[PineApple] Weekly Report 22.12.2009

This week, we concantrated on the initial design document and therefore we made some researches about the technologies we may use. For the protocol, we checked and discussed JSON, XMLRPC and SOAP and decided to use SOAP for our product since we have different panels that will work asynchronous. Also we decided to change our process model from Waterfall model to spiral model since it is better for our unexperienced team.
We met several times for the Initial Design document. All the design decisions including database design, interface design, architectural design were discussed by all team members. Once all the decisions is well understood by all team members, we shared the parts as following;

Mehmet Deveci: Architectural Design(Sequence Diagrams), Data Design(File Structures), Interface Design
Hasan Serdar Adali: Architectural Design (Package Diagram, Class Diagrams, Sequence Diagrams)
Yigit Ilguner: Database Design, Interface Design, Gantt Chart
Hasan Kose: Database Design, Gantt Chart, First two chapters, Data Design(File Structures)

[Yigit Ilguner] Weekly Report - 18/12/2009

This week, I searched SOAP(Simple Object Access Protocol). I read several tutorials about it. I also studied Java Swing, because we decided to implement graphical user interfaces of our application by using Swing. Main parts of graphical user interfaces were implemented. Structure of XML file which is going to used in our application has also been decided. I drawed ER diagram and determined the scheme of our database.

[Hasan Serdar Adali] Weekly Report 18/12/2009

For this week,we all focused on writing our initial design report.After we discussed on the functionalites of our software, i drew the necessary class diagrams and packages.I also wrote the explanations for each of them.For this document,i did not go into detail since we will discuss it further while creating our detailed desing report. Most difficult aspect of our project is that, even though it is a desktop application,it requires a client-server communication.If this was a browser application,networking would have been done easily.But for more successful visual designs,using desktop application is almost a neccessity.

[Hasan Kose] Weekly Report - 18.12.09

This week, I read some tutorials on SOAP protocol which we will use in our project for client-server communication. We established the ER, Sequence and class diagrams of the project for the Initial Design Report.

[Mehmet Deveci] Weekly Report-15.12.09

I have studied Java Swing, I have started to implement the user interfaces with Java Swing. I also studied on XMLRPC that we are thinking to use for the communication between server and the client. I downloaded java packages for xmlrpc and wrote simple programs to have an idea. We drew ER and package diagrams. We are also working on the class diagram of the project.

[Yigit Ilguner] Weekly Report 27.11.2009

This week, I looked for free 3D engines. Since OpenGL's features are not sufficent for our project, I searched more suitable 3D engines. I found ogre3d, Irrlicht Engine, and Crystal Space 3D.

Ogre3d Engine : Simple, easy to use interface designed to minimise the effort required to render 3D scenes, and to be independent of 3D implementation. Common requirements like render state management, spatial culling, dealing with transparency are done automatically. Supported platforms are Windows (all major versions), Linux and Mac OSX.

Irrlicht Engine : The Irrlicht Engine is a cross-platform high performance realtime 3D engine written in C++. It is a high level API for creating complete 3D and 2D applications like games or scientific visualizations. It comes with a documentation and integrates all the state-of-the-art features for visual representation like dynamic shadows, particle systems, character animation, indoor and outdoor technology, and collision detection. All this is accessible through a well designed C++ interface, which is easy to use. Irrlicht Engine is platform independent. It runs on Windows95, 98, NT, 2000, XP, Linux, OSX.

Crystal Space 3D : Crystal Space 3D is highly platform independent with good platform abstraction. Officially supports Linux, OSX and Windows using a wide range of compilers. Contains modules for 2d and 3d graphics, sound, collision detection and dynamics via ODE and bullet as well as support modules for filesystem abstraction, xml loading etc. Crystal Space includes a foliage generator. This generator can randomly (based on user supplied input like density map and material based densities) place objects like stones, trees, grass, and so on. Skeletal animation and dynamic shadows let users create characters that look and feel more lifelike.

[Hasan Serdar Adali] Weekly Report 27/10/2009

This week i searched for 3d design tools that we can use in our project.We planned to use pure OpenGl first, but it is really hard to develop complicated model&animations using OpenGl.The best alternative would have been using Autodesk 3ds Max(formerly 3D Studio Max) if we had that much money(its price is between 3k-4k $. But we need a free tool.Here is what i found:

Blender:Free open source 3D content creation tool.In order to use it,pyhton programming language is necessary.

Google SketchUp:Another free software for designing 3D models.It is claimed to be easy to learn.One of its feautures is that this software can also be used in Turkish.There is also a extensible software SketchUp Pro available in English.

3DPlus:Tool for 3D graphics design.

I downloaded all of these softwares.As soon as i get familiar with these products,i will list their pros and cons.

[Mehmet Deveci] Weekly Report 25.11.09

I drew sequence diagram for Usher GMR which was missing at SRS document. I also called Carrefour-Cepa to arrange a meeting, however since they were not available this week, we had to postpone the meeting. We will meet 03.12 most probably.

[Yigit Ilguner] Weekly Report-18.11.2009

This week, we specified the functionalities, scope, user characterisrics and other requirements of our project and wrote Software Requirements Specification report. The name of our project is "Usher GMR". 

