Michael Cloud services was my suggestion to the project leader (who has PD himself, and is the Android coder). He has set up Google Drive to sort-of synchronize some data ie, it has a bit of human intervention - and to allow relational data collation. But thats largely as an overall data management process once tests and video capture has been completed, not at the test data collection stage.
I think thats worked OK with one of the Android tablet devices. I guess its a matter of trying it, to see whether the transfer is quick enough, with the updating to the local Google Drive, and wether FileSystemWatcher picked up the new file (GUID token) creation. Im not sure if Android API has a similar function, and my preference for the workflow would be that the Windows machine initiated the process (meaning the tablet needs to detect the token). I would love this to be on tablet devices running Windows RT / Windows 8, but its not. _____ Ian Thomas Victoria Park, Western Australia From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Ridland Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 10:14 AM To: ozDotNet Subject: Re: [OT] Android - Windows communications Sounds like a good case for a cloud services, what about windows mobile services? Then it would 'just work' for the user. On Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 12:55 PM, Ian Thomas <[email protected]> wrote: Katherine not an option, since the UPDRS testing system has been written already with the Android SDK (java). There is a nice (bit expensive) commercial tool for facilitating C# development for Android, and with 2-core and 4-core devices running Mono on these is a very real option. _____ Ian Thomas Victoria Park, Western Australia From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 9:41 AM To: ozDotNet Subject: RE: [OT] Android - Windows communications I dont have much experience (stil learning C#), but did you look into mono for Android? From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ian Thomas Sent: Monday, November 19, 2012 8:34 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [OT] Android - Windows communications Does anyone have any hobby / work experience with this, which they can share with me? I need to understand what the 2-way file transfer can be between Android tablet devices and Windows. (Off-list appreciated) My naïve impression is that older Android devices and OS (3.x) are not so good, and that USB and WiFi is not viable, but that most newer devices with the various v4 OS are quite capable and the SDK/API is also a lot more capable for coding that. The home project Im working on has part of its user-facing operation on Android tablets (programmed by another using Eclipse with SDK and emulator on Windows), and part on Windows (me, one other). Users perform touch-based tests (tapping on the surface) on the tablet, and that operation is captured on video, the camera and control (and later data collation, etc) being on Windows. In order to synchronize data files, without having the user enter some unique ID that can be used to relate data, my best solution would be for the Windows machine to generate a GUID and simply write that to a file on the Android device for consumption by the tablet. >From what Im told, USB connection between Android and PC is not an option at least on Android 3.x (I have forgotten what the problem is 1-way file transfer, API not good, ??). >From my research, either or both these Android apps (ES File Explorer + SwiFTP ) might be useful. Im leaning towards wireless communication directly between the Android and Windows, in code. The idea of a user having to muck about with these 2 apps as well as the Windows application and the tablet test itself is not attractive, principally as the primary users are people with Parkinson's. _____ Ian Thomas Victoria Park, Western Australia
