1111111111111111111111111111111 PB98-103245 Using Handheld Data Collectors in Highway Construction for Accounting and Materials Management
By
Peter J. Bosscher & Dean A. Yeazel
In Cooperation With
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation And The Federal Highway Administration
February, 1997
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON
Geotechnical Engineering Program Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, Wisconsin 53706
Technical Report Documentation Page
1. Report No. 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient's Catalog No.
4. Title and Subtitle 5. Report Date Using Handheld Data Collectors in Highway Construction for Accounting & February, 1997 Materials Management 6. Performing Organization Code k.....,--,.--c-.,------i 8. Performing Organization Report No. 7. Author(s) Peter J. Bosscher & Dean A. Yeazel SPR-0092-45-74 9. Performing Organization Name and Address 10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS) Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering University of Wisconsin-Madison 11. Contract or Grant No. Madison, WI 53706
12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address Wisconsin Department of Transportation 4802 Sheboygan Avenue P.O. Box 7965 14. Sponsoring Agency Code I Madison, WI 53707-7965 15. Supplementary Notes Research perfomed in cooperation with WisDOT and FHWA Research Title: Using Handheld Data Collectors in Highway Construction for Accounting & Materials Management WisDOT Contact: Sharon 1. Bremser, P.E. 608-266-0564 16. Abstract The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) mounted a multi-year study beginning in 1994 entitled, "Using Handheld Data Collectors in Highway Construction for Accounting and Materials Management" to determine the feasibility of deploying a new system for collecting pay quantity information on WisDOT construction projects. The first phase of this study was market research to select a software development environment and a pen-based computer hardware platform to deploy. PenRight! Pro 3.6 was selected for the software development environment. Two types of hardware were selected: full-sized tablet PC's and the Casio loomer, a handheld Personal Digital Assistants (PDA). The study was extended in December 1995 to gain additional user feedback and allow time for migration from the loomer to the Apple MessagePad. In all, three software applications were developed. The first provided integration with WisDOT's Item Record Account. The second was written in PenRight! Pro for the loomer, the third was written in the Newton Toolkit for the MessagePad. These applications were field deployed to seven construction projects in the Madison, WI area. During the second year, the staff for one project used both the loomer and the MessagePad to provide contrasted feedback. The testers felt that this system was an asset to their fieldwork. It provided a simpler way of entering many of their field measurements, and reduced the amount of time required to generate contractor payments and final out a project. Cost analyses indicated a timesaving sufficient to pay for the devices and development within one construction season. Based upon the findings of this study, the future use of handheld data collectors in highway construction for accounting and materials management is dependent upon: integration with WisDOT database software, the ability to customize the hardware for use by WisDOT for other applications such as bridge inspection, highway inventory and maintenance, and time sheets, suitability for use by field inspectors (relates to weight, screen visibility, and power requirements), and continued support of hardware platforms by manufacturer. Due to the rapid advances of the handheld computing industry, continued evaluation of applications of these devices is mandatory.
17. Key Words 18. Distribution Statement Construction Management, Pen-based Computers, Casio No Restriction. loomer, Apple MessagePad, Newton OS, Newton This document is available to the public through: Toolkit, PenRight! Pro, Handheld PC National Technical Information Service 5285 Port Royal Road Springfield, VA 22161 19. Security Classif. (of this report) 20. Security Classif. (of this page) 21. No. of Pages 22. Price Unclassified Unclassified
Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) Reproduction of completed page authonzed This form was eleclronically produced by Eme Federal Forms. inc.
Final Report Using Handheld Data Collectors in Highway Construction for Accounting and Materials Management
by
Peter 1. Bosscher Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Wisconsin-Madison
and
Dean Yeazel Graduate Student Civil and Environmental Engineering
Report to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation
February 27, 1997 This research is funded by the Wisconsin Council on Research of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration under Project #SPR-0092-45-74.
The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the data presented herein. The contents do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation or the Federal Highway Administration at the time of publication.
