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ProMessis: Software for Farmers on Small ComputersDaniel Waruszewski, Boniface Hicks, Mandy Raab, Joe Mylant, Kim Lesnock, Stephen Racunas

Abstract

This part of the Isidore project focuses on using technology to help farmers both here and worldwide. Many farmers, including those in the United States, do much if not all of their planning by hand. Although this finishes the job, it is not the most effective way to accomplish this work. We have built a computer program which can keep track of past information on the fields as well as suggest plans for the future. This program will be portable enough to use in 3rd world countries on cell phones and XO laptops (which are distributed by One Laptop Per Child to assist in education in 3rd world countries). Once fully developed it is hoped that this program will enhance efficiency of farmers around the world.

Background

Methods

Since no cell phones currently on the market come with Google Android, we needed to use an emulator. For the purposes of this project, we used Google’s Android software development kit (SDK) in conjunction with the corresponding Eclipse plug-in. Our goal was to complete a small program able to use the built in GPS protocol of Android, and to record data about the field including the name of the field, information and coordinates.

Results

We have a program able to store data on multiple fields, as well as the coordinates and a Google map view of the field. Although the program works well on the emulator, testing will still need to be done on the actual cell phones, including testing the actual GPS readings of the phone itself. (Such phones will become available later in the year.) Summary

Further Information

We developed a program (“Promessis”) that performs the field-mapping task using Google Android, and found that the Android language is very powerful when utilized properly. Our group will continue to work on trying to utilize these tools on local farms as well as branching out to developing an application for the XO laptops, and a web deployment using AJAX. We hope to incorporate much of the freely available information, such as which crops are best to plant and when, into the final program. After our brief endeavor into android we realize that there is much more that can be done using even just a cell phone and are excited to continue our work.

Many farmers are using the latest tractors and harvesting equipment but are still planning out fields by hand because they do not wish to take a chance on new methods. However, it would be beneficial to efficiently record and store information about previous crops, and for farmers who are taking soil samples, the program could also record data and allow them to get approximate results during the growing seasons in a far less expensive way than taking the time to send samples out for testing at a remote lab.

Google Android is a new cell phone operating system scheduled to be released sometime before the end of 2008. It is expected that this OS will find its way into many 3rd world countries where phones are cheap and one does not have to pay for receiving calls. (There is a running joke in Africa that a beggar, seeing that someone is busy, will ask to be called back when they have more time.) The One Laptop per Child program (OLPC) is currently targeting 15 countries with it’s educational laptops. As a non profit organization, they view them not as a products, but as an assistant to education. We plan to develop for this laptop model later in the year, in addition to the Android mobile platform.

We ran into difficulties because of a lack of a good documentation on many of the features of the new language, as well as rapid version turnover in Android even in the short time the emulator had been in existence. Despite this, we were able to complete the goals of our project and develop bigger plans for the future.

Support provided through Saint Vincent College by:Army Biotechnology Center, under contract No. NMA401-02-09-2002, through the Johns Hopkins University/APL subcontract No. 904856.

For further information please visit:http://Grass-roots-science.info/Project_Isidore