590GB: TodoApp

Jonathan Ko
Jeff Hughes

Problem:

Many To-Do list applications have been developed for PDAs with only temporal awareness, but many items that user might put on their To-Do list are more location sensitive than time sensitive. An example is stopping by the nearest grocery store on the way home.

Solution:

We have created a program that combines location awareness with a standard To-Do list. It is a reminder system that knows the location of the user, and alerts the user of pending tasks to be performed at specific places. This program has been developed for the HP iPAQ platform. It is written in Java and uses Eclipse and SWT. It is built on top of Place Lab and uses its location tracking features and graphics primitives.

Usage:

Starting with a map of the area, the user can define places of interest in two different ways. First, he could name his current location as found by Place Lab using AP tracking. The user can also pick locations on the map and designate these locations as places of interest. The user can define multiple locations as being a specific place. For example, the UW campus is a large place and one location is not large enough to define it. Therefore, the user can specify multiple locations on the edge of campus to be named "campus". The place "campus" is then defined as the convex hull of all these locations.

The user can then add reminders into the system. He selects a location for the reminder to occur, and a short message. The text box will pop up to when the reminder is pending.

Screenshots:

This screenshot demonstrates the location selection mode. The user is currently in a location that is both defined as "campus" and "allen" (The Allen Center). Also visible on the map is a portion of the Mary Gates Hall ("mgh") convex hull.	This screenshot shows the To-Do list mode. The user can view and edit the currently active To-Do's. The currently selected To-Do is to "Buy Milk" at "safeway".

Conclusion:

We have developed a fairly simple location-aware reminder program. It is designed to be simple, fast, and practical enough to use.