This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The United States Government assumes no liability for its contents or use thereof. This report does not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation.
The United States Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade and manufacturers' names appear in this report only because they are considered essential to the object of the document. Executive Summary This is the final report and recommendations from the study, "Using Handheld Data Collectors in Highway Construction for Accounting and Materials Management." The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of deploying a new system for collecting pay quantity information on WisDOT construction projects.
The first phase of this project was market research to select a software development environment and a hardware platform to deploy. PenRight! Pro 3.6 was selected for the software development environment. Two types of hardware were selected: full-sized tablet PC's and the Casio Zoomer, a handheld Personal Digital Assistants (PDA). The study was extended in December, 1995 to gain additional user feedback and allow time for migration from the Zoomer to the Apple MessagePad.
In all, three applications were developed. The first provided integration with WisDOT's Item Record Account. The second was written in PenRight! Pro for the Zoomer. the third was written in the Newton Toolkit for the MessagePad. These applications were field deployed to seven construction projects in the Madison area. During the second year, the staff for one project used both the Zoomer and the MessagePad to provide contrasted feedback.
The testers felt that this system was an asset to their field work. It provided a simpler way of entering many of their field measurements, and reduced the amount of time required to generate contractor payments and final out a project. Based on their estimation of how much time was saved per entry, it was estimated that about $3,600 per contract could be saved. This would allow for each hardware unit to be paid for in about 6 weeks. Because of this, we recommend implementing such a system.
The software written under this study was developed to the point that it was clean enough for testing purposes. Some additional work will be required to deploy it on a widespread basis. Additional work will also be required to integrate it with WisDOT's new field package, FieldManager. We recommend that the system be phased in over a period of two to three construction seasons to ensure that it is 100% ready for the field. In addition to the features originally specified for this study, other applications, such as remote timesheet recording, could be added to further increase the value of the hardware.
Based upon the findings of this project, future use of handheld data collectors in highway construction for accounting and materials management is dependent upon:
• integration with FieldManager software,
• the ability to customize the hardware for use by WisDOT for other applications such as bridge inspection, highway inventory and maintenance, and time sheets,
• suitability for use by field inspectors (relates to weight, screen visibility, and power requirements),
• continued support of hardware platform by manufacturer,
• usability of interface in terms of issues such as handwriting recognition vs. keyboarding and selectable lists.
Due to the rapid advances of the handheld computing industry, continued evaluation of applications of these devices is needed. For example, the advent of WinCE demands an evaluation with respect to the issues listed above. Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION 1
SUMMARY OF PHASE I REPORT 3
Software Selection Criteria 3
Hardware Selection Criteria...... •...... •...... •...... •.•...... •...... •....•.....•..•...... •.•...... •...... •.•.•....••..3
Development Environment 4
Hardware Platforms 4
EXTENSION OF STUDy...... •...... •...... ••...... 6
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT 7
Field Applications 7
PenRight! Pro 3.6 for DOS 14
Newton Toolkit 16
Advanced Revelation (AREV) interface 18
HARDWARE PLATFORMS 20
Tablet PC's 20
PDA's 21
ANALYSIS 30
Projects Tested 30
User Feedback 31
Cost Analysis 31
RECOMMENDATIONS 33
Current Hardware Market...... •...... •.•...•...•...... •...... •.•....•...... •...... •.•.•...... •.•....•.•....•••.•..•.•. 36
Issues Remaining..•...... •..•...... •..•...... ••..•...... ••.•...... •...... •...... •....•..•...... •.•...... •...... •.•...... •.•...... •..••.•••....• 36 Recommended Consultants Error! BookInark not defined.
