Embedded Files
Getting Started:
When you first launch the MyKit App you will be taken to a blank login screen
From here you can add new users by selecting the "Add New" button
You will then see your image on a video feed from your webcam with a countdown to take your user profile picture
Following this you will be prompted to speak your user name (not required)
When this is completed you will notice that a new user icon with your user name has been added. You can add up to 23 users.
From this point out, you can just select you user icon to log in and start using MyKit
Speech Recognition:
People do not usually hangout in the kitchen. The purpose of the kitchen is mainly to prepare meals and dine. When cooking, the person is actively using his hands, that are usually oiled up and dirty of vegetables, meats, etc. That is the main reason why we chose to abandon the keyboard and use Speech Recognition instead. Using the current technologies, there are solutions like Apple's Siri or Google's Voice that are reliable and prove that Speech recognition is the future. For our application we are using Google Voice. Speech Recognition can be used in two ways:
To give commands to the Application.
To dictate words or sentences.
Speech Commands
To enable commands we press the bubble by the speech bar:
And the speech bar informs the user when the app "listens":
For example, by saying "Open Maps" the Map app will open.
Currently the only command that is being supported is "Open" and it opens the respective application.
Speech Dictation
When the app requires user input, speech dictation gets enabled.
Speech diction gets enabled automatically and just like Speech Commands the "Speech Bar" informs the user when the app "listens" for his dictation.
Apps that support speech dictation:
Notes
TODOs
Settings (setting the location)
Login (setting the username)
Recipes (searching for recipes)
Calendar (Adding events)
Twitter / Flickr (Setting the hashtags)
Maps:
Maps are located in the Map Menu. Three map provider are currently supported:
Google Maps
Bing Maps
OpenStreet Maps / Mapquest
By clicking on one of the icons, the requested app is launched. The map apps have been specifically designed for the MyKit application using the maps API and custom index.html files.
As an example, if we open Google Maps, this is what we will see:
By default the map apps center to the location that has been set through the "Location" setting, under the Settings menu. For example, if the user is living in Chicago, by changing the "Location" setting in the Settings menu (for more information see the Settings menu) all the apps that use location data will be updated. Maps and Weather are synchronized with the selected location.
Sticky Notes:
The kitchen is one of the areas of the house that get used the most. Every person of the household visits the kitchen at least once per day: to drink water, to snack, to prepare food, etc. Therefore it is common to see notes, pictures and magnetic postcards pinned usually on fridge. For the same reasons we implemented a Note application for our kitchen app. The "Sticky Notes" application allows to create two types of Notes:
Regular Sticky Notes
TODO Lists
The menu that allows to add Notes and TODOs is on the top right
Notes
To add a Note, we press the "Note" Button. Speech Recognition gets enabled and we can dictate the Note. The bottom "Speech Bar" displays how many seconds are left.
The result of the speech recognition is displayed in the bottom "Speech Bar"
As well as in our note!
To delete a "Note we can press the top right button
Another important feature of the Notes is pinning. By pinning a note, the Note becomes persistent across all apps and always stays on top. This can be really helpful for reminders or important things that need to be done. The pinned Note remains pinned across all the users. For example, if in the morning you had to leave earlier to work than your roommate, you could leave him a note on the by pinning it. Notes and TODOs remained pinned even after the user has logged out.
TODOs
To add a TODO, we press the "TODO" Button. Similarly like the Notes, we speak the first item of our TODO list.
Like Notes, we can pin / unpin, delete a TODO.
To add more items in our TODO list, we can click on the bottom left "Add" button and speak aloud the new item.
To cross off an item from the list, we click on the left checkbox
Grocery List:
Another important feature of our application is the ability to create "Grocery Lists". As an example imagine you just finished a "Maruchan Instant Lunch" that you enjoyed a lot and you want to buy it again. By bringing the item on the camera (at the area marked as Barcode Scanner), the application will scan the item and add it to your grocery list.
To scan more items, just place the next item on your camera.
For each item the information we display is:
Item Name
Brand
Size
Avg. Cost
Using the left "+" and "-" signs the quantity of the items can be updated as well.
