app

Developing a Sustainable Weather Information System in Rural Burkina Faso

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[This post describes the Information Sciences Master Project of Hameedat Omoine and is based on her thesis.] 

In the quest to improve the lives of farmers and improve agricultural productivity in rural Burkina Faso, meteorological data has been identified as one of the is key information needs for local farmers. Various online weather information services are available, but many are not tailored specifically to tis target user group. In a research case study, Hameedat Omoine designed a weather information system that collects not only weather but also related agricultural information and provides the farmers with this information to allow them to improve agricultural productivity and the livelihood of the people of rural Burkina Faso.

The research and design of the system was conducted at and in collaboration with 2CoolMonkeys, a Utrecht-based Open data and App-development company with expertise in ICT for Development (ICT4D).

Following the design science research methodology, Hameedat investigated the requirements for a weather information system, and the possible options for ensuring the sustainability of the system. Using a structured approach, she developed the application and evaluated it in the field with potential Burkinabe end users. The mobile interface of the application featured weather information and crop advice (seen in the  images above). A demonstration video is shown below

Hameedat developed multiple alternative models to investigate the sustainability of the application. For this she used the e3value approach and language. The image below shows a model for the case where a local radio station is involved.

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Presenting the CARPA project

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The ICT4D project CARPA, funded by NWO-WOTRO had its first stakeholder workshop today at the Amsterdam Business School of UvA. From our project proposal: The context for CARPA (Crowdsourcing App for Responsible Production in Africa) lies in sustainable and responsible business. Firms are under increasing pressure to ensure sustainable, responsible production in their supply chains.. Lack of transparency about labour abuses and environmental damages has led some firms to cease purchases from the region

.With an interdisciplinary partnership of local NGOs and universities in DRC, Mali, and South Africa, this project aims to generate new evidence-based knowledge to improve transparency about business impacts on responsible production.

Co-creating a smartphone application, we will use crowdsourcing methods to obtain reports of negative social and environmental business impacts in these regions, and follow them over time to understand access to justice and whether and how remediation of such impacts occurs. Data integration and visualization methods will identify patterns in order to provide context and clarity about business impacts on sustainability over time. A website will be developed to provide ongoing public access to this data, including a mapping function pinpointing impact locations.

The project will be led by Michelle Westermann-Behaylo from UvA, with the research work on the ground being executed by UvA’s Francois Lenfant and Andre Baart. Marcel Worring and myself are involved in supervisory roles.

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An Augmented Reality App to Annotate Art

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[This post is based on the Bachelor project by Jurjen Braam and reuses content from his thesis]

The value of Augmented Reality applications has been shown for a number of different tasks. Most of these show that AR applications add to the immersiveness of an experience. For his Bachelor Project, VU student Jurjen Braam researched to what extent AR technology makes sense for the task of annotating artworks.

To this end, Jurjen built a mobile application which allows experts or laypeople to add textual annotations to artworks in three different modes. One mode doesnt show the artwork, but allows for textual input, the 2nd mode shows the work in an image and allows for localised annotations. The last mode is the AR mode, which projects the artwork in the physical space, using the device camera and screen.

Three modes of the Application (Text, 2D, AR)

Jurjen evaluated the three modes through a small user study, which showed that immersion and enjoyment was highest in the AR mode but that this mode was least efficient. Also, participants indicated that for annotation tasks, larger screens would be preferable.

User evaluation in action

This research was a unique endeavour combining a proven technology (AR) and well-known task (Annotation) which identified interesting possibilities for follow-up research.

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A Mobile App for Sign Language Learning in Sub-Saharan Africa

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[This post by Julia Salomons describes her Computer Science Master project]

‘Communication is key’ a phrase known worldwide, it is how people exchange ideas, knowledge, feelings, thoughts and much more.  Communication between people comes in all different forms: verbal, visual or electronic to name a few. For many choosing which form of communication they wish to communicate in is an option. However, when someone suffers from hearing loss they tend to lose the option to choose.

Two starting screens of the final application
Two starting screens of the final application

Depending where you are in the world, the support and care that is available to those who are deaf can vary greatly. In developing regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) the support and care varies within the region, from acceptance to rejection. Where on one end of the spectrum, acceptance, individuals are allowed to express themselves how they want whereas on the other end individuals are trapped in their environment. Where some cases they fear for their lives.

The problem that was uncovered during our research showed us that there was a lack of communication between hearing and deaf individuals. Deaf individuals who were lucky enough to attend school or gain support from the government or organisations, learned how to communicate through sign language. However, even with the ability to communicate the communication with other deaf individuals is where the communication stops, which increases the gap between deaf and hearing individuals. This project focused on decreasing that gap, by creating an educational mobile application, Learn to Sign, which would assist hearing individuals learn sign language.

To get a good look at the application, watch a screencast of the application on Youtube or visit the project site at https://learn2signsite.wordpress.com/, where you can download the application. You can also download the thesis itself here.

https://youtu.be/AhVtFPviYnA

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