[Hasan Kose] Weekly Report 18.11.09

This week, we prepared a Software Requirements Specification report for our vigorous market kiosk solution, which we freshly called "Usher GMR". We clearly specified our scope and purpose, defined all the functionalities. We also did the scheduling to make our time management more accurate.

[Hasan Serdar Adali] Weekly Report

This week, we all focused on writing our software requirement specification document.Since our scope and specifications are more clearly defined right now,we can design our project better.

[Mehmet Deveci] Weekly Report - 18.11.09

This week, we specified the requirements and the functions of our project and completed software requirement specification document. We also gave a name to our product(Usher GMR).

[Hasan Serdar Adalı]Weekly Report-12.11.09

This week, i've done some researchments in order to decide our project scope(for srs document).There are some applications on the web that uses browser application for online 3D shopping.So far, designing a windows application seems more realistic task for our project.Also this week,as group members,we discussed on several functionalities of our software.Details will be on our SRS document.

[Yigit Ilguner] Weekly Report - 12.11.09

I searched Data Mining and read documents on Internet. I also looked at IEEE SRS documentation and checked SRS documentations which were written by groups of previous years. We talked about and decided roughly the functions of our project.Additionally, we decided the main parts of the graphical user interface.  Since we were busy this week, we are going to present our plans about the project to Carrefour-Cepa next week 

[Hasan Kose] Weekly Report-12.11.09

I roughly studied on Data Mining had an initial idea about the topic. We also discussed and identified the functions of the system and the diagrams that we are going to use with my group mates. We further discussed on the interface of the product to make it user-friendly. I checked the SRS documents of the groups from previous years. We were planning to make a presentation of our plans to Carrefour Cepa but it had to be delayed because of our busy program.

[Mehmet Deveci] Weekly Report-12.11.09

I checked IEEE standards and previous SRS and project planning documents to have an idea about how to write. I studied on UML diagram types[1]. such as use-case, state and sequence diagrams that we are thinking to attach to our SRS. Also, we specified roughly the functions and interface of the final product and started to write SRS document. Due to having such a busy week we postponed the interview with Carrefour-Cepa to next week.

1. http://www.smartdraw.com/resources/tutorials/Introduction-to-UML
   

[Yigit Ilguner]Weekly Report-05.11.09

This week, I searched “path finding” algorithms such as A*, B*, Beam search, D* Lite. I also read some documents about these path finding algorithms. For D* Lite, you can get more information from http://idm-lab.org/bib/abstracts/papers/aaai02b.pdf which was written by Sven Koenig and Maxim Likhachev. Other documents will be provided soon. Moreover, we had communicated with several supermarkets in Ankara such as Carrefour, Praktiker, Vatan Bilgisayar, Migros, and Media Markt to get requirements and market plan. Carrefour accepted to give their market plan and inform us about requirements. I also took a look at data mining on internet. Next week, I am going to do more detaied search about data mining.

[Hasan Kose]Weekly Report-05.11.09

In this week, we examined functionalities of some kiosk solution softwares available such as Deli Kiosk Solution and Tesco TV, that we have also mentioned in our proposal report. Additionally I made some internet research on supermarket kiosk solutions to gain some general information. We also contacted many retails in Ankara by phone and mail. One of them, Carrefour Cepa, we went and discussed about the project, saw their plans and obtained them by e-mail. They are willing to be our sponsor and provide us with whatever we need. I am now planning to do some extensive reading on Data Mining and read more about existing kiosk solutions, especially feedback provided by customers.

[Hasan Serdar Adali] Weekly Report-05.11.09

For this week, i have searched for several applications of wayfinding kiosk through the internet.Especially I examined "The Wayfinding Software" which presents 3D modeled wayfinding software for several areas including shopping malls and "the Wallflower Navigation" which provides a perfect user-interface for wayfinding softwares on kiosks.I send emails to companies of these two product in which i asked them to send me a trivial version of their softwares. As soon as i get them, i will provide a further review and a link on our website (Surely,these two softwares may help us a lot to decide how to approach to our kiosk solution designs).I also read some special publications about kiosk design issues such as "10 reasons why kiosk projects fail" and "4 strategies for Kiosk Application Design". These documents will also be provided on this page soon. Since we have received the floor plan from Careffour@Cepa, I also do some reading about libraries of OPENGL for 3d modelling based on our 2d plans. Lastly i took a glance at Data Mining which will aid us to transform our datas into information.Because of its importance on the project,I am planning to do more detailed research on this subject for next week.

[Mehmet Deveci] Weekly Report-05.11.09

This week, I searched for the data mining concepts and found out the lectures notes of Kurt Thearling [1] from which I had a basic information about the subject. In addition, I got the book "Data Mining: Concepts and Techniques, Jiawei Han" that is recommended by Pinar Senkul. We also made contacts with some of companies such as Carrefour, Media Markt, Vatan Bilgisayar, Praktiker and Migros. Among all, we had an interview with CarrefourSa-Cepa who accepted to be our sponsor.

1. http://www.thearling.com/dmintro/dmintro_2.htm