Additional Enhancements 38
Implementation Plan 39
APPENDIX A 41
Current Hardware Market 41
APPENDIX B 50
Survey Results 50
Table of Figures
Initial Screen 7
Pay Quantity Group Selection 7
Bid Item Selection 8
Quantity Measurement Selection 8
Diary Entry 10
Compo Sheet Generated by Item Record Account 11
IRA Entry Generated from Data Collector 12
Dialog Parts 13
Prototypes in Newton Toolkit 17
Battery Cost Comparison 27
ii Introduction This is the final report and recommendations from the study, "Using Handheld Data Collectors in Highway Construction for Accounting and Materials Management." This study was funded by a grant to the University of Wisconsin Madison from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT). This study began in January, 1995.
Field pay quantity measuring has remained largely unchanged for the past 20 years. Currently, measurements are made by field personnel and recorded in one of three ways: on computational sheets (comp. sheets), into field diaries, or into a Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet in a handheld Hewlett-Packard palmtop Pc. In the case of compo sheets or field diaries, the computations are done by hand and must be checked by someone other than the person making the entry. Once the measurements have been tabulated, entry location information and the pay quantity are keyed into the DOT's Item Record Account (IRA), a DOS-based database application that is used for processing pay quantities. Once again, since there is the chance of error creeping in to any entry that is re-keyed, the IRA entry must be checked by someone other than the person that made the entry. Periodically throughout the construction season, the construction project manager dials in to a mainframe computer and uploads IRA pay quantity entries. This data is then used to generate payments to the contractor. Before a construction contract can be closed, all IRA entries must be checked.
This study introduced a new method of data collection that would, when fully implemented, eliminate the need for the checking of computations and the checking of computer entries on DOT construction projects. This is accomplished with the use of handheld pen-based data collectors. Field pay quantity measurements and inspector's diary entries are made on a pen-based data collector. At the end of each day, all entries are uploaded to the PC based systems that are currently in use in DOT field offices. Since all entries are made directly into the data collector and nothing is re-keyed, there is no need for the checking of entries. 2 The intent of this work was to look at the feasibility and benefits of implementing such a system. This report will discuss the development of the system, experiences with the hardware and software, and give recommendations based on field experiences and cost-savings analysis. 3 Summary of Phase I Report The Phase I Report for this study was issued on January 10, 1995. This report made recommendations on what hardware and software was to be used for field testing. These recommendations were based on product literature, and discussions with vendor representatives and other people that worked in the pen-based computer industry. Since the computer industry is very dynamic, it must be kept in mind that the recommendations were valid at the time the report was issued. Even two years later, the pen-based hardware market is still in its infancy and is constantly changing. The state of the current hardware market is discussed later in this report.
Software Selection Criteria The original project proposal listed the following criteria for selecting the software development environment:
• Programs written in C or C++. • Uses industry-standard data file formats (.DBF files). • Will accept handwriting in data fields, or on a pop-up keyboard.
In addition, we selected an environment that produced applications that run in
MS-DOS (or a DOS Shell In Windows). This allowed development of one application that could be used both on the new pen-based computers, and on existing desktop PC's in the DOT field offices.
Hardware Selection Criteria The project proposal gave the following criteria for selecting the hardware platform:
• Pen-based • Handwriting recognition built in. • MS-DOS compatible. • Lightweight. • Wide environmental operating characteristics. 4 After review of the software and hardware markets, one of these requirements was eased: MS-DOS compatibility. There are hardware platforms that are not 100% MS-DOS compatible, but can still run some MS-DOS applications and can communicate with MS-DOS platforms. This is dependent upon the software development environment used. This requirement should be rewritten to be "Communication capability required".
We also evaluated hardware for field use of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation's newly adopted Civil Engineering software, CAiCE.
Development Environment The market for pen-based software development environments was, and still is, very small. Because of its cross platform capability, ease of programming, and functionality, PenRight! Pro 3.6 for DOS was selected as the target development environment. This package is a cross between a database package and a programming language. This is accomplished by having a graphical 'front-end' for designing the user interface. Database functions are provided via a standard C function library. Once the interface is refined, PenRight! generates C code for the dialog boxes, data entry fields, and controls.
