Interested in Contributing to Tell The Time Application

[Shivam Bhalla]

Hi, My name is Shivam Bhalla and I am a third year student of Computer Science. I have been working on a number of projects on Android for over a year now with a couple of them published on Google Play.I have also worked on some freelance projects for HSBC as well. I am very interested in applying for GSOC 2014 under buildmlearn and am particularly interested in the Tell the Time application.

I do have an idea which could be implemented in the app which is :

Children usually happen to associate time with respect to changes in their environment. A very simple example would be how they see the cock's crowing as "Morning" and Owl's hooting as "Night". We could exploit this factor as a sort of "tell the time by hearing the voice" feature in the app. 

This would of course be in addition to the actual app itself.

Please do let me know your thoughts on this.

Some of my previous works include :

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shivamb7.sachinapp&hl=en

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.apps2eaze.bunkwisely&hl=en

From these, I feel it is evident that I have an eye for a simplistic and minimal design for apps which I think would be very important in designing apps for kids as it would more focus on the app content rather than the chrome around it.

Cheers 

Shivam

[Pankaj Nathani]

Hi Shivam,

Introducing yourself once is sufficient :-)

>  I am very interested in applying for GSOC 2014 under buildmlearn and am particularly interested in the Tell the Time application.

Just replied to your thread on Learn from Map. Seems you like both the projects!

> Children usually happen to associate time with respect to changes in their environment. 

> A very simple example would be how they see the cock's crowing as "Morning" and Owl's hooting as "Night". 

> We could exploit this factor as a sort of "tell the time by hearing the voice" feature in the app. 

Sounds interesting. To reiterate, the mail part of Tell the Time app is to build an interactive clock first with some questions and frills to teach time.. 

[Shivam Bhalla]

Hi,

Yes of course, I agree that the main part of the project would be to have an interactive clock/tell the time questions. The voice recognition part would just be an additional feature to add a more interesting means of interacting with the app. 

I have already started work on the some pen-pencil wireframes for the first level of the app. I am sending these forth. Do let me know what you think. 

I also feel that incorporating voice-recognition intents would be nice feature to have for higher app levels as it would allow for a break from the monotony of simple touching onscreen buttons. Again, the images I am sending should better show how I envision this implementation in the app. 

Notice from these that I have created a sort of "cartoon-mascot" of the app(which could be the Linux Tux penguin possibly ?) which will be talking to the user throughout the app and asking questions and congratulating them on getting a correct answer. So this will make it more interesting for young kids as it generates the feeling that they will have someone to learn about time with, so to speak. This strategy would be way more interactive than an just everyday Q&A quiz. 

1st Level

While I intend to make the app as flashy as possible to make it attractive for kids, I also intend to make it in-keeping with the android design guidelines so as it keep it simple and elegant to use.Let me know if you agree with me on this?

Notice that the mode of navigation I have used for the app will be a navigation drawer housing various fragments of the app. 

Of course this is just the start of what I have envisioned for this app and I will keep posting further pictures in due course. 

Please do let me know what you think and any suggestions that you may have for its improvisation. :-)

Cheers

Shivam

PS: Sorry for the multiple introductions. I figured the old thread would have been lost in the mailing list, so I thought I'll start afresh. I'll keep that in mind for future :-)

[Pankaj Nathani]

Hi Shivam

Thanks for the details and the wireframe. 

We may not be able to use Linux Tux mascot so you may need to create you own :) I think that quizzing is a good approach, however you haven't covered the teaching part. Meaning how would you teach the kids about the basics of a clock for example. In our ideas page, we have some detail about having an interactive clock to teach such basics first before taking the quiz or testing the kids. I think you may need to add this part in.

So conceptually you seem to be on the right track.. we also need to know how you plan to execute this i.e. your development plan.

Regards,

Pankaj.

[Shivam Bhalla]

Hi Pankaj,

Firstly, let me apologize for the very late reply and for being out of touch for so long.

I went over your mail and this is what I thought :

1. Firstly, before getting to anything regarding the concept of time, I believe we could introduce some instruments used to measure time(clock,wristwatch etc) via image and image based questions. This will help in making the app appealing to users who could use it without having ANY KNOWLEDGE WHATSOVER regarding time.

2. See the image below for how I intend to teach the users about the 3 different hands of a clock. See how I intend to blur out the parts of the clock which are not in focus to add a good effect. For example, if they are learning about which is the hour hand, I will blur the entire clock except the hour hand and then show some explanation about it. Again the image should give a better idea. 

3. Coming to the Interactive clock, I believe it could be initially to give some samples to the users so that they get a hang of how to go about it. Then, in the quiz mode, there can be questions, which require users to tap on the clock to set the time. Then, the locations of the hands can be compared with a preset value to check the answer. Again, I have attached an image to explain better. 

4. Here are a few of the technicalities associated with the app : 

 

•  For the navigation system in the app, I intend to use a navigation drawer system with fragments assigned to all different portions of the app. This would make the app in line the with most recent app design patterns.Also, the benefit of using fragments will allow the app to be better suited to be scaled across devices and screen sizes.
• For the blurring that I have mentioned above, I intend to use a variation of the "Stack Blur" opensource library. If that does not work out, I will be using different PNGs to depict the different states of the clock.
• The app I propose will obviously use a lot of Animations for the various "cards" spoken by the Cartoon. For this I intend to write my own anim files. I have some prior experience with this so I dont think it will a problem
• Coming to the questions, I intend to store them as strings in the strings.xml resource file and then randomly use them in the app as and when required. This will allow for the app to be kept offline which I believe is a better alternative.

  For the USP of my idea, that is the voice recognition based questions, I intend to use android's built in voice-intents. This generates the mostly likely string spoken by the user, which I will then compare with a pre-defined answer to check if the user can proceed or not. 

 

Please let me know what you think of these and though I will be mentioning all the technical details in my final proposal, please let me know if any further details are required at this point.

I have also, wrapped up with another new app in the past couple of days. Although it is a very simple app for an NGO's fundraiser, it should give you an idea of the kind of approach I intend to take towards developing this one. Check it out :-) 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shivamb7.sigma

Also, I happened to look through one of the other ideas ie the "Sensor Data" app. I think something performing a similar function aldready exists.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kristofjannes.sensorsense

Isnt that app idea something similar to this?

Thanks and Cheers

Shivam

[Pankaj Nathani]

Hi Shivam,

Thanks for the wireframes. I like your ideas.. specially the tutorial screens, clock to teach the various aspects. 

Since you have a decent idea of the application, you should work on getting a proposal ready. If you do it in a couple of days, you can request a review. See details here: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/buildmlearn/droaQTxy7aU/L1aQ_aJYxSUJ

 Also, I happened to look through one of the other ideas ie the "Sensor Data" app. I think something performing a similar function aldready exists.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kristofjannes.sensorsense
Isnt that app idea something similar to this?

Of course, there would be apps providing a similar functionality. Our differentiation would be the visualisations i.e. the way we represent the data. Besides, we have a very focused target audience for this app: researchers, scientists and teachers.. who would use this as a measuring utility. So we may be able to customise the application further for their needs.

[Shivam Bhalla]

Hi Pankaj,

I am nearly done with an initial draft of my proposal and will shortly send it across for review. I had a couple of queries though :

1. Which email address do I share the  Google Drive link with of proposal on ?

2. I have a former GSOC mentor from the OpenSuse Organisation who would be able to vouch for me as a prospective student for GSOC. Is that something that you       would require/would help ? Should I mention this point in the proposal ?

Thanks and Cheers

Shivam  

[Pankaj Nathani]

I have responded to your query privately.