#iSoc12 FlatTurtle: final week
Hello, I’ve been working these last three weeks on Flatturtle, together with Nik and Jens. We have three main components: controller for the infoscreen, controlbay and the infoscreen itself (TV). The infoscreen was as good as finished but still contained some bugs that were handled by Jens.
The controlbay lays in a secure VPN network but is also a communication point for the controller that sends HTTP requests. This means that the controlbay is the weak link in terms of security so we have to ensure unauthorized access is prevented. This task was given to Nik who handled this quite well. He provided a restful API where devices could authorize by providing a pin code that gives them access through an access token. There’s also made a distinction between mobile and dedicated devices so that we could release an application that gives people the chance to control the screen with their own phone while ensuring that it doesn’t interfere with dedicated usage.
The screen with the controlling tablet standing on the left
I’ve mostly worked this last week on the interface of the tablet. The interface makes use of a combination of Jquery mobile and Phonegap to run on Android phones. The interface is pretty basic, because it only provides the user an amount of Turtles that can be magnified on the TV screen by pressing the appropriate button. This can be extended in the future but it’s not needed at the moment.
The most attention went out to preventing the user from exiting the application and getting access to the Android system, because then they could do some nasty things that we don’t want. On the other hand it must be possible for an admin to easily adjust the settings when needed: setting the internet connection, changing the connected screen. This involved a lot of testing which consumed quite some time.
Lastly, I want to say that I’ve learned a lot this couple of weeks and would like to thank iRail for this opportunity.