Hardware Platforms Two types of hardware platforms were identified as solutions for this study. One was a pen-based full-fledged PC that was capable of running the application developed in PenRight!, as well as any DOS- or Windows-based application. A unit of this size would cost upwards of $4,000 so it would only be practical to have one on each construction project for the Project Manager. Four units were identified:
TelePad3: This is a '486DX4 running at 75Mhz, but future models are planned at up to 100MHz. It's color display, removable keyboard, and expansion ports (they can accept larger hard drives and GPS units) make it a very powerful machine. It was supposed to have begun shipping in January, 1995. 5 Fujitsu's Stylistic 500: The lightest of any of the PC compatibles, this '486DX4 75MHz is only limited by its 64 greyscale display and storage capacity. Mass storage is done on a PCMCIA type ill hard drive, so it is limited to about 275MB.
Toshiba T200CS: this unit has the same storage limitations as the Stylistic 500, and its microprocessor is a 486DX2 running at 40MHz.
Compaq Concerto: This unit is also based on a 486DX2 microprocessor running at 33MHz. Mass storage is a 400 MB hard drive. This unit is no longer being manufactured.
The other type of unit selected was a Personal Digital Assistant, or PDA. A PDA is typically much smaller than a laptop Pc. Because of this, they are generally more restricted in their capabilities and storage capacity. The Casio Z-7000 "Zoomer" was chosen for its price, weight, and functionality. Its light weight made it ideal for carrying around the job site all day. Furthermore, it runs a reduced version of DOS, so it can run any application developed in PenRight! With a complete system costing less than $1,000, it could be feasible to have every inspector on every construction job in the state with their own Zoomer. 6 Extension of Study In December, 1995, this study was extended to include testing for an additional construction season. This was done for two reasons. First since development of the PenRight! applications took longer than initially anticipated, the number of projects we were able to use for testing was smaller than desired. An extra season allowed additional user feedback. Second, there was some trouble with the chosen hardware platform itself. A second season allowed migration of the software to the Apple MessagePad, a hardware platform that is more stable and mature. 7
Software Development
Field Applications Once the Phase I report was issued, development work commenced immediately. The first step was to develop the software that would be used by field personnel. The compo sheet metaphor was used in developing the user interface for the software.
WisOOT Launchpad Selec~ an En~ry 92.656 : : : : : : 3858-83-71 63181 8 11/85/93 3858-83-71 41531 8 11/84/93 3858-83-71 68123 8 11/81/93 3858-83-71 28481 8 86/18/93 3858-83-71 64682 8 85/27/93 3858-83-71 64494 8 11/88/93 3858-83-71 64682 8 18/29/93 3858-83-71 68123 8 18/26/93
• 29 Entr ies 71~856 Avai lable 818 ADJUSTING MANHOLE COVERS tIJ[[]EBQuantities Diary Cal ibrate - ENTIRE PROJECT D 1.0<\1""j
~~1II (Delete...) About COMfllun icate Quit ~ ~ ~ ~ EdH leo €J:- P :0/'1 Pref'erences « » i ~.:~~.~ ~.~.~:.~ ~.~.~~.~~ ~ ~.~.~.~ ~~~ ~.~.~.~~.~ J Figure 1 Initial Screen Figure 2 Pay Quantity Group Selection When the user first launches the application on the Zoomer, they are presented with a simple iconical menu, from which they can choose several options: Quantity entries, Diary entries, or uploading to a Pc. When the user taps the Quantities 'button,' they are presented with a list of all entries that are currently stored on the unit (see Figure 2). This is the starting point on the Newton. They can choose one of two options: create a new entry, or edit one that is stored on the unit. 8
Date Project IO c==- Once the user chooses 18/87/95 3858-83-71 _II I I 01020 REMOUING OLD BRIDGE, New Quantity Entry to create a new pay quantity STATION 12+81.5 01030 '--- $ 2701219.00 per L.S. Us.rID: DOTDAY...... _.H .... _ ...._...._...... -. group entry, they first must Item Number . : I • • ... .Proj.«ID ')050-0')-11 20401 REMOVING PAVEMENT enter the date of the entry, the 20405 REMOVING CURB AND GUTTE .6..oup Code 01010 20406 REMOVING CONCRETE SIDEW 20416 REMOVING INLETS Bidltem project ill, group code and 20422 REMOVING CONCRETE BASES • n.,06ll.E.MOIfItlG COI'ICll.UE. SI 20503 UNCLASSIFIED EXCAVATION IREMOInNG CONCRETE SIDEWALK (S.Y.) I 20610 EXCAVATION FOR STRUCTUR 21301 FINISHING ROADWAY bid item number (see 30404 CRUSHED AGGREGATE BASE .40501 ASPHALTIC MATERIAL FOR PL .Sequence 0 Figure 3). The date field ( Cancel) ~ I NeHt I 1&1 defaults to the current date. Figure 3 Bid Item Selection They can pick the project ill, group code and bid item from a list. The information in these lists has been previously downloaded into the handheld unit from the Item Record Account. They then enter the stationing and location of the measurements. All information entered so far (the entry 'header' information) will eventually be transferred, along with the total quantity measured, directly to the Item Record Account.
13050-03'71 01030 900020 When the header ! AGGREGATE SLURRY BACKALL ! i information for a new pay 17121196 9B+00 103+00 3050-03-71 019 61182 0 ~ !.ppro.ache!l l < no description> quantity group has been 11/05/93 : ENTIRE PROJECT !~8"'+O;;;'O5.I;;;:OO;C;:+O~OC=;,.:;;pp;::ro.SCh;:======;;7;;';11~'1
entered, or if the user chooses 1101+00 -103+00, approach 266.67: 12+28. 13' LT. to edit an existing pay 1.88 12+25. 2' AT. quantity group, they are 1. 88 12+35. 15' AT. 1.88 presented with a list of all : 13+38. 16' AT. ! Total: 977.78 c.Y. 1.8B ~l measurements that have been Tol.l: 6.88 lliJLE£) ( Delele ) It I~~l$:~p:o/'I made for the entry. Each ( Add Line) «Edil Line D(,"",';:cDO;O-:N;;::-E-') l...~.:=:.~ ... _~~.~.~: .....~.~.~.~.~~_.~ .....~:~.~_._~:~ .._ASSiSt! individual measurement Figure 4 Quantity Measurement Selection corresponds to one line on a compo sheet. Once again, they can choose to edit an existing measurement, or create a new measurement. In either case, they first enter the stationing and location of the entry. They can also enter a description of the particular set of measurements. The user also sees a quantity for the measurement. By tapping on the quantity, they are presented with a screen used to enter each measurement. 9 Different entry fields are shown, depending on the pay units of the bid item. What is unique about the software that was written for this project is that the user writes the actual dimensions they measure (e.g.: length and width of an area of concrete pavement) instead of just the pay quantity. As the user enters the individual measurements, the pay quantity is automatically calculated and displayed. For our field testing, the user could also choose from three shapes for their measurements: rectangle, triangle or arc. The formulas are built in to the software, and can be added to.
Pay units are shown in the table below. The table of units shows:
• the actual pay units,
• the units that are computed from the user's entries,
• the factor used to convert the base units to pay units,
• whether the user should be allowed to select the shape (rectangle, triangle or arc) of their measurements, and
• the label for each dimension of the measurement.
