Technical

SPLINT Mobile Kit

At the start of the SPLINT project a selection of kit was purchased in order to fulfil the remit at Nottingham of delivering location-aware applications in the field on a variety of mobile devices. The devices procured include a set of PDAs with BlueTooth, and a set of BlueTooth GPS receivers. A set of Tablet PCs again with BlueTooth connectivity for connection to GPS units. A set of Dell M90 laptops were purchased for their ability to run heavy graphical applications in the field, and work is underway in developing applications for use with loaction and orientation aware headsets to present semi-augmented reality in the field.

Specifications of Current Kit

PDAs- Dell Axim X51v

Tablet PCs- Motion LS800 TS02

GPS - Holux GPSlim 236

Laptops - Dell Precision M90 with Quadro FX 2500M stereo graphics card

Smart Phones- A selection of smart phones were purchased from the original SPLINT budget in order to assess their relative merits for use as location-aware application delivery to students. Various factors are important when it comes to smart phones and as time is moving on, the functionality of these devices is coming closer and closer to a perfect tool for SPLINT's needs. Factors being considered are screen resolution, screen size, screen visibility outdoors, interaction methods including data input methods, on board GPS, operating system (looking mainly at Windows Mobile devices for continuity in our development strategy), level of weatherproofing, battery life and device size and weight. The SPLINT team have recently bid for money from elsewhere in order to bring in a set of 30 mobile devices for delivery of location based teaching material to large groups of students.

Software

Many of the SPLINT applications are developed in-house. We have also recently begun investigations into the use of MScape for quick development of location based teaching and learning applications..