Palm OS Research Articles

Modeling and Recognition of Software Applications using FSM

Finite State Machines (FSMs) are mathematical abstractions which have a rich use in computer applications. If we build a FSM for software, then it becomes much easier and simpler to understand, debug and modify. The insights developed in FSMs have had great influence on various domains. FSM is as important as any other computer science tool. This paper minimizes the gap which currently exists between software development and the formal method of theoretical computer science. So importance of FSMs has been explored over various such domains in this article. These domains include spoken web technology that enables a user to access a massive network of voice sites through speech. Information transfer protocol for Vehicular Computing is another domain, where users can get on road support services using vehicular sensors and global position system. Adding on to the domain list, we have modeled FSMs for Ankle Monitor and Sensor Dust which are applications of mobile ad-hoc networks. Ankle monitor is primarily used to track movements of an individual through wireless communication and Sensor Dusts are tiny sensors which monitor the environment in which they are deployed. We have also modeled Palm Operating System, which is a mobile OS that runs on Linux kernel. This paper presents the FSM for the booting sequence and the user interface of Palm OS. To conclude with we have taken up the domain of satellite simulation and have presented a FSM for the steps involved in Satellite launching and Image Handling within a satellite. Therefore, by modeling a range of applications using FSM we attempt to add-on to the significance of this concept and at the same time provide a single document comprising numerous FSM models. This concept can be used by software developers for easy modeling of their designs and can further use it to verify and debug the model whenever required.

Electronic data capture in a rural African setting: evaluating experiences with different systems in Malawi

Background As hardware for electronic data capture (EDC), such as smartphones or tablets, becomes cheaper and more widely available, the potential for using such hardware as data capture tools in routine healthcare and research is increasing. Objective We aim to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of four EDC systems being used simultaneously in rural Malawi: two for Android devices (CommCare and ODK Collect), one for PALM and Windows OS (Pendragon), and a custom-built application for Android (Mobile InterVA – MIVA). Design We report on the personal field and development experience of fieldworkers, project managers, and EDC system developers. Results Fieldworkers preferred using EDC to paper-based systems, although some struggled with the technology at first. Highlighted features include in-built skip patterns for all systems, and specifically the ‘case’ function that CommCare offers. MIVA as a standalone app required considerably more time and expertise than the other systems to create and could not be customised for our specific research needs; however, it facilitates standardised routine data collection. CommCare and ODK Collect both have user-friendly web-interfaces for form development and good technical support. CommCare requires Internet to build an application and download it to a device, whereas all steps can be done offline with ODK Collect, a desirable feature in low connectivity settings. Pendragon required more complex programming of logic, using a Microsoft Access application, and generally had less technical support. Start-up costs varied between systems, and all were considered more expensive than setting up a paper-based system; however running costs were generally low and therefore thought to be cost-effective over the course of our projects. Conclusions EDC offers many opportunities for efficient data collection, but brings some issues requiring consideration when designing a study; the decision of which hardware and software to use should be informed by the aim of data collection, budget, and local circumstances.

Atomic Data Mining Numerical Methods, Source Code SQlite with Python

This paper introduces a recently published Python data mining book (chapters, topics, samples of Python source code written by its authors) to be used in data mining via world wide web and any specific database in several disciplines (economic, physics, education, marketing. etc). The book started with an introduction to data mining by explaining some of the data mining tasks involved classification, dependence modelling, clustering and discovery of association rules. The book addressed that using Python in data mining has been gaining some interest from data miner community due to its open source, general purpose programming and web scripting language; furthermore, it is a cross platform and it can be run on a wide variety of operating systens such as Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, Macintosh, Solaris, OS/2, Amiga, AROS, AS/400, BeOS, OS/390, z/OS, Palm OS, QNX, VMS, Psion, Acorn RISC OS, VxWorks, PlayStation, Sharp Zaurus, Windows CE and even PocketPC. Finally this book can be considered as a teaching textbook for data mining in which several methods such as machine learning and statistics are used to extract high-level knowledge from real-world datasets.

Electronic Reminding Technology Following Traumatic Brain Injury

To determine whether automated reminders from 2 contemporary personal digital assistant (PDA) devices produce higher rates of timely task completion in people with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Outpatient and community rehabilitation settings. Thirty-six adults aged 18 to 66 years with TBI and self-determined complaints of memory impairment. Timely completion rates for assigned memory tasks under 4 randomly assigned memory aid conditions. Significantly, higher completion rates were found when using either PDA device when compared with a combined baseline and paper memory aid condition (for Palm OS device, Incidence Rate Ratio [IRR] = 2.14, P < .0005, CI [confidence interval] = 1.77-2.59; for Microsoft Pocket PC OS device, IRR = 1.47, P < .001, CI = 1.18-1.82). A significant difference in completion rates was also found between the 2 PDA devices (IRR = 1.46, P < .0005, CI = 1.26-1.70), with the Palm version producing the better scores. Substantially higher rates of task completion (more than double in some cases) when using either PDA device suggest that rehabilitation clinicians can make productive use of PDA-based memory aids in their TBI patient populations. The strength of the effects of PDA device usage argues for further investigation of the impact of device usage on quality-of-life and costs of care, and of personal and caregiver factors predictive of successful and sustained device usage.

