make it more tolerant to faults and (unexpected) changes in operating conditions, to the impact different development methods and processes have on the field reliability of a software-based product.” More information can be found at the steering committee’s web-pages.

The Okapi:Ranger application is based around collaboration and user-generated content, so naturally, I wanted to get me some users to test it. Since the case I’ve been working on involves wheelchair users, it was very pleasing to meet two such people that were very open and enthusiastic about testing my prototype.

The test itself was intended to be a ’street test’ where the users would follow the routes given them by the Ranger and then offer feedback to these routes depending on whether the routes were any good or not. Sadly, on the day of the test, the wether-gods had decided on rain and high winds. Instead of rolling around the cold and rain, we gathered at a local café and I showed the users my application and had them experiment with to see what they thought.

As I mentioned earlier, the people involved in this test were very open and enthusiastic, and they quickly discovered a multitude of things I could improve on. The almost two hour long session resulted in my notebook being brim-full of suggestions, critiques, and ideas about future functionality. I wonder how many other developers get to have such resourcefull testers?

The test was performed by myself, Gunnar, and two Master students that had taken the afternoon off to help me out. Such generosity from people that really have their hands full with their own projects is heartwarming, and I plan on repaying them someday.

For the test, we split up and walked around Halden in four different directions. Myself and the two other Master students walked, while Gunnar, true to style, used his bicycle. We searched for routes, critizised routes, and created our own tracks throughout Halden’s streets.

After several hours of walking around in Halden, we deserved a break at one of the local pubs. There, our eyes caught an old map hanging on the wall. The map depicted the same area as we had covered, although it was from an era long gone.

Surely the art of map-making has changed.