Bigger Screen

I now have the app mirroring on an external screen/projector, which will make demoing that much easier. It has been tested on my desktop screen and the projectors at school. Check it out:

The Going is Good

A lot of progress has been made with the project over the past couple weeks. The app is actually "working," meaning that the user interface can interact with the server/vision algorithms and can correctly identify a bird species. A break down of the stuff working:

• The user can select an image from their photo album, or they can use the camera to take an image
• The user can submit the image to the server, which kicks off a new session and starts the question-answer cycle
• The user can answer a multiple choice question and submit their answer
• The user can answer a part click question and submit their answer
• The user can change the certainty of their answer ("Definitely," "Probably," "Not Visible")

Its nice to have this stuff working, and fairly well tested, but there is still a lot of work to be done. A list of stuff that needs to be finished:

• The user should be able to view more information about a particular answer
• The user should be able to view more information about a particular species solution
• The user should have some way of "finishing" their session (either the problem was solved or not)
• Several "specialty" features need to be implemented, including letting a user remove a bird species from the list of results, and to be able to look "under the hood" and check out "part heat readings"

Here are some screen shots showing the current progress:

Home Screen (not too special yet...)

Choosing an image from the library:

Image to be submitted to the server:

Multiple Choice Question View:

Certainty Before Submitting:

Part Click Question View:

Visipedia App, Take 2

So over the past couple weeks I have learned quite a bit about programming for iOS devices. I have learned enough in fact to realize that my first crack at the Visipedia app will not suffice. So, starting last week, I scraped everything and restarted with a clean slate.

The biggest changes on this second go around have been the way that I utilize the profiling tools during development. In order to prevent a massive buildup of allocation and memory issues (most of them subtle issues), I profile often and repeatedly. Redesigning the app from the ground up has also let me re-tweak some design choices, especially on the networking side, that have really paid off. I have also been able to employ some better design patterns now that I have a better idea of what requirements I have to meet. Basically, Visipedia App 2.0 is much better than Visipedia App 1.0.

Images of the updated interface: