NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Instant Messaging Mobile App for Children with Learning Disability by Muhammad Fauzan Bin Mohamad Napiah in 2017 Project report in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science with Honours in "Software Engineering / Information Systems ..." I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this report. I authorize the Nottingham Trent University to lend this report to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I also authorize the Nottingham Trent University to reproduce this report by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. Signature Muhammad Fauzan Bin Mohamad Napiah ABSTRACT Enter abstract here. The abstract should include: A) Brief statement of problem B) Brief exposition of methods and procedures and C) Brief summary of findings. After the title, the abstract is the next level of detail regarding your work. The scientific community relies on 'The Abstract' as the main means of communicating research interests. There are many collections of abstracts published from which interested parties can trace the original work. They form the first step in a researcher's quest for up to date information regarding work being carried out worldwide. The abstract is a one A4 page, 1.5 Line Spacing, retrospective account of the achievements, techniques and conclusions of the report. On no account are you to exceed one page. Do not go into a great long explanation of the general area, be very precise and stick to what you have achieved. This is filed by the library and enquirers from other institutions are sent a photocopy of this single sheet and thus immediately assess the work's relevance to them. They will know about the general subject area and its problems; what they want to know is whether you have found a solution. Be sure to include as much relevant information as possible on that page. The abstract is very much an impersonal, factual, retrospective account of your finished project as might be written by somebody else. The tone of the English might be 'The work introduces the general area of..... and then investigates an apparently new method for..... The method is partially successful in that it...... '. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express appreciation and gratitude for all those who have helped me throughout the course including the lecturers and classmates. Special thanks is due to Ms Noor Hafizah Ismail for the effort to encourage me to be more engaging with the studies and her help in doing the project. All her advises have proven to be invaluable and always useful. Among my classmates, I would like to specially thank my friends Carlos and Zaid for their support. It would not have been easy without them throughout the course. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for encouraging me to pursue the degree and supporting me at every turn. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS III TABLE OF CONTENTS IV LIST OF FIGURES VII LIST OF TABLES VIII CHAPTER 1 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Aim and Objectives 3 1.2.1 Aim 3 1.2.2 Objectives 3 1.3 Ethical Consideration 4 1.4 Scope of the project 6 1.4.1 Target User 6 1.4.2 Area of specification 6 1.4.3 Specific Entities 6 1.4.4 Platform 7 1.5 Requirements 7 1.5.1 Functional Requirements 7 1.5.2 Non-Functional Requirements 8 1.6 Methodology 9 1.7 Literature review 9 1.8 Design and development 9 1.9 Testing 9 1.10 Evaluation 9 CONTEXT 11 1.11 Introduction 11 1.12 AAC Speech Communicator 11 1.13 Pic-A-Pec 14 1.14 TalkTablet 17 CHAPTER 2 20 NEW IDEAS 20 2.1 Introduction 20 CHAPTER 3 22 DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT 22 3.1 Introduction 22 CHAPTER 4 23 RESULTS / DISCUSSION 23 4.1 Introduction 23 CHAPTER 5 24 CONCLUSIONS / FUTURE WORK 24 5.1 Introduction 24 REFERENCES 25 BIBLIOGRAPHY 26 APPENDIX A 27 Note: To insert TOC here follow the instruction below. You may also right click on the above text and use “Update Field” to update the TOC. Insert > Reference > Index and Tables … > Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Microsoft XP 5 Note: To insert List of Figures here follow the instruction below. You may also right click on the above text and use “Update Field” to update the list of figures. Insert > Reference > Index and Tables … > Table of Figures > Caption Label => Figure LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Microsoft Office 2003. 5 Note: To insert List of Tables here follow the instruction below. You may also right click on the above text and use “Update Field” to update the list of tables. Insert > Reference > Index and Tables … > Table of Figures > Caption Label => Table CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction In the 21st century, it is safe to say that 90% of the people in the world are tech savvy especially Generation Y babies/ baby boomers. Technology is way more advanced than anyone imagined it to be a few years back to make our lives as easy as easy can be, not yet mentioning the ones that are still being created or developed. Instant Messaging (IM) is a type of communications service that offer a real-time text transmission over the internet. According to eMarketer, more than 1.61 billion consumers will use the mobile phone messaging apps in 2016, and in 2018 predicted to reach 2 billion, which represent 80% of smartphone users. Figure 1 – The chart showing the number of mobile phone messaging app users and penetration worldwide based on years 2014-2019. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex lifelong developmental disability condition that affects how a person communicates and interact to other people. The signs typically appear during early childhood and affects four times as many boys than girls. Autism affects the normal development of brain in terms of social and communication skills. Children with Autism normally have difficulties in verbal and nonverbal-communication and social interactions. As a result, this make it hard for them to relate to the outside world. According to the research done by Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in United States, the incidence of autism is at 1 in 68 children. That would mean that there are around 9,000 children in Malaysia are born with Autism every year. "PECS is recommended as an evidence-based intervention for enhancing functional communication skills of individuals with ASD." The alternative method of communication that is designed specifically for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Autism is Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) which produced by Pyramid Educational Consultants, Inc. The PECS use pictures cards that can be put together to create a sentence structure. At this time, PECS mainly use physical cards and there are a few mobile applications for Android and iOS, which help people with Autism converse by using virtual picture cards inspired by PECS. However, the existing mobile applications not provide the instant messaging feature that this project is aiming to provide. Besides, they can be used on only one mobile (standalone) and has a limited function. The reasons for choosing this project are to implement the Mobile Instant Messaging and PECS in order to allow children with Autism and her/his parent or friend to communicate using mobile messaging application, which makes conversing a fun and more attractive. Next, to exposed the children to technology and social media at early stage and show them how easy it is to communicate with other people. Lastly, is to fully use of PECS to provide a new medium of communication for children with Autism. 1.2 Aim and Objectives 1.2.1 Aim The overall aim of the project is to develop a functional mobile messaging application based on Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) for children with Autism who have difficulty to learn language and speak. 1.2.2 Objectives 1. Complete literature search and literature review of existing mobile messaging application in google play market. 2. Develop a mobile application with a simple user interface and easily understandable content for children. 3. Evaluate the final product against objectives through usability testing. 4. Complete the final report. 1.3 Ethical Consideration Social Social Ensuring all users have equal access to all areas of the application as much as possible prevents discrimination of users. This allows and promotes neutrality within the application. One way this will be done is by designing the application with accessibility in mind as well as ensuring the user is allowed to input their own image/symbol that easy for them to communicate. This is covered by two points in the Association for Computing Machinery code of ethics : 1.1 Contribute to society and human well-being (Anderson, et al., 1992) . 1.4 Be fair and take action not to discriminate (Anderson, et al., 1992). Legal Legal Respecting the legal rights of users is an incredibly important aspect of a project such as this. The key code of conduct that applies in the case of a mobile application is the Data Protection Act 1998. This act will be followed by keeping minimal data about users and storing it on a secure server with a backup. The market for mobile applications has experienced explosive growth over the past three and a half years. When Apple’s iTunes App Store and Google’s Android Market first launched in 2008, smartphone users could choose from about 600 apps. Today, there are more than 500,000 apps in the Apple App store3 and 380,000 apps in the Android Market, which consumers can access from a variety of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. Consumers have downloaded these apps more than 28 billion times, and young children and teens are increasingly embracing smartphone technology for entertainment and educational purposes. As consumers increasingly rely on their mobile devices for multiple activities, the quantity and diversity of mobile apps continue to expand. This rapidly growing market provides enormous opportunities and benefits for app users of all ages, but raises questions about users’ privacy, especially when the users are children and teens. Protecting children’s privacy is one of the Commission’s top priorities. Staff focused in particular on the types of apps offered to children; the age range of the intended audience; the disclosures provided to users about the apps’ data collection and sharing practices; the availability of interactive features, such as connecting with social media; and the app store ratings and parental controls offered for these systems. This report highlights the lack of information available to parents prior to downloading mobile apps for their children, and calls on industry to provide greater transparency about their data practices. Current Privacy in searched the app stores using the word “kids,” and examined hundreds of pages promoting apps, which ranged from alphabet and word games, math and number games, and memory games to books and stories, flash cards, and puzzles. While staff encountered a diverse pool of apps for kids created by hundreds of different developers, staff found little, if any, information in the app marketplaces about the data collection and sharing practices of these apps. Rule, which require operators of online services (including interactive mobile apps) directed to children under age 13 to provide notice and obtain parental consent before collecting items of “personal information” from children. Those initiatives, along with this report, are a warning call to industry that it must do more to provide parents with easily accessible, basic information about the mobile apps that their children use. Most of the apps in the study appear to be intended for children’s use, and many may, in fact, be “directed to children”. This survey focused on the disclosures provided to users regarding their data practices; it did not test whether the selected apps actually collected, used, or disclosed personal information from children. 1.4 Scope of the project The below are the scopes that are involved in this project. • Target user • Area of specification • Specific entities • Platform 1.4.1 Target User The main target users are children with Autism who have difficulty in speaking and learn language. The application will use a simple graphic user interface which suitable for children in the age around 6-12. 1.4.2 Area of specification The application will develop using the Java language and Android APIs. The development involves use of the programming concepts that have been learnt throughout the undergraduate course in order to create an application that is stable. The server side will be programmed using PHP and JavaScript. 1.4.3 Specific Entities Each individual that will use the end system (mobile application) are the users. Other than that are the users who are in charge of the system's support, for example, database administrator and system developer 1.4.4 Platform The target platform only focusing on android devices. The reasons because it offers a free application signing, free emulator and full support for background services. 1.5 Requirements In order to successfully meet the objectives of the objectives outlined for this project it is important to identify the requirements needed to complete the project. This includes functional and non-functional requirements. While functional requirements define the functionality and components that are needed to make the system, non-functional requirements describe the criteria that can be used to judge these functions and components. 1.5.1 Functional Requirements Nine functional requirements were identified for the project. These include the functions needed for base system and the functions needed to demonstrate how the system works. ID Functional Requirement Description FR1 Create Account Allow user to create account through email or existing social account like Facebook. FR2 Manage Account Allow user manage their personal information such as name, address and contact no. FR3 Manage Contact Allow user to manage contact list. FR4 Add Friend A feature to allow user to add friend by using an email or username FR5 Add Picture/Symbol A feature to allow user to add new picture/symbol if it not available in database. FR6 Manage Conversation List Allow user to see what has been sent in the past FR7 Picture to Speech Reader Ability for the application to read out loud any message received. FR8 Message Notification A feature will notified the user if any message received FR9 Tracking Location A feature to allow user tracking their friend location FR10 Enhanced Visibility Mode A feature 1.5.2 Non-Functional Requirements Non-Functional requirements are used to define how the system must operate. ID Non - Functional Requirement NFR1 The application must be intuitive and interactive NFR2 The application must be fast responsive time as possible NFR3 The application must be run on wide range android OS version 1.6 Methodology Methodology is the way which is going to be followed to complete this project. For the sake of managing and controlling a research well in order to achieve the specified objectives within the timeline, the methodology plays a very important role. In order to complete this project, the traditional methodology better known as waterfall model will be used and has been chosen for the development of this project. 1.7 Literature review 1.8 Design and development Design and development will be done in accordance with what have been found in the literature review. Design will be based on the requirements of the project and the available libraries and functions in java that support these requirements. After designing then the system will be developed using Android Studio. While developing the system it will be important to not get limited by java default libraries. If there is a third party library that can get the job done better than the library will be chosen instead of default java libraries. 1.9 Testing Testing is very important to determine if the system has achieved its goals. If there is time after testing the project can revert back to development and refine the system. Otherwise an evaluation can be done. 1.10 Evaluation Evaluation of the system will be done on a basis of testing and what was expected. Also it is important to note that there is no other system that this can be compared to. Thus evaluation will be based on how much the requirements have been met rather than comparing to current systems. CONTEXT 1.11 Introduction This should include a literature review in order to detail the State-of-the-Art in the field and the main areas for improvement/further research. One of the main reasons for the literature review is to avoid accidentally repeating a technique that has been tried before. In your literature survey, do be precise about the volume numbers of journals and exact ranges of abstracts you have searched. These details must be precise enough for anyone following up your work to avoid searching the same material. If searching computer data bases, including the CD-ROM data bases available in the library, then give precise details of the search keys used. Perhaps a printed copy of the session/s as an appendix might show this clearly. A new idea for a project is usually not entirely new. The project may try to apply an existing technology in a new area or for a different type of customer, or enhance or specialize the current functionality of the technology. 1.12 AAC Speech Communicator AAC Speech Communicator (ASC) is a generic, easy to learn communication tool, for anyone with speech disabilities. It’s an application created by the aacspeech.org team, in order to ease the burden of people with speech impairments. With the aid of the ASC, less fortunate people now have an alternate way to form grammatically correct sentences, merely by clicking a series of pictograms, which in turns, speaks the text out loud. Due to the nature of this application, where it, mostly consists of pictograms, this tool is especially good for children and even those who have trouble reading or writing. In addition to helping out the needy, this application can also serve as a beginner’s platform, to learning a new language, as the ASC supports French and it also has a prototype for English. As this is an application to form sentences, it is important to have punctuations, and grammar aids, to make it easier for the user to convey their message more accurately, and this application does just that. It has easily accessible options, to display text in capital, or even to add in inflection, tenses, and saluting a person, by his or her gender. This gives this application a closer to home feeling, especially with the 1000+ available icons, and the recent pictogram option, to make frequent icons more easily accessible. Nevertheless, there are some noticeable flaws in this particular application, in terms of general usability. Due to the nature of the categories, which separates words into nouns, verbs and several other categories, this application is not very user friendly when it comes to being used by a child. Other than that, the lack of customizable options, might also throw someone off, when they are picking an application that they will be using for the most part of their day. Moreover, for a sentence creating application, the ASC does not take into consideration users that might not be able to see, what they wish to say. The lack of consideration for those who are less fortunate in the vision front also puts this application lower in the easy-to-use graph. In fact, there are even reports of noticeable spelling errors, and inaccurate pronunciation of words. “I was looking for an app to help a friend communicate, after she landed in the hospital. Unfortunately, most of the apps (including this one) assume that the person can open their eyes. This app is unusually large, so I have to uninstall it. Thankfully, there is another app called TouchSpeller and it allows anyone to spell words using only one finger, even if they can't see the screen” (Roman Michael,2014). “Nice idea but poorly executed Some issues with text to speech: the pronunciation of the word, "category" is like kate-eh-gory. Even someone from down under might have issues with the sound of this. Some incorrectly spelled words translate to text to speech incorrectly, such as "scissors" spelled "scissorses". App needs work if communication is to have accuracy” (Braden Marr,2015). “I like it but picture size is very small couldn't understand by younger kids” (Fatima Rehman, 2016). Insert a picture. Figure 2: AAC Speech Communicator User Interface Figure 2.1 : AAC Speech Communicator reviews 1.13 Pic-A-Pec Pic-A-Pec is an Augmentative and Alternative Communication tool developed by ASDjunction. Categorised under communication, in the Google Play Store, this application aims to facilitate communication for individuals, especially children, with a variety of needs. With a clean and simple layout with colourful options, this application makes it visually stimulating for children to use. Pic-A-Pec has apparently been developed by a behavioural therapist with experience teaching and implementing picture exchange systems, giving an understanding of the challenges and requirements of meeting the needs of its users. Pic-A-Pec works by scrolling through pages of icons, selecting the desired symbol which is visually sent to the sentence area. Upon sentence completion, it can be presented to the listener or read out by the text to talk function. Each step of the process mimics physical picture exchange, only the user can do so using a platform that does not attract negative social stigma. The Pic-A-Pec is designed to cater to a younger audience, which can clearly be seen, on the layout and the way this application presents itself. It has considered issues such as sensory sensitivity, customisation for each unique user and more. Pic-A-Pec takes the frustration out of learning to communicate because of its ease of navigation and options to completely customise it. The true marvel to this application, is that it does not assume its user to have any prior knowledge of concepts such as categories. All images are arranged in the simplest form, that it makes the Pic-A-Pec very convenient and easy to navigate through. Despite its utmost positive intentions, this application also has its share of negative feedback. With a rating of 3.2 stars on the Play Store, it has taken multiple steps closer to being known as a mediocre application. Users face multiple issues with compatibility, where the application causes their device to lag, and barely functioning. There are also reports of users facing issues with the application not recognizing some of the commands, which in turn causes the application to freeze and shut down by force. “Extremely slow on galaxy tab 2 - almost not usable. Impossible to record sound for the custom picture. Impossible to cut picture from camera to fit well” (Сергей Юренко, 2012). “Not suitable so requested a refund but not heard anything since sending request a week ago. The button to play the words is very small and for the money I thought it would come with more images. I feel the app is no better than some of the free apps or even sticking with a physical PECS book. Would have been nice if they had a trial version so I didn't have to spend £20 to find out it was unsuitable and then be ignored when I request a refund” (Application User, 2016). Figure 2.2: Pic -A-Pec User interface Figure 2.3: Pic -A-Pec reviews 1.14 TalkTablet TalkTablet, is a speech impairment application, designed to assist in day to day verbal communication for the less fortunate, designed and developed by Gus Communication Devices Inc. The application is categorised under the education section, which explains its core purpose. Taking into consideration, the general usage of the mass population, the TalkTablet is the only fully symbols-based AAC application that is compatible with all iOS, Android, Kindle and Windows devices, making it really accessible and convenient. What this application does, is that it plays the role of a middle person, to convey messages for people who has difficulties to communicate with others, as a result of autism, aphasia, down syndrome, stroke, or laryngectomy, to name a few. The TalkTablet allows people to have a voice, simply by touching buttons that contains predefined words or phrases. What sets it apart, is that it even allows users to add customized and random text phrases using the embedded on-screen keyboard. With this application, customization is easy, and users are even allowed to move the buttons, just by pressing, holding and dragging the buttons. In addition to that, adding new buttons are also just a few clicks away. Nevertheless, the TalkTablet still has its share of negative reviews. There are complaints about the storage management of this application, where in more than one cases, the TalkTablet seem to consume too much space to store the content and images to make this application as efficient as it strives to be. There also seem to be some compatibility issues, although the developers seem to insist that this application works on multi platforms. “It downloaded so much pictures on my phone. I couldn't download another app because of it. It took so much space. And I just got this phone” (MJ Elbarmil, 2016). “I installed this app month ago. It is very slow and now it is freeze. Try to reinstall it to fix the problem but now error is coming, (unfortunately, talk tablet has stopped). I have latest version of android. If anyone knows, how to solve this problem please let me know” (Farrukh Ch, 2015). Despite some bad eggs, this application also has some strong follower. Julie Vakos is an example of one, as she is quoted saying; “This company stands by its product with on-going tech support and great customer service. It is comparable in features and accessibility to industry leading apps without the high price tag.” Figure 2.4: TalkTablet reviews Figure 2.5: TalkTablet reviews CHAPTER 2 NEW IDEAS 2.1 Introduction New ideas for this project will be on a basis of what the other implementations lack and what has been suggested during literature review as something that can be used to improve the current system. None of the current applications, that is, Pic-A-Pec; Grace, AAC Speech Communication, TalkTablet ; picture exchange for Autism people, that were assessed give the instant messaging functions that this project is expecting to give, as all are independent applications that can be utilized on just a single mobile phone. Grace gives the best interface out of all all the existing solutions