This project considers 2 broad classes of location-sensitive, social-networking, mobile applications. The application is based on Android, a GPS-enabled mobile internet device.

• Person-Person Functions
1. Place it notes. Leave a message, for a particular person, at a particular location. (E.g., at a restaurant: Phong, make sure you try the Pho Ga here. it's tasty) Once the message is read, the person can delete it, or leave it there. A slight variant of this, a place-it todo: A task to perform at a specific location, by a specific person (E.g., Jack, please pick up earplugs if you're here at the Longs). Todos will cause phone to buzz if the person moves away from the area without deleting them.
   
2. Place it notes valid for a given period (E.g., Yumiko, if you're here before thurs, pickup tickets at the box office for the friday performance).
    
3. Friend Alert  When I reach an area, I can register for friend alerts. This registration is valid for a period I specify. If, during that period, I  am still in the area, and another friend (people in my contacts list tagged as friends) registers for friend alerts in the same area, we both get notified. Also, ideally, a compass points in the direction of the friend. Let's just use our contact lists for friends.
   
4. Geotagged pictures.    I can tag a picture with a location and a contacts name, and leave it at a location, for a friend to receive when s/he arrives at that location. (E.g.,  Sue, if you come to this restaurant, stay away from the above-pictured waiter. He's an annoying flirt)
   
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• Group Functions
1. Create a group at a specific location, and invite friends to join (e.g, at a trailhead, restaurant, hotel, mountaintop, wherever)
2.  You can include place-its, place-it todos, time-constrained place-its, with that group. (e.g., a time-constrained to-do:  If anyone from the Polanski family arrives at University Mall, pick up 4 Almond Bubble Teas) Also geo-tagged pictures.
   
3. You make a group a friend alert group i.e, all group members automatically registered for friend alerts from other group members when they arrive at that location.

1. Google maps service. Android provides a Map view for this purpose.
2. PIcasa to store images. We're trying to figure out, if you figure it out first, speak up on the facebook group!
   
3. A data base server we will provide, for:
   
1. Storing messages, todos.
   
2. storing URLs for pictures cached at Picasa
3. storing location info for friend alerts.
   

 The requirements given below are incomplete, as they are in any real software project. Part of your task will be to figure out a way to handle the uncertainity. In the first assignment, you will think about how to clarify some (not all) of the uncertain parts of these requirements. But several aspects will remain hidden, and come up only when you start the implementation. Your task will be to a) Make a reasonable decision, with some good justification and b) design the software so that you can change it if the customer doesn't like your choice.

Requirements Details

Here are some more specific requirements arising from the mobile context.

• Keep the user interface simple and functional.
  
• Pay attention to user-interface design. There will be one lecture (about 3 weeks into the class) on user interface design; we will raise some specific issues and discuss them in class.
• Think about energy usage. Minimize the amount of data traffic to & from the server/services. Take into account, location, velocity etc, and try to get enough data so that messages will be delivered within a certain period of time.
  

Software that has users is "alive". No users means death. But users also mean complaints and requests, which means change. Write and design your code to accomodate change easily!

• Add the ability for voice/audio messages.
  
• Scaling up to thousands of users.
  
• Using Facebook friends instead of contacts in the phone for friend alerts.
  

This is a team project. DO NOT delay getting started on the project; it will be quite a bit of work. There are rules about the project.

• The programming job itself is not hard; the core functionality should be easy to implement. What will be hard is to get all the details right--which means doing what the customer wants. If you have any doubts about anything, ask me.  Undocumented bugs of any sort in your system will cost you serious credits. Test your system thoroughly! If your system crashes or otherwise malfunctions during the final demonstration, you may fail the project.
• This is a team effort.  Each one of you will expected to know and understand the full details of the design and implementation of the entire system. Please participate fully in your team's efforts. Midterms and finals will test your knowledge of android,  and give you a good motivation to participate and learn the needed technologies. 

Here's the rough order of things I expect:

These requirements are surely full of ambiguities and questions... so think about the requirements above, develop test scripts for testing the final product, and come back to me with clarifying questions if any. (Assignment 1). This is a team effort.

Once the requirements are somewhat clearer deliver a rough prototype (or mock-up) with most of the web pages that clearly illustrates all the major functions of the system, along with a document that explains all the different choices you made. I also expect a significant portion of the functionality implemented, and a complete UML design. so I can give you feedback. (Assignment 2). This is a team effort.
 

  Finally, bring me the final working system, and show it to me, along with a detailed design document (Assignment 3, or final project report).
 

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