Announcement

Updtated version of HeMoSiBi™ -2015 (Her Most Significant Bit™ NY) has been submitted to App Quest 3.0 contest (click on the image to open the link).

Preamble

Intel® App Innovation Contest 2013: Round 1 winning submission, advanced to Round 2 and 3 (the FINALIST)

Overview of the App and Contest Credentials

Target Platform: All-in-One (... and One for All)

Category: Entertainment (sub-category: pure fun)

Technical merits and broader impact of the application
Well, not just another boring contest article submission! (LOL) . This magnificent software app slightly larger than life is intended for the Ladies helping them to make their lifetime in New York City rather productive and entertaining. It amalgamates the best of all known worlds, like hardware, software and even footwear (the latter refers to shopping guide presented in rather inspirational unorthodox form). In a nutshell, proposed Hemosibi© (i.e. "Her Most Significant Bit") implemented as a big-screen muti-touch software app running in kiosk-mode encapsulates the tremendous knowledge base about NYC, its unique culture and spirit (wine and beer as well). This outstanding, milestone app of tremendous cultural and historical significance introduced to the mankind at the dawn of 3rd millennium will be comprised of the following quintessentially-important modules:
- NY City Trivia Quiz, rather popular entertainment/educational (i.e. edutainment) series created by Author covering vast variety of topics, including City history, landmarks, points of attraction, etc (see the functional web app [3] and sample modules [10-18] in reference section).
- NY City Subway Map based on multiple Bing technology solutions pioneered by author [19,20]
- NYC Shopping Guide, though not exhaustive but rather focused and practical
- NYC Landmarks, dedicated to major points of attraction in the Big Apple [4-9]
- NYC Bare Necessities module, sort of Hitchhiker's guide to the NY great Universe, containing vital info like public toilet map, parking and commuting info, etc.
- Grumpy Corner, or NYC through the critical eye: some important precautionary principles helping to survive in the City that never sleeps (as the auld saying goeth "No one calls from Las Vegas just to say 'hello', and no one in NY City asks the question just to get the answer"... got the point?:)

Usage and Audiences

<LOL>Folks, itz gonna be huge!</LOL> Primary audience is clearly stated in the title; some most common use-cases are partially identified below in Table 1:

Table 1: Potential Users and most common use cases

Place Usage

Workplace Put the stuff in the lobby of office building, or next to vending machine, and life will be quite different

City Malls Folks typically have plenty of time and Big Macs on their hands, so a bit of fun will be welcome.

Landmarks Like The Met Museum, MoMA, Rockefeller Plaza, Central Park, etc

Waiting Rooms In airports (LGA/JFK), Grand Central Terminal, in DMV and other public places with long lines and plenty of waiting times

Restaurants A non-obtrusive big-screen digital pal complementing the nice entourage, helping to shape a conversation and keep the proverbial ball rolling

Development approach
- From technical perspective development approach adheres to the cornerstone principle of separation of programmatic concerns, namely: all layout and aesthetic enhancement to be achieved via WPF/XAML; data content to be stored in reference database (SQL CE); the algorithmic part will be implemented as managed code in C# and compiled into .NET assembly. Proposed application will utilize novel hardware features of AIO, namely: multi-touch screen and external HID, MMUI capability of Windows 8 OS, .NET framework and speech technology (TTS/ASR).
- Other strategically important development principles are listed below:
  - Application must be applicable
  - Entertainment must be entertaining
  - Don't run with scissors
  - Don't underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups
  - Forget OOP, think Data-Centric
  - When in doubt - Google hard (and copy-paste where applicable)
Coding Languages, Frameworks, Tools

.NET framework/WPF well-managed code base will be developed mostly using C# language and occasionaly SQL/T-SQL for database operations on Microsoft SQL Server Compact edition (SQL CE). In addition to this, universal mouse pad (backward compatible with all versions of Windows OS) will be used for smooth cursor movements. English language (en-us) will be used for objects and vars naming, and also in comments, app notes, read-me files, user manuals and other funny stuff.

About Author

Dr. Alexander Bell is a Microsoft technology veteran with development experience span from DOS to Win 8. He actively participates in digital life of online development communities (published multiple articles and tips on Codeproject, ranked pretty high). He is personally credited for the completion of 10+ of enterprise level FLCD projects, providing consulting services to major financial institution in NYC. Dr. Bell is a pioneer and enthusiast of speech-enhanced Windows applications and novel MMUI concept. Beyond his professional duties, Alexander is devoted to digital photography, classical music and art.