MyiMonitor.com v. 1: a user-friendly mobile electronic diary for bipolar patients

Subsyndromal symptoms and daily symptom variability is a potential risk factor for bipolar relapse. iMonitor is a mobile palm based electronic diary that was developed to measure this variability and to assist bipolar patients to track the daily course of their illness. iMonitor was designed to measure day to day fluctuations in bipolar symptom states and to track core features of the bipolar illness, such as sleep duration, mood variability, function, activation, self-esteem variability, medication adherence, and life events using visual analogue scales (VAS) following the NIMH-LCM method. In addition, a special feature of iMonitor is its ability to customise itself to each patient's relapse signature and to allow the tracking of more individual signs of relapse. The current version of iMonitor was developed to run on the cheapest possible handheld devices (Palm OS) in order to facilitate the application of electronic monitoring in low income patients who do not have access to personal computers (PCs) and the internet. The design of iMonitor appears relatively simple but this was based on advanced usability principles that serve to ensure an effortless user experience. Preliminary validation data have been gathered in the Maudsley Bipolar eMonitoring Project, and will be briefly discussed.

Oxford American Handbook of Critical Care PDA

Oxford American Handbook of Critical Care PDA . By Kellum, John A., Gunn, Scott R., Singer, Mervyn, Webb, Andrew . New York : Oxford University Press , 2008 ; $49.95 (CD for PDA installation [Palm or Windows Mobile platforms] ). Oxford American Handbook of Critical Care PDA (personal digital assistant) is a digital version of the American issue of the Oxford Handbook of Critical Care. This item comes with a computer installation CD and is suited for either the Palm or Windows Mobile operating platforms. System requirements include either Palm OS version 5.0 or later or Windows Mobile version 2003 or later, with a touch screen. The program requires at least 9 megabytes of available memory to install. Installation is fairly straightforward and allows quick access to the product. The program is divided into initial chapters on techniques for respiratory therapy, cardiovascular therapy, renal therapy, and gastrointestinal therapy. Sections on nutrition issues and special support surfaces follow. Next are chapters covering monitoring of cardiovascular, neurologic, laboratory, and miscellaneous areas. A brief section on fluids follows, with the next several sections providing an overview of drugs used for respiratory, cardiovascular, renal, gastrointestinal, neurologic, hematologic, and miscellaneous conditions. Clinical condition chapters are next with coverage of resuscitation, then respiratory, cardiovascular, renal, gastrointestinal, hepatic, neurologic, hematologic, and metabolic disorders. Chapters then address poisoning, infection and inflammation, trauma and burns, physical disorders, pain and postoperative intensive care, and obstetric emergencies. The penultimate section covers death and the dying patient, with the final chapter covering intensive care unit organization and management. Authors from the University of Pittsburgh are paired with United Kingdom authors to give the text a universal appeal. This PDA product is a nice offering and covers a wide range of issues in intensive care medicine. The PDA interface (I used the Palm-based version) is smooth and easy to navigate. The chapters are organized in a user-friendly manner, and there are links to related material for topics covered elsewhere in the text. Forward and back arrows, coupled with a “home” button and a search function, make moving about the program quite simple. The font is easy to read, and the sections for each link are relatively short. This may lead to one minor criticism—some of the links and sections provide only a small amount of text on a given topic. This seems to be a function of the authors’ goal of providing a brief, useable handbook, as well as the streamlined PDA interface. Overall, this is a minor issue, and the technical aspects of this product are solid and allow rapid reference when information is needed. The clinical sections provide excellent information in a straightforward manner. Some chapters feature links and references for “key paper(s).” These feature landmark or important papers highlighting that chapter’s contents. This is in contrast to a format with full references accompanying each section. Hence, this is a potential criticism, but the text information appears up to date and well researched. Occasional tables for drug doses and other items work well in the PDA format, and the zoom process for certain tables is integrated seamlessly within the program. The monitoring sections even feature some guidance for line placement and other procedures, although without diagrams/photos. I used this product during several clinical shifts and found that searching for relevant information was quite easy. One downside may be the relatively short sections of information within each link. Because of this, the main value of this reference may be for general knowledge and management principles, instead of specific treatment regimens. This fits the purpose of this program, and I believe that with the comprehensive coverage and easy maneuverability, the authors have met their goals. Overall, Oxford American Handbook of Critical Care PDA is a very useful program with much relevance for emergency physicians and other emergency medicine and critical care practitioners. I believe that this program will meet the needs of a broad audience. From a knowledge standpoint, the included information is most applicable to residents, medical students, and other trainees, and this is in line with the handbook format for this product. Packaging useable information and an easy-to-navigate format makes this a highly functional product, which should find its way onto the PDAs of a wide variety of emergency care providers. Congratulations to the authors and publishers for a job well done!