For example, if the bid item is paid for in square yards, a conversion factor of 9 would be used to convert from square feet to square yards. Shapes are allowed, since square yards are a two-dimensional unit. The first dimension would be the length of the measurement, in lineal feet. The second dimension would be the width of the measurement, also in lineal feet. 10 Table 1 Bid items and associated dimensions pay I base I Ishapes Dimension 1 Dimension 2 Dimension 3 I I units units factor allowed units I descr. units I descr. units I descr. I ACRE S.F. 43,560 yes L.F. Length L.F. Width C.F. C.F. 1 L.F. Length L.F. Width L.F. Height C.Y. C.F. 27 L.F. Length L.F. Width L.F. Height CWT. CWT. 1 CWT. Weight CYMI CYMI 1 C.Y. Volume MI. Distance DAYS DAYS 1 DAYS Duration EACH EACH 1 EACH Quantity GAL. GAL. 1 GAL. Volume HRS. HRS. 1 HRS. Duration I.D. I.D. 1 I.D. Diameter L.F. L.F. 1 L.F. Length L.S. L.S. 1 L.S. Quantity LB. LB. 1 LB. Weight MBM MBM 1 MBM MBM MGAL MGAL 1 MGAL Volume MI. MI. 1 MI. Distance S.F. S.F. 1 yes L.F. Length L.F. Width S.Y. S.F. 9 yes L.F. Length . L.F. Width STA. STA. 1 STA. Length I STYD STYD 1 STA. ,,"~h C.Y. Volume TON TON 1 TON Weight I YDMI YDMI 1 C.Y. Volume MI. Distance
Once the inspector has completed all measurements for an entry, they tap a button to take them back to the list of all quantity entries. At this point, they are asked if they want to 'lock' the entry. Locked entries cannot be modified, and are uploaded the next time the user connects to the Item Record Account.
Inspector's Diary A similar sequence of Date Project ID Contractor 3050-03-71 7115/93 86/87/95 3858-83-71 lI28 L114 - DON LIND EXPLOSIV[S CONSULTING event occurs for Inspector's Workers: .J!. Hours: ....!!..:...! EI2J Workers +Hour. 3:00 (Equ i plTlent ) Diary entries. The user Ca~ 09. Endloader E.9Y.iRml?nt . jOrillRig browses a list of past entries, Work .~~:~. . . A.bU\~~n\Sf~r.'h~rg.~. and can choose to edit entries, !Dril1mg . . .. !
create new ones, or copy old (Enl.' Diary Text ) i ~ ~ ones. When creating a new I:~~~~l . entry, they again enter the Figure 5 Diary Entry date of the entry and select the project 10. They then choose the contractor from a supplied list. In the diary entry, the user can enter the number of workers, the number of hours worked, the equipment 11 present on the job site, the work performed, and a general narrative of activities for the day. To ease entry, the user can pick common pieces of equipment from a pop-up list.
When the user connects to the Item Record Account, all entries on the data collector, including entries not 'locked', are uploaded and archived on the PC. This provides disaster recovery in case the field unit is damaged. The IRA then processes the locked quantity entries. The measurements for each field entry are totaled. A new IRA entry is created with this quantity total and the header information the user entered when they created the entry. The 'Entered By' field is filled in with the user ill the user entered when they created the entry. A unique document number is assigned to the entry (see discussion below). The user can enter a plan quantity for this location, if desired. The user then has the option of accepting the entry, or rejecting it. If they accept the entry, a compo sheet is printed, and the entry is marked to be deleted from the data collector. If they reject it, no compo sheet is printed, and it is left on the data collector. Figures 6 and 7 show the compo sheet that is generated when a data collector entry is accepted, and the corresponding Item Record Account entry is created.
