Looking for someone in Cape Town to develop Android app . . . . .or at least tell me what it might involve, cost and time wise. Here is a user requirement that was sent to colleagues:
Scenario:
Cities have from 5 000 to 1 200 000 waste bins issued to residents. Bins remain the property of the municipality, duty of care is with the resident. Bin value approx. $30ea. The emptying of a bin is charged at a typical monthly rate of $10 per bin. If a resident is not registered to a particular bin (might have stolen it) he gets a free emptying service and “saves” $120 per year. RFID Tagging of bins is primarily to register a bin to a resident. Bigger cities have readers on their trucks that scan and geolocate a bin every time it is emptied (typically once per week). Simple tools are needed to build the database against which “ownership” and billing can be proved. (Same simple Android tool is also needed to demonstrate the potential to new clients for tags).
Residents do “personalise” their bins with decals, marks, own labels. They always want their own particular bin returned to them after emptying. Theft of bins is a big problem. Municipal officials have many arguments to be solved in the street. (Need a reader that displays the registered owner in plain language to all parties involved). Simple asset verification by the municipality. On a city street, the StreetName stays consistent for a long time while only the data fields for Owner and StreetNumber change for each tag. At a security complex, there can be up to 70 bins outside the gate . . . . . all with same Owner, StreetNumber and StreetName. (we need easy methods to replicate field inputs from one tag to the next).
Tags are typically retro-fitted to bins on the day that the truck visits (otherwise the bin is behind gates or doors). A team of two people walk the street just after the truck has passed and they try and talk to the residents who fetch the bins and take them back behind the gates/doors. Typically 50% of the OwnerNames would be informally identified (there is some deception as well, trying to avoid the bill). However, StreetName, Number and Geolocation is accurate. Problem areas require multiple visits, armed with data from the city’s records of owners registered to addresses.
Data file imported to Android (and shared out afterwards):
.xls is most useful. Following fields (columns):
RFID (10 digit hexadecimal)Owner (text) A reader is plugged into the USB OTG port of the Android
StreetNumber (text)
StreetName (text)
Comment (text. Eg. Broken lid, burnt, etc.)
Date & Time of scan
Latitude (number, 5 decimal places)
Longitude (number, 5 decimal places)
With date & time, the history is recorded by lengthening the imported file (adding rows). The exported file has the same rows as the imported file, plus a few more with different date & time stamps. Yes, there will be duplicates, but the guys in the back office will sort that out and build the master file.
When the file is too big for Android, the back office guys must break up their master file into suburbs for example.
App Process:
Call App then home screen displays logo, plus show name of .xls already loaded. If no .xls already loaded, provides facility to import .xls. Save/scan button at bottom of screen, as well as Share/Export button. At this point the user can import or share/export the .xls file. Or the user can proceed to save/scan screen.
If user has proceeded to second screen (the save/scan screen), the cursor waits in the RFID field for tag to be scanned. Scan tag. (The USB OTG reader acts as external keyboard and inserts the text found on the tag)
If tag number is not found in imported .xls, user is presented with blank fields for him to fill in, and a save/scan button at the bottom. Blank fields are acceptable (Lat, Long, Date, Time auto filled, not on screen) Empty field boxes each have a R button on far right. This replicates the most recent entry for the previous tag.
If tag number is found in imported .xls, then field boxes are filled with data extracted from file. User can edit data before saving with new date/time. Also, if new geolocation is more than 50 meters from previous geolocation, a warning is flashed.
Please contact me at gdpost . . . "a.t" . . . . gmail
Looks a bit more classy now.