The “Portable” CDR

The Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) is a common rating system used in clinical trials and longitudinal research projects to rate the presence and severity of cognitive problems in Alzheimer disease and related disorders. The interview process requires training and can be time-consuming. Here, we describe the validity, reliability, and discriminative ability of a computer-generated CDR using a personal digital assistant format. This project used clinical data from 138 archival and live evaluations (patient and informant interviews) collected for research purposes at Washington University to develop and test a software-based system for the administration and automatic scoring of the CDR. The system was programmed for use on a hand-held computer via the Palm Operating System. We developed domain-specific algorithms to quantify and translate clinical scoring decisions for the 3 cognitive (Memory, Orientation, Judgment and Problem Solving) and the 3 functional (Community Affairs, Home and Hobbies, Personal Care) domains of the CDR. An acceptable set of algorithms were developed using data from 104 research cases, reflecting a range of impairment levels (CDR 0 to 3) and expert scoring decisions. These algorithms were then tested for accuracy in a validation sample of 34 cases. The computer-generated CDR has excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha ranging from 0.94 to 0.98) and interrater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient ranging from 0.88 to 0.96). The computer-generated CDR showed excellent discrimination between demented and nondemented cases (Area under the curve=0.95; 95% confidence interval, 0.84-1.1). The computer-generated CDR using a Palm Operating System is easy to use, valid, and reliable. The level of agreement compares favorably to published interrater reliability data for the CDR. Software-based administration and automatic scoring of the CDR is a viable alternative to paper-based methods and may be useful in research and clinical settings, especially where electronic data management and reliability in scoring are critical.

Jump Into the PDA Pool!

Jump Into the PDA Pool!

Handheld Computing and Programming for Mobile Commerce

Using Internet‐enabled mobile handheld devices to access the World Wide Web is a promising addition to the Web and traditional e‐commerce. Mobile handheld devices provide convenience and portable access to the huge information on the Internet for mobile users from anywhere and at anytime. However, mobile commerce has not enjoyed the same level of success as the e‐commerce has so far because mobile Web contents are scarce and mostly awkward for browsing. The major reason of the problems is most software engineers are not familiar with handheld devices, let alone programming for them. To help software engineers better understand this subject, this article gives a comprehensive study of handheld computing and programming for mobile commerce. It includes five major topics: (i) mobile commerce systems, (ii) mobile handheld devices, (iii) handheld computing, (iv) server‐side handheld computing and programming, and (v) client‐side handheld computing and programming. The most popular server‐side handheld applications are mostly functioning through mobile Web contents, which are constructed by using only few technologies and languages. On the other hand, various environments/languages are available for client‐side handheld computing and programming. Five of the most popular are (i) BREW, (ii) J2ME, (iii) Palm OS, (iv) Symbian OS, and (v) Windows Mobile. They are using either C/C++ or Java programming languages. This article will explain J2ME, a micro version of Java, and Palm OS programming, using C, by giving step‐by‐step procedures of J2ME and Palm application development.

Latest news and product developments

Latest news and product developments

Practical testing of a C99 compiler using output comparison

AbstractA simple technique is presented for testing a C99 compiler, by comparing its output with the output from pre‐existing tools. The advantage to this approach is that new test cases can be added in bulk from existing sources, reducing the need for in‐depth investigation of correctness issues and for creating new test code by hand. This technique was used in testing the PalmSource Palm OS® Cobalt ARM C/C++ cross‐compiler for Palm‐Powered® personal digital assistants, primarily for standards compliance and the correct execution of generated code. The technique described here found several hundred bugs, mostly in our in‐house code, but also in longstanding high‐quality front‐ and back‐end code from Edison Design Group and Apogee Software. It also found 18 bugs in the GNU C compiler, as well as a bug specific to the Apple version of GCC, a bug specific to the Suse version of GCC, and a dozen bugs in versions of GCC for the ARM processor, several of which were critical. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

The ARES ® test system for palm OS handheld computers

The ARES 1 1 ARES was the Greek God of War. (ANAM 2 2 Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics. Readiness Evaluation System) is a cognitive testing system designed for operation on palm OS handheld computers i.e., Personal Digital Assistants (PDA). It provides an inexpensive and portable testing platform for field and clinical applications. ARES test batteries can be configured from a library of tests derived from the ANAM test system. ARES features include support of multiple users on a single PDA, a Microsoft Windows™ test battery authoring program, and a program for downloading, viewing, graphing, and archiving data. In validity tests, the same subjects were tested on identical ARES and conventional ANAM NeuroCog test batteries. Scores from the two platforms correlated highly, but absolute scores differed slightly. In reliability testing with the ARES Warrior battery, ARES scores were highly correlated in daily tests.

