Dashboard analyzer

Dashboard analyzer is a Java application which provides tools for processing and analyzing of screenshots of dashboard user interfaces. It was created as part of my dissertation at Brno University of Technology: http://www.fit.vutbr.cz/~ihynek/dashboards/

It provides the following functionality:

• loads images (from file or url)
• detects (automatically/manually using the interactive editor) regions which represent visually dominant objects (with respect to Gestalt laws / subjective perception of the user)
• performs image operations and filters (gray-scale, posterization, thresholding, Hough-transform, etc.), show image histograms
• performs pixel-based metrics analyzing UI characteristics (colorfulness, pixel-based balance, symmetry, etc...)
• performs object-based metrics analyzing UI characteristics (Ngo's metrics of aesthetics and their modifications)
• processes folders containing various UI descriptions of regions (analysis of subjective perception of users, generating heatmaps, etc.)

For more information, see the project wiki: https://github.com/Jirka/dash/wiki

Running and building the application

Prerequisites

• Java >=1.8
• git
• Eclipse IDE for Java Developers (http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages/release)

TODO: convert to maven projects

Import and running the application

1. Clone the repository:

• Eclipse IDE: Window > Perspective > Open Perspective > Git > Clone Git repository (in Git Repositories View)
• or: 'git clone https://github.com/Jirka/dash.git' command
• or: download and unpack zip file manually

2. Import projects into Eclipse IDE:

• File > Import > General > Existing projects into workspace > select all projects without the 'dash' root project
• wait until projects are successfully builded

3. Run the application:

• run DashApp.java file located in the projects dashapp.rel.public (Right click on the file in Package explorer view > Run as > Java application);
  • note that there are other runnable realeases -- e. g., dashapp.rel.* used for specific purposes and demonstrations of the application

Build .jar executable file

1. Export a .jar file using Eclipse IDE:

• open export dialog: File > Export > Java > Runnable JAR file
• select launch configuration (the DashAppFile from previous section)
• specify Export destination using File browser (e.g.: home/user/Desktop/dashapp.jar)
• check 'Package required libraries into generated JAR'
• select Finish

2. Run the generated .jar file:

• Windows: double click on .jar file
• Linux: run 'java -jar dashapp.jar' (do not forget to set permissions: 'chmod +x dashapp.jar')

Usage

See the project wiki: https://github.com/Jirka/dash/wiki