David's idea of using an iPad sounds great. I use my iPhone and IM web interface all the time. If you can develop an iPhone app that lets me use IMRemote that would be sweeeeeet!
On 1/29/10 4:07 PM, "David W. Cooley" <[email protected]> wrote: > The recent announcement by Apple has gotten me thinking.... > > I am wondering about the viability of running IMR on an I-Pad as > InterMapper/Touch (assuming support). > > There is some interest here in being able to use IMR as a monitoring tool in > remote machine rooms to provide negative (or positive) feedback to staff > doing maintenance (reconfigurations) of various sorts. The idea is to have > a resident display that would alert staff in near-time of the > (negative/unforeseen???) consequences of their actions. > > The requirements seem to be: > > 1) dedicated device -- to keep it from being used for other purposes > ensuring IMR is topmost/foremost/active > 2) continuously on display -- giving status at a glance > 3) portable device -- facilitating use in alternate locations in an area to > ensure easy visibility when working behind a rack or on the other side of > the room. > 4) Keyboard not needed and probably bothersome. > 5) Touch screen probably (open to discussion/question) better for > some/many/most??? types of navigation. > 6) Perhaps -- a more user friendly, intuitive, drill-down interface. > > > Alternatives: > > 1) Personal laptop -- These same folks often have IMR on laptops but don't > carry them around for various reasons including having other applications > active, portability, form factor, power provisioning. > > 2) Dedicated laptop -- form factor limits use, generally limited to table > top situations -- not well suited to wall mounting, perhaps navigation too > cumbersome (open question). > > 3) Dedicated workstation -- might permit multiple screens but consumes more > space and not really portable within a room. > > There are a variety of cross over points here and I am trying to understand > what they are and where they might occur. I am trying to avoid the allure > of the "glitzy" and focus on utility. > > Some considerations: > > 1) The touch screen navigation would likely focus navigation toward > drill-down and make it more intuitive and ad-hoc. There may be some > navigational anomalies between a touch screen approach and the traditional > mouse approach. Would it be possible to deterministically map (unambiguously > translate) between the two forms of navigation and in a way that would > minimize frustration when moving between the two schemes and make automatic > translation between the two environments possible? > > 2) Initially map editing would probably not be a feature on the "touch" > version. > > 3) One consideration is that a cursor has a fairly fine selection > granularity (although often not fine enough in a crowded map to grab a > desired link without several tries) fingers require large areas which tend > to be implemented as buttons. This would make the "hover interface line, > right click, select status" sequence problematic because fingers do not have > degree of granularity. One approach would be to select the interface label > rather than interface line, but this runs afoul of the different semantics > between hover interface line, select, status and the hover interface label, > select status sequence (which by the way I find very confusing). > > 4) Will drill-down chains become too long (too cumbersome) and if so how > might one make them easier(shorter???). > > 5) This probably means a different kind of InterMapper but most likely it > must be closely related to the classic version as maintaining two platforms > is out of the question. If one is stuck with editing only the classic > version will/can that yield an acceptable "touch" version/experience as a > derivative? Much of this revolves around the notion of how would "classic" > and "touch" relate or even impact the design of the other? > > I don't foresee giving up my laptop IMR/classic for traditional use, but I > am intrigued about the possibility of touch based drill-down navigation > device for use as a "field monitor". > > Thoughts? > > For your brain storming pleasure.... > > -Dave Cooley > Colby College > > ____________________________________________________________________ List archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/intermapper-talk%40list.dartware.com/ To unsubscribe: send email to: [email protected]