Contest Metrics

Innovation and User Experience

Innovative border-less WPF Windows increasing aesthetics and overall UX
Efficient MMUI utilizing multi-touch features of AIO and .NET speech enhancement (ASR/TTS)
Single-window solution providing intuitive navigation between functional areas
Kiosk-mode operations

Usage of AIO key technical enabling vectors

App utilizes multi-touch screen operations in conjunction with speech-enhanced UI features
AIO screen resolution allows high data density and aggregation of multiple features into a single-page solution.

App Viability/Significance for selected Category (Entertainment)

New York City is a home place for more than 8 million people and a major point of tourists attraction. It's unique culture and life style has been pivotal for entertainment biz in the US and abroad. Proposed app utilizing the latest/greatest technological achievement encapsulated in modern AIO in conjunction with innovative MMUI solutions and unique content, presented in a rather inspirational manner is expected to be a valuable addition to the entertainment product line.

Descriptive clarity, scope, coverage

Detailed App description on conceptual and implementation levels and corresponding programmatic tasks/challenges/solutions is provided in the following section (Background and Points of Interest). Multiple screenshots included in the body of the article illuminate the core concept of UI implementation and usage.

Modules

Proposed solution has a modular structure (that's for sure, who would even think otherwise). Most of proposed modules has been developed and tested either as Windows or Web application on a variety of platforms (Desktops, Ultrabooks, Tablets).

NY City Trivia Quiz

The author is well known to online communities for his NYC trivia quiz traced back to 2009. Currently there are more than 100 quiz modules, comprised of proprietary content (including text and graphic) created by Author.

Using the code

This section will be continuously updated as project progressing.

Points of Interest

Proposed app has a modular structure (of course), adheres to the modern day sw paradigm of separation of programming concerns (i.e. flies to be served separately from cutlets, metaphorically) and implements a multitude of highly innovative and equally creative solutions, partially listed below :

Unique borderless WPF Window design/layout
Single-click (or a single-tap in touchscreen-enabled devices) re-sizing solution
Speech-enhance MMUI implementation
Mapping solution utilizing Microsoft Bing technology

Synthesized Voice-over narration in Instructional Video

AIC contest rules require the winning contest submission to be accompanied by instructional video on YouTube. The interesting part of this video creation process is the use of synthesized speech based on the same TTS thechnology that implements application voice feedback feature. The auxilliary app was created to acomplish this task, which later was extended to the full commercial-grade application Pericles™TTS-14 text-to-speech converter for Windows 7/8

Executive Summary (sorta of)

Entertainment app shoulda be kinda entertaining! This sophisticated amalgam of hi-tech breakthrough (modern All-in-One PC), uber-innovative ideas and super-edutaining content could potentially materialize in a desktop app of unparalleled cultural and historical significance, and become new societal phenomenon of modern day. Betcha you already had some fun just reading this brief intro, so you can reasonably anticipate the actual app to be even more exciting.

History

Aug 20, 2013 A.D.: This milestone article was introduced to the mankind and, in particular, submitted to the Intel® App Innovation Contest 2013 (AIC-2013), category: AIO/Entertainment
Oct 20th-2013: Interactive Mapping solution (multi-touch enabled) has been added to the app
Oct 28th-2013: Sample content has been added to the app (quiz, map, slideshow)
October 31st, 2013 A.D. : HeMoSiBi package is submitted to Round 2 of AIC-2013 (became a Finalist)
Planning production release (tentatively scheduled for the Y2015)
Y2014: Pericles™TTS-14 text-to-speech converter for Windows 7/8 has been released
Jan 31, 2015: HeMoSiBi-2015 submitted to App Quest 3.0 contest

Acronyms and Abbreviations

AIO All-In-One
ASR Automatic Speech Recognition
Hemosibi (NYD) Her Most Significant Bit (New York Digital)
HID Human Interface Device
GUI Graphical User Interface
MMUI Multi-Modal User Interface (multi-touch, speech-enhanced)
MoMA Museum of Modern Art (NYC)
RIA Rich Internet Application
SQL CE SQL Compact Edition
TTS Text-to-Speech
UI User Interface
UX User eXperience
WPF Windows Presentation Foundation
XAML Extensible Application Markup Language

HeMoSiBi™ WPF App