FIELD QUANTITY MEASUREMENTS Wisconsin Department of Transportation
STATION - STATION, LOCATION Lenqth, L.r. Width, L.r. Shope Quantity
STA. 12+15 - 12+58.1, WEST or BRIDGE 13.10 52.10 Rectanqle 250.91 STA. 12+50.8 - 12+58.1, NORTH EDGE 7.30 -10. 80 Rectanqle -8.76 STA. 12+50.8 - 12+58.1, NORTH EDGE 7.30 -3.10 Rectanqle -12.11 STA. 12+21.9 - 12+35.1, S01ITll EDGE 13.50 -1. 50 Trianqle -3.38 STA. 12+35.1 - 12+19. 0, S01ITll EDGE 13.60 -7.50 Trianqle -5.67 STA. 12+35.1 - 12+19. 0, S01ITll EDGE 13.60 -1.50 Rectanqle -6.80 STA. 12+19. a - 12+58.1, S01ITll EDGE 9.10 -1. 80 Rectanqle -1. 82 STA. 12+19. a - 12+58.1, S01ITll EDGE 9.10 -12. 00 Rectanqle -12.13 STA. 12+37.1 - 12+15.8, NORTH EDGE 8.10 -5. 50 Rectanqle -5.13 STA. 12+15,8 - 12+50.8, NORTH EDGE 5.00 -5.50 Rectanqle -3.06 STA. 12+15.8 - 12+50.8, NORTH EDGE 5.00 -5. 30 Rectanqle -13. 25
TOTAL
3050-03-71 - 010 20101 - 0 Page
Figure 6 Compo Sheet Generated by Item Record Account 12 IRA Log Inquil·y Today 10-11-95 P..oject Humbe.. G..oup Code Item Humbe.. Seq II RH Ente..ed By DOT DAY 03050-03-11 01010 20401 0 303 Changed By Checked By DATAC. Date Incu....ed Station II 1 Station II 2 Location 06-10-93 WEST OF B-908 Plan Quantity Quantity Used Quantity to Date 118.53 2125.02 Cont..act Quantity Deuiation Amount Desc..iption 388.00 10.00 REMOUIHG PAUEMEHT Unit p..ice Unit of Measu..e $3.0000 S.Y. Item page numbe.. 1 Rema..ks: See Page 111-303
Shift-
WindowlEnte.. ISu IOptions I ISoft~eys I I IRA .LOG.FILE 1030500311*01 Pl'otec IFILTER I I /30119210 I /Leuel 4 Figure 7 IRA Entry Generated from Data Collector Each pay item (Project ill-Group Code-Item Number-Sequence combination) has a unique 'page number'. The IRA can print a report that is a listing of all entries, with each page containing just the entries for a particular page number. To finalize a project, the project manager produces a booklet with this listing and all compo sheets in it. The booklet is organized in page number order. Many project managers use the page number to identify their compo sheets. For instance, if a pay item was on page number 5, the associated compo sheets might be numbered 5-1,5-2,5-3, etc. The page number for the compo sheet is then entered on in the IRA entry (e.g.: 'See Page #5-1") for future reference. Since we had no way of knowing if there were any hand entered compo sheets, we used the item page number, and a unique sequential ill (the IRA 'run number' that is assigned to all entries) for our compo sheet page number.
Once all quantity entries have been stepped through, the diary entries are processed. This process is similar to the quantity entries. The user is presented with each diary entry, at which time they can accept or reject it. If it is accepted a printout is generated; otherwise, there is no printout.
After all entries have been processed, the user reconnects the data collector to the IRA. A listing of entries to be deleted from the data collector is downloaded. Ifthe bid items for the project have been added to since the last download, a new list of items can be sent. Once the user returns to our application on the data collector, the entries to be removed are deleted. 13 If a hardware malfunction prevents a quantity or diary entry from printing correctly, the user still has the capability of re-printing a particular entry. It is simply a matter of selecting the entry from a list and pressing a key to regenerate a printout.
We chose to upload the raw data to the Item Record Account, instead of sending just the summary entry information. We use the power of the desktop PC to process the field measurements, create the summary entry, and print the compo sheet.
Measurements Data Entry . "200 ~ Fields ! +Leng1:h, L.F. .. .. I Shape I Lengch 16.88 L.F • .. : . Wi Triangle Widch heckboxes Li·F.iiiiiS.i~·~~" Arc C -TJ!j+ii'd1:h' """' .. 3.68 L.F. ii " [y] Sound? [y] Refresh? Scrollable ~~s:t ( Cancel) Quantity J-- Quan1:i1:Y: 6."18 S.Y. Push ' (( OK I 22.22 S.Y. e::a: :c~a:~H ) Buttons l!.~~:~J 1 ~ Log Menages Check ~ ------Clear Error Menages at Launch Boxes l'IewTime ~OAM ~@PM----- Radio Buttons Figure 8 Dialog Parts Before discussing the unique features of PenRight! and the Newton Toolkit, we should point out some similar features. Each environment allows the programmer to graphically create dialogs, and add text, graphic images, data entry fields, radio buttons, push buttons, check boxes, and scrollable lists. These items are shown in Figure 8. Data entry fields are where the user actually enters the data. Radio buttons are used when the user should select only one of a number of options. They behave similar to the tuning buttons on an old car radio, in that only one can be 'pressed' at a time. Push buttons are used to cause an action to occur. Scrollable lists are used when there is a large number of options to choose from, like the bid item number.
