Project Marvin: A Social Networking Program for Android

Transcription

1 Project Marvin: A Social Networking Program for Android Washington University Department of Computer Science and Engineering CSE 537S Mobile Computing Spring 2008 Brandon Morgan Katherine Maschmeyer Mamta Datwani Rachel Tannenbaum

2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction Terminology My Aliens Creating an Alien Deleting an Alien Tracking an Alien Alien Café Alien Social Interactions Deletion Scenarios Program Preferences Guest Alien Preferences My Alien Preferences Local Preferences and Parental Controls Games Conclusion Appendix I: Sample GUIs... 5 i

3 1. Introduction We present a program designed specifically for the Google Android platform that encourages social networking via the creation and sharing of electronic pets. Specifically, we envision a program in which alien-themed pets jump or hitchhike from one phone to another via short-range wireless communication. Upon arriving on a host phone, the guest alien will deliver a personalized greeting (for instance, a picture and a message) encouraging networking between the two users. The program will be conceptually and programmatically divided into four activities that allow the user to create, manage, and interact with aliens on his or her mobile phone. The user will be able to (1) create new aliens via an interactive customization screen and track them on a Google Maps screen, (2) manage guest aliens in the interactive Alien Café, (3) maintain program preferences concerning connection options and allowable content, and (4) play games with local aliens. Each of these activities is described in detail in the following sections Terminology In the interest of clarity, we introduce the following terms that will be used throughout this document. When the program establishes a connection between two phones in which an alien is added to the guest phone and then deleted from the host phone, that alien is said to jump or hitchhike. When an alien on a guest phone establishes a link to its home phone to send greetings and receive messages, that alien is said to phone home. An alien created on a user s phone is said to be local when on its home phone and abroad when on another phone. When an alien is abroad, it is said to be a guest of the local phone. 2. My Aliens In the My Aliens menu, users will have the option of creating and managing their aliens. This view will provide a list of the names with thumbnails of all the aliens the user maintains. There will also be a Create New Alien button provided under the list of all the aliens, so that users can create a new alien. Additionally, selecting an alien and then clicking on the phone s menu button will provide more options for each alien such as Edit Preferences, Delete, and Track Creating an Alien When a user clicks on the Create New Alien button, a screen appears in which the alien s name can be entered, and the alien s species (or home planet) and gender can be selected. Additionally, there will be a paint area in which the user can customize his or her alien by choosing from provided colors and features (eyes, moustache, etc.). The user must also fill out a personality questionnaire which we discuss further in section 3.1. Since the alien species determines which features are available, our program will not support the modification of aliens after their initialization Deleting an Alien In an effort to prevent flooding the mobile network, we impose a cap on the number of aliens a user may maintain simultaneously. Since the user may maintain no more than ten aliens, for instance, we provide the following protocol for deletion of his or her local and abroad aliens. If an alien is local, it is simply 1

4 removed from the phone s database. If the alien is abroad, a message will be stored for that alien in its home database, and when the alien phones home it will receive the message, jump home, and be deleted Tracking an Alien Each time an alien phones home, with permission of the alien s host, the current GPS coordinates are transmitted and stored in the home phone s database. When a user selects Track from the phone menu, a Google Maps interface will be provided with pinpoints on all the locations the alien has visited. A menu will allow the user to display locations for a particular alien or for multiple aliens. 3. Alien Café The Alien Café provides a view of all the local and guest aliens on a particular phone. When the user selects Enter Alien Café, the program displays several tables seating up to two aliens each. The user may scroll within the café to view different tables. Each alien has a label hovering above it indicating its name; the label is colored gray if the alien is visiting and white if it is local. Clicking on the label pulls up the alien s profile, which may include a greeting, country, picture, or other information specified by the alien s creator. The profile will also include a link to Flag Inappropriate Content. If an alien is flagged as inappropriate, its creator cannot remove that label; the alien may possibly be deleted as well a scenario which will be discussed in section Alien Social Interactions Users have the option of allowing aliens seated together in the Alien Café to interact with one another. If interactions are enabled, the user may choose to have them occur upon clicking on a table, or at random time intervals. Each alien has a set of actions and reactions it can perform. Actions include: propose, push, kiss, hug, give gift, slap, and greet; reactions include: accept, slap, kiss, hug, reject, push, and greet. Actions and reactions are determined by personality compatibility. When aliens are created, the user must take a short personality quiz that yields a number between 1 and 100, and so compatible aliens will have similar personality scores Deletion Scenarios There are three situations that may arise in which a guest alien may need to be deleted from a local phone. If an alien is flagged as inappropriate, it will be added to a hidden holding database. While in the holding database, the local user will not be able to access the alien s content, and periodic attempts will be made to force the alien home. If, however, a connection cannot be made after some reasonable number of tries, the flagged alien will be deleted from the host phone. The home program will assume the alien has been deleted abroad after not receiving phone-home updates for some amount of time, and the alien will be deleted from its home database. Similarly, if an alien abroad that has not been flagged as inappropriate cannot phone home within some specified timeframe, the alien may need to be deleted. For instance, if a user creates an alien, sends it abroad, and then cancels service or deletes the program, the alien may be left homeless. To deal with this case, the alien must retain a record of the last successful phone-home attempt. If a host program detects the attempt has not been completed within some specified amount of time, the program will first attempt to send a text message to the home user informing him or her of the alien s inability to connect. Then, if after another waiting period the alien is still unable to complete a phone home, the alien will be deleted. 2

