Senior Project Ideas

I have spent a lot of time thinking about what project I would like to do to show what I have learned during my four years at University of Miami. I searched through many web sites to get ideas and while searching through numerous sites the following ideas were formed.

• Backup for PDA's

In todays society many people use PDA's and due to their portability it holds valuable information. I propose designing a backup program that will allow the user to set the time they want their information to be backed up. For example, every Wednesday at 5:00 pm. When the time has arrived the PDA will connect to a server via the internet and start the backup. The files will be stored inside the users own directory and will be accessible only by them. To make things more convenient for the user they will be able to access their information from any computer connected to the internet. The user will be able to go through a GUI to view appointments and sensitive information wherever they are. This will be useful for a person who has temporarily misplaced his PDA or just simply forgotten it. Another practical application for the program will be if a person doesn't have a computer to upload their information on and doesn't necessarily want to purchase backup memory. This will also be helpful for those users who do not always remember to back up their computers until it is too late.

This idea was thought of with the help of James Aggrey.

• Chat Program for PDA's

I propose designing and implementing a chat program for PDA's. This will allow two PDA's to have a conversion with each other. The decision of what technology will be used will have to be decided upon later. Will we use the internet or can we use SMS? Each one has their pros and cons. In this project the Graphic User Interface (GUI) will be very important. We don't want person A to send a message to person B that says "Hello" and this shows up on his screen, then person A sends another message "How R U?" and the first message is not displayed. The ideal solution will be similar to how IM works today. Each PDA will have a log or record shown on the screen of all previous messages for that session (conversation).

Practical Use

This will allow people to always be in contact with each other. You may say that is what we have cell phones for. That is correct, however this will be good when someone is in an environment or situation where they can't make a phone call.

Discussion

If internet is decided upon as the method of communication how will a person know if a particular person is signed on? If they are not on the internet do we invite them to sign on to the internet? This could be accomplished by person A sending person B a SMS telling them to sign on to the internet and once they sign on the session starts.