as it is basic and simple to explore and additionally less demanding to outwardly dissect as it has enormous pictures on a white foundation with dark content, be that as it may it does not offer the usefulness of the Sounding Board application, which can read so anyone might hear recordings of the images which includes another level usefulness. It is notwithstanding, harder to explore and the photos are very little, with words being the essential screen component, which doesn't fit the reason for the application as the general population utilizing the application will probably perceive the photo portrayal. The venture objectives incorporate enabling the foundation of the application to be changed to make it less demanding to perused, enabling the client to push on the card with a specific end goal to peruse out loud the English portrayal of the card what's more, a photo forecast work that will accelerate the choice of images. These availability highlights furthermore, the transmission of messages between clients will expand upon the past thoughts and furthermore plans to enhance the usage and conceivable outcomes of utilizing PECS. Application Features Sounding Board Grace PexPix Spectrum Read-Aloud YES YES YES YES Camera YES YES YES NO HCI Concepts NO YES NO YES Device-Device NO NO NO YES High Contrast NO NO YES YES Tutorials YES NO NO YES Animations NO NO NO YES Sentences NO YES NO YES CHAPTER 3 DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT 3.1 Introduction This chapter will focus on the planning and designing of the system and then after that the implementation of the system. The framework for how the system will work will be proposed and the tools needed to make the system will be identified. In addition, the design of the program will be shown and justified in this chapter. After that the implementation process will be detailed. It is important to note that all work done in this chapter will be directly related to the literature review that was done on the previous chapter. The literature review will work as a guide to designing the system. 3.2 Development Methodology This part will explain and provide the methodology that have been used for the system development. For the sake of managing and controlling a research well in order to achieve the specified objectives within the timeline, the methodology plays a very important role. In order to complete this project, the traditional methodology better known as waterfall model will be used and has been chosen for the development of this project. The waterfall model involves some sequential stages, which are: • Requirement Gathering and analysis: All conceivable necessities of the system to be created are caught in this stage and archived in a requirement specification doc. • System Design: The necessity particulars from first stage are considered in this stage and system design is prepared. System Design helps in defining equipment and system requirements and additionally helps in characterizing overall system architecture. • Implementation: With inputs from system design, the system is initially grown in little programs called units, which are coordinated in the following stage. Every unit is produced and tried for its functionality, which is referred to as Unit Testing. • Integration and Testing: All the units grew in the implementation stage are coordinated into a system in the wake of testing of every unit. Post integration the whole system is tried for any faults and failures. • Deployment of system: Once the functional and non-functional testing is carried out, the product is deployed in the customer environment or discharged into the business. • Maintenance: There are a few issues which come up in the end user environment. To alter those issues patches are discharged. Additionally to upgrade the product some better forms are discharged. Maintenance is carried out to convey these changes in the client environment. Figure 3.1: Shows the classic-waterfall development model All these stages are fell to one another in which as above is seen as flowing steadily downwards (like a waterfall) through each stage. The following stage starts when the set of objectives are obtained for past stage and it is closed down, hence the name "Waterfall Model". In this model stages do not overlap. 3.3 Development Tools • The development environment best suited to develop an Android application is Android Studio, with built-in emulators and plugins. As the software is tailor-made for Android development, it is the best software to use. • For development java was chosen as the language of choice. This is because java is a portable language which will allow the same code to be used on multiple platforms. • As an IDE IntelliJ Idea will be used as it provides many useful features that can be used when doing any java projects. • The system will be developed on Windows 10; however, it can be tested on any platforms that support java including OSX and Linux. • As a version control system GitLab by GitLab Inc will be used. This is to make sure that the system can be reverted to previous versions and to keep the data safe. Bazaar was chosen because of its simplicity, and since the project is not big its foes not require a complex source control system. CHAPTER 4 RESULTS / DISCUSSION 4.1 Introduction The technique developed as your