5 Lastly, if an alien phones home and discovers that it no longer exists in the home database, the alien will be deleted from the host phone. For instance, we imagine a scenario in which a user purchases a new phone but does not transfer Marvin databases. In this case, the alien abroad should be deleted because it will be impossible to determine if the original user is in control of the new phone. 4. Program Preferences Program Preferences consists of three menus: Guest Alien Preferences (for all incoming aliens), My Aliens Preferences (for any aliens created by phone user), and Local Preferences Guest Alien Preferences Guest Alien Preferences covers all guest aliens and how a phone owner might like to limit guest alien actions on his or her phone. The user will be able to: set phone-home time-of-day allow/disallow flagged content set the number of times a guest alien can miss a phone home before sending a text message set the maximum number of guest aliens to have on the phone at one time set the number of aliens that can jump per connection 4.2. My Alien Preferences My Alien Preferences covers every alien created by the phone user. The user is able to: set whether every alien keeps track of social interactions while abroad set the greeting that every alien carries, including o picture o text o user name o country o hobbies 4.3. Local Preferences and Parental Controls Local Preferences covers any phone preferences for this application. In this menu, the user is able to set: a password the maximum image size the user wishes to receive (0 for no images desired) connection alert notifications vacation mode disables all alien communications The password is provided as a means of parental control. By setting a password to lock the preferences menu, a parent can block objectionable material and minimize connection time. 5. Games The Games activity is an extensible way for users to interact with any alien on his or her phone. In order to keep users interested, each alien has different reactions to winning or losing depending on personality profile. We suggest the following games to start, but more may be added with time: 3

6 Breakout: Like Arcade Breakout, an alien of the user's choosing (depicted by a thumbnail of the alien, holding a paddle) must break bricks by bouncing a ball against them. Space Invaders Like Arcade Space Invaders, an alien of the user's choosing must shoot down the invading alien army. Battle: Similar to a Pokémon -type battle, the user will choose two aliens and play out a battle that is generated based on alien type and personality profile. 6. Conclusion The Marvin program leaves much room for growth and could easily be turned into a profit-generating device. For instance, a parent company could charge users to download new games and custom features for their aliens. Marvin could conceivably even be modified to follow the NeoPets or WebKinz model and include additional web content for users. Of course, every expansive project must begin somewhere, and we feel the program outlined in this document represents a first step towards a full-featured, robust application. Additionally, while we will not be implementing Marvin, once the Android staff includes a wireless communication model in its emulator, there is no foreseeable reason why a motivated team of 5-10 developers could not implement Marvin in two months. For this reason we remain confident in the Marvin program and look forward to the day when it can be successfully implemented. 4

7 7. Appendix I: Sample GUIs Figure 1.My Aliens UI Figure 2: Create New Alien UI 5

8 Figure 3. Alien Café UI Figure 4. Track My Aliens UI 6

9 Figure 5: Program Preferences UI Figure 6: Sample Game UI 7