Finally, on the top you can see an estimated total for the grocery list you just created.
Personalized and Persistant Settings:
Even though the kitchen is a shared area, we wanted to allow the users to customize their own accounts. Using the "Settings Button" (see "Settings") we can customize the theme, units, etc. Those settings are saved per user even if the application closes!
Furthermore, there are some applications, like the Calendar, where the users create their own personalized events. Like the settings, those events are per user and get saved (and loaded) even when the user quits the application.
This allows the user to bring up the application in the state that it were, without having to re-enter all the events or customize the theme again.
Recipes:
When you click Recipe side menu you will be taken to a recipe launcher which contains list of general categories. The recipe application has button which makes the application to recognize users voice command. The application supports touch and gesture recognition. Supported interactions are denoted in right bottom
Once the user gives voice command as input the application processes the command. For example, if the user wants to search pizza, the user needs to say "Pizza". The progress bar denotes the processing of voice command.
After processing the command, the application opens up the result in scrollable area, which contains 30 results. Each item contains thumbnail image (256 x 256), name of the recipe and pictorial representation of social ratings. Based on the rating (5 scale) the stars get painted with yellow. In other words, the no of stars painted is equal to the rating.
On clicking of thumbnail image, opens up web view which describes the ingredients and how to prepare the recipe. Back button is provided to navigate between the search results and the web view.
Appliances :
The application provides a separate section to interact with the kitchen appliances. Using this section, user can view the status of refrigerator, stove and micro oven.
This section contains a stop watch to have timer on for kitchen oriented work. Once the timer goes off, it beeps 3 times in a row.
User can control room temperature with this section. User can increase and decrease temperature using up and down arrow respectively.
News:
User can know the current news while cooking in kitchen. News section has four different news channels, namely
CNN
CNBC
New York Times
National Public Radio
On selecting one of the four news channel renders the news website in a web view. The back and forward button at the top right corner perform back and forward functionality of web browser. User can move to and fro between webpages using the two buttons.
Clock:
An analog clock is available and serves as an easy way to check the time, and a good screen saver when you aren't actively using MyKit
Social:
The social media area is a great way to get live updates about topics that interest you
Since MyKit is used publicly, we take advantage of publicly posted information on a topic, rather than seeing updates from your personal friends
Twitter feeds are included, and each user can select up to 6 hash tags to follow for text updates
Flickr feeds are included, and each user can select up to 2 tags to follow and get a slideshow of recently uploaded photos in the category
Weather:
The weather page provides detailed current weather conditions, as well as a 5-day forecast for your location
The location of the live weather feed can be set in the settings by simply changing your zip-code
Also included is a live radar image of the United States that updates every 10 minutes so that you can see the rain / clouds
Games:
Users can use MyKit to play games that would easily work with touch input
3 games have been included
Bejeweled: a 3-in-a-row tile matching game
Pirates Love Daisies: a tower defense game
Ducks!: a race to collect everything as fast as possible game
All games use HTML5 and are streamed into MyKit
Calendar:
The calendar does not only tell us the information about the date (today is highlighted in a darker color), but also hold the information of holidays (which are stored in local) and events (which are created and saved in local).
Click next button on the top right to see the information in the following months or years. The same for the previous button on the top left.
Click on a particular day to see the details on that day. It will pop up a window to display the events on the day the users select.
To add an event, users can press the create button in the pop up window, and speak the event they want to add. The event will be captured by the speech recognition.
Once the event is captured, it will be saved and displayed in the pop up window. Users can see that the day is marked with "New events!"
If the users want to add more events on the same day, they can do the same operations as above. For example, here, we can see two events added on May 3, 2012.
Music:
The music player plays the songs in local. Users can choose the song they want to listen to by clicking the name of the song (it is highlighted in a darker color), and then click the play button. The songs can be played, paused, resumed and stopped.
The progress bar shows the position where the song is played.
Help:
Help provides the instruction and explanation for users to use our MyKit App easily.
The help information is corresponding to the section where the users are.
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