project is supposed to show improvement on techniques previously available. Therefore it may be necessary to spend time investigating whether this is true. Perhaps you need to set up some sort of quantitative test and do a little statistical analysis to confirm the improvement. Perhaps a group of your friends could test out the user interface and provide comment on its suitability for the task. Try to estimate the limitations of your work and if it does not cover certain aspects that a user might expect then say so and make sure the system will reject input it is not expected to cope with. CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS / FUTURE WORK 5.1 Introduction Whatever it was that your results showed should be summarised here. Hopefully the conclusion will be that your proposals proved to be brilliant and now the results bear this out. On the other hand your proposals may, in the light of the results obtained, prove to be less successful than you had hoped. In this case the conclusions should state why. In either case there should be some reference to future work, either to forward and expand on the successful outcome or to test ways of overcoming the shortfall in your ideas that didn't work out quite as expected but there should be something that shows you can see further implications of what you have achieved. REFERENCES Vogt, C. 1999. Creating Long Documents using Microsoft Word. Published on the Web at the Nottingham Trent University. Note: References are a list that includes the essential bibliographical details for each item to which you have referred in the body of your paper. It should ONLY include items to which you have made direct reference. A direct reference is where you have quoted/reproduced text or diagrams from another author or mentioned/referred to the work of another author in your report. That is quoted directly what they have said about something or mentioned their views or conclusions in your report. For details of citation and references see the information in the Project Guide. A Bibliography is a list of published materials that you have read or consulted for general information in the preparation of your work, concerning the subject of your Project, but have not made any direct reference to in your report i.e. 'background reading'. You should always provide a Reference List. A Bibliography is optional but when provided it should include all items in your Reference List as well as any additional items consulted in preparation of your work. BIBLIOGRAPHY Vogt, C. 1999. Creating Long Documents using Microsoft Word. Published on the Web at the Nottingham Trent University. Coote, H., Dobbs, B. & Jones, C. (1996). Defining databases. Wiley: Melbourne. Applications and Science in Soft Computing, Lotfi, Ahmad; Garibaldi, Jonathon M. (Eds.) 2004, X, 346 p. Springer, ISBN: 3-540-40856-8 Note: References are a list that includes the essential bibliographical details for each item to which you have referred in the body of your paper. It should ONLY include items to which you have made direct reference. A direct reference is where you have quoted/reproduced text or diagrams from another author or mentioned/referred to the work of another author in your report. That is quoted directly what they have said about something or mentioned their views or conclusions in your report. For details of citation and references see the information in the Project Guide. A Bibliography is a list of published materials that you have read or consulted for general information in the preparation of your work, concerning the subject of your Project, but have not made any direct reference to in your report i.e. 'background reading'. You should always provide a Reference List. A Bibliography is optional but when provided it should include all items in your Reference List as well as any additional items consulted in preparation of your work. APPENDIX A The content of these will differ with the different types of project. Any design and analysis charts/diagrams will be included here in full. In projects where software has been developed there will be an appendix for this. Our departmental requirement is that a CD, DVD or USB memory stick of all source code is submitted to your project supervisor. The appendix contained in the report will refer to this CD, DVD, or USB memory stick, provide a directory style listing of the files submitted and instructions for rebuilding and running the software. This might be source code of programs written in high level languages (C, C++, etc) together with any pertinent files ('make' files, non-standard libraries, etc). Alternatively, or in addition, you can place some or all of the source code in the appendix. In any case the source code needed to reconstruct any software you have developed must be submitted in its entirety in the CD, DVD, or USB memory stick. (Any code that has been used from a third party should reference the original developer). Hardware designs will require schematics/circuit diagrams, PCB layouts, simulation tests and pin outs. Most projects will require some form of user documentation to explain how to use the software/hardware produced. A researcher following up the work may wish to utilise the work of the original author and an appendix laying out the format of input files and how to interpret the output is required.