GSOC 2014 Learn from Map

[gandha...@iiitd.ac.in]

Dear Sir/Mam

My name is Gandharv Kapoor . I am a 3rd year CSE student enrolled at IIIT-Delhi.I have prior experience in Android Application Development, specially in integrating and using Google Maps API. I have recently (a month ago) published app on google play store here' the Link to the application, the app has already 200+ downloads, apart from this i have developed around 6 more application on android platform, most of them make use of Google Map API and Google Place API .
Before moving further with the ideas i would like to give some insight on the features i have used so far in my application(link posted above).
Since the application was developed for findaway card (Our Organization) our own college startup which is a restaurant discount card, the app has got following features

• Restaurant mark/pin on Maps plotted using latitude and longitude, zooming in / zooming out etc
  
• Nearby restaurants which shows Your Location on map (using GPS) and outlets nearby you.
• You can click on the pin and you will see the complete description of that particular restaurant
• Searching a particular restaurant through name/location/discount etc
• Saving data offline in sqlite database in phone memory (will be updating the application with this feature soon)

The data is parsed through a xml file maintained on server, for 'learn from the map' we can integrate a hard coded xml file within the app and parse it.

Now coming back to "Learn from the map" according to your requirements the following can be done.

• Showing pins all over the map each pin pertaining to a question from that area, we can zoom in zoom out navigate anywhere on map.
• On pin click ,showing user the question and checking the input against correct answer.
• We can even get the user location without net connectivity through cell tower or gps (not a difficult task) and show him filtered out questions pertaining to his area (I hope this was the AI part)
• We can also filter out the questions country wise through xml file only (Easy solution)
• And yeah we ll be parsing all the data through xml stored within apk.

 Suggestion : We should probably finish with above tasks early and focus more on GUI part as it should be as interactive as possible.

Let me know if you require any clarifications, would love to hear back from you.

Regards
Gandharv Kapoor
gandha...@iiitd.ac.in

[Rahul Ahuja]

Hi Gaurav,

Thanks for your detailed introduction. 

 

• Restaurant mark/pin on Maps plotted using latitude and longitude, zooming in / zooming out etc
  
• Nearby restaurants which shows Your Location on map (using GPS) and outlets nearby you.
• You can click on the pin and you will see the complete description of that particular restaurant
• Searching a particular restaurant through name/location/discount etc
• Saving data offline in sqlite database in phone memory (will be updating the application with this feature soon)

The data is parsed through a xml file maintained on server, for 'learn from the map' we can integrate a hard coded xml file within the app and parse it.

Working on the above app gives you base for applying for Learn the Map project. 

 

Now coming back to "Learn from the map" according to your requirements the following can be done.

• Showing pins all over the map each pin pertaining to a question from that area, we can zoom in zoom out navigate anywhere on map.
• On pin click ,showing user the question and checking the input against correct answer.
• We can even get the user location without net connectivity through cell tower or gps (not a difficult task) and show him filtered out questions pertaining to his area (I hope this was the AI part)
• We can also filter out the questions country wise through xml file only (Easy solution)
• And yeah we ll be parsing all the data through xml stored within apk.

Ok, your above approach is little different than how we would want it to be. We would want the user to answer questions by pinning locations on a map. 

For example, a question could be 'What's the capital of India?' The user can answer by dropping a pin at New Delhi.

That being said, your approach is different but it does include map interactions. It wouldn't hurt to submit a proposal with the above outline as you described.

 

 Suggestion : We should probably finish with above tasks early and focus more on GUI part as it should be as interactive as possible.

You should factor this in the tentative timelines that you submit in your GSoC proposal.

[gandha...@iiitd.ac.in]

Dear sir ,

Thanks for your speedy reply, first of all i would like to know if there's any particular advantage in popping up random questions and then marking them on map ? I would really like to know your thought here ?

This is because i feel giving users map at first go would be more interactive as well as attractive, people love playing around with maps zooming in/zooming out navigating everywhere and everywhere. Also i feel giving them map with marked pins and after click providing them questions has got some advantages:

• It seems a well defined flowchart of steps both for the developer as well as user.
• User can navigate to his choice of region and take up questions
• Even if he/she doesnt know where he/she is on map they ll get to know!!
• Sometimes user are just attracted by the shape/area/region/location of a place e.g(someone might just think while playing around whats this big island is near Africa (Madagascar))
  

These are my thoughts would love to hear yours on your approach :)

Also how should i proceed now ?

Regards

Gandharv (not gaurav :D)

Scrolling directly over maps at start would set the picture of the area(location and shape of country) as well in their minds ,they can relate to later on

[Rahul Ahuja]

Dear Gandharv :-)

Thanks for your speedy reply, first of all i would like to know if there's any particular advantage in popping up random questions and then marking them on map ? I would really like to know your thought here ?

Firstly, the questions wouldn't be random. They would be specific questions about the geographical region that the user wants to learn about. 

 

This is because i feel giving users map at first go would be more interactive as well as attractive, people love playing around with maps zooming in/zooming out navigating everywhere and everywhere. Also i feel giving them map with marked pins and after click providing them questions has got some advantages:

• It seems a well defined flowchart of steps both for the developer as well as user.
• User can navigate to his choice of region and take up questions
• Even if he/she doesnt know where he/she is on map they ll get to know!!
• Sometimes user are just attracted by the shape/area/region/location of a place e.g(someone might just think while playing around whats this big island is near Africa (Madagascar))
  

Your approach is valid too, just that it's different from the idea we have on our ideas page. As I said earlier, you can submit your proposal with your approach as well. It's perfectly valid as long as you provide good map interaction to the user.

 

These are my thoughts would love to hear yours on your approach :)

Also how should i proceed now ? 

Try to work out a proposal according to the guidelines mentioned here: https://github.com/BuildmLearn/BuildmLearn-Toolkit/wiki/Guidance-for-Students 

Feel free to discuss any additional ideas you may have and get our feedback.

You will need to submit this proposal to Google when they start accepting applications from students. 

PS: Sorry for the name mix up! :)