Monday, April 25, 2016

Learning to code in Java

Java is a complex programing language that is mainly used for object orient programming. It is mainly used to develop apps for android devices. The language of Java is very compact but highly flexible because a lot of tools are present on the core language to provide functional flexibility. One of the most interesting features of Java was that it utilized a powerful concept of API.

An API which is Applied Programming Interface that is built into CSS-HTML interface for website. It can be used to manipulate videos on webcams and generate 3 Dimensional images. One can also apply third party API systems from other softwares in order to incorporate their functionalities into your own site. For, example one can incorporate the functionality of facebook and twitter into their own webpage by applying their respectives API's into their Java. 


We can code the data based applications using Android  studio. Android studio is a helpful software used to develop apps.
We used a website that I will cite below in order to learn JAVA.[1] The website is basically one giant article with a number of subsections. Other sources that we recommend are code academy and any other book on coding with JAVA and last but not least a good instructor to help you out when you need help debugging a program.


References:

Monday, April 18, 2016

Results of the Patent Search and some statistics for changes

We found a number of electronic pill case reminders on the following website whose link I will put up here - http://www.epill.com/
Figure 1: The above image shows the website that I have talked about in the above lines and will mention below as well.
epills.com
During the course of this week e had the pleasure of meeting one of our teams advisers Abigail Maley in the IRT department who teaches instructional technology. She gave us some great advice and based on it we decided to revise the design proposal again and change the target audiences of our project from dementia patients to neurologically impaired. She explained to us the difficulty and complexity of adapting our project to just dementia patients and said that we should look for a broader scope with a broader audience. This is definitely a huge step for our project since it increased its scope by a huge factor. If you don't believe me here are some key facts, According to a study conducted by World Health Organization in 2008, 8 out of 10 disorders in the highest disability classes are neurological disorders. [1] In Addition, Stroke is ranked as the third leading cause of death in the United States of America.[1]. Another study conducted by the World Health organization found that 1 in every 6 people in the world suffered from neurological disorders.[2] 

In 2007, WHO Director General Margret Chan said that we need to strengthen health systems in order to treat neurological disorders. We hope that our device will help in this process.

References:

[1]“Compelling Statistics on Neurological Disorders.” [Online]. Available at: https://www.aan.com/. [Accessed: 07-May-2016]
[2]“Compelling Statistics on Neurological Disorders.” [Online]. Available at: https://www.aan.com/. [Accessed: 07-May-2016].

Sunday, April 10, 2016

The Three Features of Our code For the Application

During our preliminary meeting with our faculty adviser, Dr. Pramod Abichandani and our Technical Adviser Jay Bhatt with our adviser Abigail Maley, we discussed on modelling our app around 3 key features in order to work more efficiently and in a more organized fashion.

1. Android Interface: The android interface utilizes JAVAScript's flexibility with API'S to


2. API system with Notification System.


3. An API to link the app to drugs.com database.

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Introduction: Study and Preperation

Study and Preparation for the project 

This entire week has been used to plan our course of work throughout the next couple of weeks. We have completed drafting the design proposal for our project. The proposal describes in detail the purpose of our project, the different tools and methods that will be employed in our project, the  roles of each of the team members, a gantt chart the describes the tasks assigned to each week and the time allotted to complete them and last but not least the budget of our project.

Project Theme: The aim of this project is to create an app that can be used together with a device in order to help people take their medication on time. The app is integrated into a system comprising of a pill and either an electronic bracelet or necklace. The other details are included in the design proposal.
Pill case: An image of a normal pill case

Inspiration of the project by Aakankschit: The inspiration for this project came from my grandmother who found it difficult to take all her pills due to a weak memory in old age. The pill case would be designed to remind her to take her pills on time and alert the caretaker that she has taken her pills for that day.
Take your pills!

Tools used: Since we are dealing with the development of an app mainly for android systems. Skills in programming using the language JAVA are essential. The program that we will employ in this project to create our application will be the program known as android studio. It is available for free download on the internet. One of the requirements to use this software is that JAVA version 7 or greater must already be installed on your system. If you are new to programming with JAVA, its highly recommended to watch a couple of tutorials in order to maximize your efficiency while creating the app.

Android Studio: The main tool that will be employed in creating this app.
Research: We are running patent searches throughout this project. These searches can be very helpful in determining the originality of ideas or trying to understand similar concepts applied in different projects. So far we have zoomed in on eight patents which have captured our interest. We have used Drexel Libraries website to find different resources such as the engineering village etc. in order to gain easy access to different research papers pertaining to the theme of our project. In addition with the assistance of Engineering Librarian Mr. Jay Bhatt we have learned the procedure to patent search using advanced google search to find different patents and identify them and learn their nomenclature.


This is the webpage for google's advanced patent search

Reference:
Drexel Libraries: https://www.library.drexel.edu/

The Team: Interactive Pill Case 

ENGR 103 External Project Group 20, Spring 2016



Team members (Undergraduate Students):

Research Head: Gianfranco Diaz,
gd355@drexel.edu

Chief Programmer: Brandon Gordon,
bag84@drexel.edu
Team Manager: Aakankschit Nandkeolyar,
an539@drexel.edu
Graduate Students:


Daniel Christe
BS/MS Student,
Department of Material Science,
 Drexel University,
dis24@drexel.edu
Faculty Advisers:

332_574576192654_4362_n.jpg
Dr. Brandon Terranova,
Assistant Teaching Professor,
College of Engineering
bbt25@drexel.edu
Dr. Pramod Abichandani
Assistant clinical/Teaching Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering,
Director of Business Analytics initiative,
Drexel University,
Executive education course facilitator,
Wharton school of Business,
 University of Pennsylvania
pva23@drexel.edu


Technical Adviser:

Mr. Jay Bhatt,
Liaison Engineering Librarian,
Hagerty Library,
Drexel University,
bhattjj@drexel.edu