Yao &amp; Artusio’s Anesthesiology: Problem-oriented Patient Management, 5th Edition for PDA.

Yao &amp; Artusio’s Anesthesiology: Problem-oriented Patient Management, 5th Edition for PDA.

InfoRetriever for PDAs

This article provides an evaluation and overview of the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) version of the evidence-based medicine database, InfoRetriever. Both the Pocket PC and Palm OS version are evaluated in this article. Topics covered are the access and installation of InfoRetriever for both PDA operating systems, the design and interface of InfoRetriever, the ease of access of the database contents, and its importance as a tool for point-of-care medicine.

Development and use of behavior and social interaction software installed on Palm handheld for observation of a child’s social interactions with the environment

In settings in developing countries, children often socialize with multiple socializing agents (peers, siblings, neighbors) apart from their parents, and thus, a measurement of a child's social interactions should be expanded beyond parental interactions. Since the environment plays a role in shaping a child's development, the measurement of child-socializing agents' interactions is important. We developed and used a computerized observational software Behavior and Social Interaction Software (BASIS) with a preloaded coding scheme installed on a handheld Palm device to record complex observations of interactions between children and socializing agents. Using BASIS, social interaction assessments were conducted on 573 preschool children for 1 h in their natural settings. Multiple screens with a set of choices in each screen were designed that included the child's location, broad activity, state, and interactions with child-socializing agents. Data were downloaded onto a computer and systematically analyzed. BASIS, installed on Palm OS (M-125), enabled the recording of the complex interactions of child-socializing agents that could not be recorded with manual forms. Thus, this tool provides an innovative and relatively accurate method for the systematic recording of social interactions in an unrestricted environment.

Pocket-sized psychology studies: Exploring daily diary software for Palm Pilots

Daily dairies, also known as experience sampling methods (ESM) or everyday experience methods, are a common methodology utilized to provide insight into momentary psychological processes. Traditionally, such studies often have utilized paper-and-pencil surveys administered several times each day over a span of several days or weeks. However, advances in technology now allow these studies to be conducted using palmtop computers (i.e., personal digital assistants; PDAs). Three software packages for running these studies on the Palm operating system were explored and compared on a number of features Specifically, ESP (Experience Sampling Program, by Feldman Barrett & Barrett, 2001), iESP Version 3.2 (Intel Experience Sampling Program, by Intel Research Seattle & the University of Washington Computer Science and Engineering Department), and PMAT Version 2.0 (Purdue Momentary Assessment Tool, by the Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University) were examined, with their key features compared. These advances in software for running diary studies include a number of features that provide researchers with methods and information previously unavailable in diary studies and may expand the range of possibilities in diary study designs.

Research Note—Sole Entrant, Co-optor, or Component Supplier: Optimal End-Product Strategies for Manufacturers of Proprietary Component Brands

We propose the optimal strategies in the end-product market for manufacturers of proprietary component brands, MPCBs for short. MPCBs can pursue one of three end-product roles: sole entrant, as with 3Com that, until recently, offered its Palm operating system only as part of its own Palm handheld devices; co-optor, as with Canon, whose specialty motors go into its own and HP laser printers; component supplier, as with Intel, which has refrained from making its own PCs. Applying extant theoretical and modeling perspectives, especially from branding, spatial competition, and channels, we show that although each of the three roles has its unique domain of optimality, the co-optor role is the most widely optimal for the MPCB; it is profit maximizing even when the end products are strong (but not perfect) substitutes, an alternative component is available and the downstream market is saturated. Optimal prices under the co-optor role are higher than under the other roles. We provide an illustrative application of the model to three real-world settings.

Stay Connected While on the Road

Stay Connected While on the Road

Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) Use Amongst Anaesthetists: An Australian Survey

We report an email questionnaire survey of Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) use amongst members of the Australian Society of Anaesthetists (ASA). PDAs are becoming increasingly popular and they have many applications within the healthcare community. Seventy-eight per cent of members of the ASA have an email address (1870/2385) although only 38% (900/2385) of members are regular uses of email. We surveyed 1870 members of the ASA and received 215 responses (11% response rate). We found that 91% of anaesthetists answering the survey used a PDA and of these 72% use a Palm operating system, which reflects current market trends. Anaesthetists use PDAs for a wide range of facilities: appointments, drug reference, contact details and "tasks to do" being the most utilized. The most common software programs added to the operating system were pharmacopoeias, contact managers and database programs.

Learn How Latest Technology Can Transform Your Practice

Learn How Latest Technology Can Transform Your Practice