At the Hack London event this weekend trying to develop an App iToucan Help.
It’s idea is to sort the almost 7,000 images in our database into useful categories, so that you, a user of iToucan Talk, can add pictures to new cards more easily!
iToucan Talk Released
18
May
12'
iToucan Talk(Autism) is now available as a free download for Android phones and tablets!
It is a Beta version, so be nice with the comments. Post feedback to the forum about what you like and don’t like, what you want and don’t need and all these will be taken into account in later versions. If you don’t give feedback, you might not get the features you really want!!
Oh, and please share the video below..
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How can you help
01
May
12'
The goal of My Autistic Apps is to provide phone Applications to help support people on the Autistic Spectrum and their families. Unlike many other Autism Resources My Autistic Apps want our Apps to remain free and useful.
So far, all development resources, time and costs have been given voluntarily, as and when it has been available.
iTucan Talk has taken a year to complete but with your support the development time of future apps can be much faster.
How you can help…You can help My Autistic Apps by
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you
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March Update
16
Mar
12'
iTucan is now looking pretty smooth on a phone, in fact probably better than on a tablet!
I’m currently working on the start page. This page, on first running the app, asks which language you wish to use. It then translates the category views. Language selection works, I am writing the code to store the translation.
The user defined views have disappeared! That’s the next bug to fix. I then have to ensure that the category pictographs can be edited and finally implement a way of downloading the pictograph files. Then it can be released for testing!
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Categories added and less is more
23
Feb
12'
A further update to progress of iTucan. I have now added a database of predefined categories. (see earlier posting about the University of Barcelona). This exposed an issue with sluggishness, in swiping between screens. So, I got to learn a new skill, hunting slow code, I’ve found it and moved it all to the start-up (for now), so once the app starts there’s an initial delay, but once running it’s smooth.
The number of buttons – Not Pictographs, buttons, has been reduced to just two. Home screen and text-to-speech, to reduce clutter. The app also is now full screen to reduce unnecessary distractions and some functions have been moved to the menu button.
It’s looking more like a phone app now, as it seems easy to use on a phone…. I didn’t expect that!
I’ve also been looking into the process of Agile programming to see if it may be applicable.
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iTucan – Video
28
Jan
12'
I’ve just posted a video showing iTucan at work, many of the buttons have been replaced by an Action Bar at the top of the App, which has freed up space as well as conforming to the new Google guidelines for Apps.
Careful, the volume is loud!!
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iTucan – Progress
13
Jan
12'
Work on iTucan is progressing quickly, with many of the functions already in place, I’m hoping that a beta will be available for early testing by next week.
The plan for iTucan was to have three screens, a search view – for looking up Pictographs, a talking view, showing a card of pictographs and some buttons and an overview which would be a way of navigating through the cards.
Work with GCA solved the problems of displaying pictographs and currently the search and talking views are about 75% operational. The overview will probably not be available for the beta, but that should not impede it’s use for testing.
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iTucan – New name, new design
30
Dec
11'
After a long time (a few months) of no work being carried out on the Autism Communication App (GCA), updating has begun again!!! Yeaa!
Due to real life issues and issues with the design so far, work had slowed considerably. However there have recently been a number of changes to the design, including a name change.
The working title is now iTucan.
One of the biggest hurdles in any App is the GUI design and in an App for those on the Autistic Spectrum, it becomes the most important part of the design. Thanks to Balsamiq for issuing a “Do gooders” licence for their excellent GUI design package. It doesn’t design the GUI, but it helps in visualizing it.
Google have also updated the Android software to make some tasks a lot easier, which is also helping with the design.
Here is a mock up of one of the phone screens, to give you an idea of Balsamiq and of how things are changing.
Hope you had a happy Christmas and Happy New Year!
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GCA – Faster Databases
12
Jun
11'
Since last week I have been investigating the issue of slow databases. This manifests it’s self in a black screen for a long time when first selecting a user or editing a user. As discussed in my previous post it was about 10 seconds per picture board. The maths for the UTAC boards (ie the standard guest set-up) is 19 boards x 10 seconds = 3 minutes 10 seconds = “Is this thing working? I’m bored, lets make some tea while this starts”.
The display also pauses, preventing me from even showing a progress bar.
I’ve now managed to get this time down to ~2 seconds per board and I have an idea to reduce this even further but I’m going to leave that for the next release.
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GCA Update – Add new user
06
Jun
11'
Currently I working on the Administrative section of the Application. Adding and editing a new user. The specific section which has had the most work is setting up of the default Picture boards. The current default set consists of the Barcelona University (Augmentative Techniques Unit – UTAC) communication boards.
I have solved a problem I was having switching between boards which is now quite smooth once the boards have loaded, however the loading time is too long at the moment (10 seconds per board) although it only needs to be loaded once per session.
Each board can be colour coded and the colour selection is in place but the colours are not transferred through to the boards at this time.
The next stage will be adding user boards and organising the boards so that the appropriate boards are displayed for each user.
I’ve also had an idea for a better name for the Application, once I’ve reserved the name I’ll be able to announce it.
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