ASSIGNMENT 4 README

AUTHOR

Scott Morris
sibmorri

DESIGN

Home Screen

Upon opening the application, the user is presented with a home screen that allows them to select a task they wish to perform.  Currently the options available are Television, Climate controls and Kitchen (which includes a coffee maker).

Television

The Television Activity allows the user to interact with their PVR (Personal Video Recorder).  It presents to them the past shows that have been recorded.  They can Play/Pause the content, as well as Rewind and Fast Forward and arbitrarily choose a playback position.  They also have the option to input a particular channel number and record from it.  The position within the media is given by a Seek Bar and the playback status is given in a Text View.  The Status at the top reflects an overview of the Activity.  Green means the system is playing back.  Yellow means that something is recording and Red means nothing is active.

Climate

The Climate Activity allows the user to manage their temperature and HVAC system (the furnace and A/C) states.  They can set a temperature using the up and down buttons, which will display temporarily in the current temperature display.  The User can also choose to enable or disable the furnace and A/C.  The present state of the furnace and A/C is displayed by a status icon by their respective name.  The Status at the top displays a general state of the Activity.  Green means the furnace or A/C is active.  Yellow means that the furnace or the A/C is enabled but not active and Red means the system is off.

Kitchen

The Kitchen Activity is incomplete.  It presents the user with an Appliance bar that allows them to choose what appliance they wish to manage.  The one that is currently outlined is the Coffee Maker.  The user can set the auto brew time so it will automatically turn on and brew coffee.  They can also select if the Coffee Maker is currently on or if the Auto Brew will be active.  The Status indicator doesn't function, but would show an average sate of the system.  Further indication could be given to the user as a small icon on each of the appliance icons in the appliance bar.

DEVIATION FROM SKETCHES

Home Screen

The home screen looks similar to what I had laded out in the sketches, however since it was the first Activity I've ever made in Android I wasn't sure on the exact manor of implementing the IconViews with the TextViews.  I instead tried to use a GridView because I thought I would do a nice job at laying out a grid.  I found I wasn't quite what I wanted the more I worked on the rest of the application.  The large Status Icon was omitted because of time and a little one was mocked up in the top right hand corner to make the appearance similar to that of the other activities.

Television

The internal name of this Activity is PVR but that looks a bit cheesy and assumes people know what it means (an assumption I didn't want to make).  The layout of this Activity is similar to what I laded out on paper but changed because of the time constraint I had on making the custom control.  I replicated its functionality through the use of standard Android buttons.  

The show list was originally advertised to the people it was shown to on paper as allowing them to select and play that show they tab on.  From there they could Pause, Rewind or Fast Forward the show.  If they want to record a show, they can enter the channel number in the channel number box and hit record.  Due to time constrains these were not implemented.  Instead the basic structure of how the ListView will display shows and the interactions of the playback buttons along with the status of the Activity were explored and implemented.

The volume slider was removed with the intention of attaching the volume handling with the device's hardware volume keys (see the XBMC Android app for an example).  This also was not completed.

Climate

The Climate Activity is extremely similar to the layout sketched.  Functionality was added to allow the user to test out the Air Conditioner, as no external temperature is known by it the current temp is increased constantly every second.  What was added was when the user gets and sets the temperature using the up and down buttons.  When they perform this task the current temp is moved to the little spot where the set temperature is always displayed and the temperature being set is moved to where the current temp is, but in a different colour.  After a few seconds the display is switched with the colour staying on the set temp but now back in its right location.  After a few more seconds everything is back to black.

Kitchen

The Kitchen Activity is just a mock up because I ran out of time.  The original sketch shows a stove being managed but in the interest of time a coffee maker was mocked up.  The tab bar shown was redesigned to be Selection bar (selection_bar.jpg).

Stereo

This never made it very far on paper or in code.

NOTES

The reason my time was short for this assignment was because I'm a participant in the ECE Fourth Year Design Project Symposium and have been getting ready for that.