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Our backend consists of a background service which generates data and stores it in the main Application class - which is shared among all activities. We did so for two reasons: we wanted the data to be the consistent when the user switches between activities, and we also plan to eventually hook real data stream, but we don't need to revamp all the code design.
Updating GUI periodically: asynchronous task again.To show real-time information about the data we have a periodical, background asynchronous thread which "pings" the main GUI thread of the channel overview screen. This way we assure that the GUI will remain responsive even if there is a lot of data coming.
Evaluation
We tested our interface with 3 robotics researches from MIT. All of them were possessed Android phones. We think this is important, so that they are familiar with Android's app conventions (such as using the menu button to explore what you can do).
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