Weekly Report 4

This week I worked on several tasks including enhancement of the client-server communication, obtaining compass information and sending GPS location.

For enhancing the communication between the client and the server, I can say that Cigdem and I are close to finding a solution to the file size problem. We enhanced the communication a bit, that is we are now able to send bigger images, but this is still not enough. In the code that we presented in the first demo, we had used String and StringBuffer objects to keep the image, now we realized that these objects have size limitation which prevents us from keeping the image properly.


In order to obtain compass data, we should be able to simulate the behavior of a magnetic compass. That's why we have to find a way to change the direction of the emulator. An application named SensorSimulator simulates this behavior. We have to first install an apk file to the android emulator, then run the Java application of the simulator. After that, we run the apk and connect the emulator and the running Java application. Now we are able to change the sensor values of the emulator. However, when we close the android application, that connection vanishes making it impossible for us to update the compass sensor value.


I also worked on obtaining the GPS information and sending it to the server. Now, depending on the GPS information, server will return a meaningful response to the android client.