Technologies Used
Android Operating System
When it came to choosing a platform for application, Android was the obvious answer. Having mobility as a key requirements, that limited us to picking between either Android, iOS, or a mobile JavaScript framework. We ended up choosing Android over these other options because of its low cost of entry, and proven feasibility with USB port serial communication.
You can learn more about the Android operating system by visiting this link.
Android GraphView
Android GraphView is a open source library for generating line, dot, and bar graphs inside of any standard Android application. One of the project's key requirements was visual display of all incomming data, and the ability to reconstruct that visual display based on previously saved data sets. This library featured everything the team needed to fill these requirements, as well as some other nice features like aesthetic customization and zooming.
You can learn more about Android GraphView by visiting this link.
USBSerial
The team's only main concern when it came to the feasibility of the project was establishing a dependable connection with the gas analyzer. This is why we decided to go with a proven serial connection library, instead of attempting to implement our own. The USBSerial library allows us a convient set of methods to both send a receive data from the gas analyzer. More advanced computations, such as deliminating messages, and parsing out applicable values still need to be handled by our internal logic.
You can learn more about USBSerial by visiting this link.
One of the key requirements of the project, was to allow the user to transfer saved data sets out of the application. While the team did consider more sophisticated technologies like Dropbox and Google Drive, we eventually settled on email for a few different reasons. The first reason was the ubiquity. The second reason was it would allow the user to decide which email client they want to use, and not lock them in a predecided platform.
You can learn more about email by visiting this link.