Name: Snigdha Petluru

Affiliation (school/degree) : B. Tech. In Information Technology

Location (where you are): Hyderabad, India

Email: snigpetluru@gmail.com

Project(s) you're working on or want to: Infragram

Project title: User Interface Enhancement / Commenting, tagging, and more social features for Infragram.org

Project description: Infragram.org has currently been implemented for the user to upload the desired image and evaluate plant health by means of near infrared imagery.

SUMMARY: While the website contains a fairly accessible interface, it will be my job to add more features and provide friendlier access to the user.

OVERVIEW: The website provides a simple mechanism to load images or take a photo via a webcam. There are certain presets Raw, NVDI, and NIR. The image is then run through the infragrammer in order to analyze the health of the image. A major drawback of this site is that there is no medium for a user to communicate and get feedback from another user. Also, there is no exact way to keep track of which area is experiencing more of a problem.

AIM: The aim of this project is to upgrade the site and provide additional functionalities. Firstly, the necessary structure to incorporate OpenId will be developed in order have hassle free login and easy implementation of comments, tags , polls etc. Secondly, in order to have a better analysis of the image, scrolling down to the desired area must magnify it and display the corresponding NVDI values. This area may also be selected and further analysed. Also, a general description of what these values mean and how to use the site would help make the site more accessible and understandable to the user. BENEFITS:

Integration of Open-ID will ensure more user participation. It will primarily extend the basic functionality that Infragram is currently providing. The flexibility of logging in and accessing stored data will enhance the traffic that the site experiences and will garner more attention. Functionalities like comments, annotations etc., will foster an environment for additional support via peers. Capturing certain regions with dynamic NVDI predictions will help identify specific sites that need some form of action. These regions can be zoomed into and identified.

TIMELINE:

until May 19: Read the documentation related to Infragram Get well versed with the code base Work further to sharpen my node.js skills Look at samples of how OpenId has been implemented in other sites May 19 - May 24: Restructure the website Integrate OpenId (#27) May 25 – May 28: Preliminary test phase May 29 - June 17: Develop implementation for tags and commenting system Enhance support through introduction of forums Enable image sharing on social media sites and via email June 18 - June 22: Testing Documentation till date

June 23: Mid term submission

June 24 - July 15: Implement code to display NVDI values for selected region/ cursor location. (#36) Work on saving selected regions to the disk/drive. July 16 - August 8: Enhance user interface Provide usage statistics and possibly include a basic image classification system Upto August 21: Final testing phase Debugging Buffer time for any unexpected delay

DELIVERABLES: OpenID integration Commenting, tagging system Selected region NVDI specification and saving

ADDITIONAL DELIVERABLES (subjected to time): Usage statistics Rudimentary classification system

Experience: I'm a student pursuing my engineering third year in Information Technology. I was introduced to free and open source technology about an year ago and since then I have been hooked on. I probably did start a bit late, but I've been doing my best to learn working and adapting to a dynamic community. As a part of my curriculum, I've learnt C , Java and rudimentary C++. I had also taken courses on Assembly level programming and Data mining. I'm familiar with PHP and Python, most of which I've learnt through various online resources. I am well versed with HTML and JavaScript as a result of a course that I had taken at college.

Teamwork: I've been associated with an organization called Swecha, which conducts numerous workshops in order to promote the free software philosophy. I'm currently a member of the student core team there. We conduct workshops at numerous engineering colleges in order to introduce the student community to the benefits of free and open source software. Swecha has also developed an operating system in Telugu, a native language, in order to help more people get accustomed to technology. I had attended a 15 day training camp that introduced me to the various free software alternatives and technologies that are currently used by most budding software developers. Since then, I've been involved in organizing numerous events across the city. We recently organized a 'Freedom Fest' for over 2000 engineering students where we had sessions taken on Drupal, Python, etc.

Expertise: While I'm relatively new to the open source scene, I have good programming skills and am a fast learner. I'm good at C, Java, HTML and JavaScript. My knowledge of data structures is good as well. I even topped my course on Web Development at college and I'm sure I can learn things up faster, probably because I'm accustomed to coding right from my school.

Interest: I've always vouched for information to be free. Even as a part of Swecha, our aim was to enable a wider range to people with the access to technology and data. I understand that open source software is the need of the hour. This model of development has the fastest results, the greatest ideas and a high support mechanism.

Audience: This project is target to enhance user experience. It is essentially to enable a lay user to comprehend and make use of the options provided. The outcome will showcase a more interactive and self- explanatory interface which will enable a common browser to grasp the essence of Infogram.

Context: I plan to do my Masters in Computer Science in 2015. However, I would like to experience working for an entity that uses technology to provide solutions to a common man's problems. Public Labs is one such place where I will get to experience the best of both worlds. It will give me a better understanding of the lines I'll have to think along in order to develop technology that can aid the community. Ongoing Involvement: I plan to be associated with Public Labs as a volunteer and contributor. I would like to continue working on the proposed image classification system and complete it. Also, I would like to remain active beyond this summer through mailing lists and help incorporate enhancements and fix bugs in the software. By then, I most certainly will have a deeper understanding of Infragram and other projects that Public Lab has taken up.

Commitment: I'm someone who believes in completing a given task before proceeding to another one. I like challenging myself and always push myself to work harder, complete things well in advance and bring in accuracy. Working on this project is of top notch priority, and I understand the amount of time that I will have to spend on this.