What follows below are our experiences with the different programming environments. These are relevant in relation to the experience level of our 14 programmer.
PenRight! Pro 3.6 for DOS Initial development was done using PenRight! Pro 3.6 for DOS. Development in PenRight! was begun in early February, 1995 and completed in late June. About 20 hours a week was spent on this application for a total of 20 weeks. This adds up to approximately 400 hours of development time. Once this software was ready, the Item Record Account interface was written (see below). The software package was released into the field in late July. After some initial debugging, the field ready product was deployed in late August for further testing.
PenRight! provides two main advantages over applications developed from scratch: a graphical interface to develop and link dialog boxes, and function libraries for handling dBase data files, communications, and handwriting recognition.
When working on a project, you first launch PenResource. This application shows you a screen of all resources (dialog boxes, graphic images, code fragments, and fonts) that are in your project. Once you have added all the required resources, PenResource can combine them into a single resource file for use by the finished application.
From within PenResource, you can edit or add dialog boxes using DesignForrn, or link the dialog boxes together and generate code with CodeStart. DesignForrn allows you to create and edit dialog boxes. This includes adding text, graphic images, data fields, buttons and other controls. You can control all attributes (text font, size, etc.) of each of these items. CodeStart allows you to use a graphical interface to link dialog boxes together. For instance, when the user taps a button in one dialog, you can use CodeStart to link tapping the button to opening another dialog. You can also edit the entire C code for your finished application directly in CodeStart. Alternatively, you can use a text editor to modify the files that CodeStart generates. Once you have done all of the linking, CodeStart will generate the C source and build files for your application. The build files are used by a standard C compiler 15 (made by either Borland or Microsoft) to compile the finished application. In our case, we used Borland C++ for our compiler.
Low-level debugging of the finished application was accomplished with the debugging tools included with the Borland compiler. The package we utilized was Turbo Debugger, which permits debugging programs written for DOS or Windows environments. Turbo Debugger uses menus, multiple windows, dialog boxes, and online context-sensitive help to provide an easy-to-use, interactive debugging environment. The use of a debugger is critical to rapidly and effectively finding run time errors. Much of the development time was spent debugging the code in this environment.
It was initially thought that PenRight! would provide a finished product with a minimal amount of time invested. PenRight!'s graphical interface promised to generate the interface very quickly. PenRight! did make it quite easy to generate all of the dialogs, and link them together. Once these were designed, it generated C code that could be modified and tweaked. However, the vast majority of the development time on this study was spent adding code that would put data from the data files into the dialogs. This was more of an underestimation of the effort required, than an indication of PenRight!'s robustness. It really means that a dedicated C programmer will be necessary for full implementation. It should be noted that many firms are successfully using PenRight! today.
As stated in the Phase I Report, PenRight! can utilize standard dBase data files for data storage. By using a standard database file format, these files can easily be used by other applications. By providing function libraries for accessing dBase files, it was not necessary to generate our own routines for handing data files, so even more time was saved over developing from scratch. Once the function libraries for accessing the dBase data files were used, the memory demands of our PenRight! application increased dramatically. This made it necessary to free up as much lower memory in DOS as possible. This limitation required considerable effort to overcome. This required some changes to the operations on the Zoomer (see discussion under 16 hardware, below). From this experience, moving away from the DOS environment was seen as desirable if not essential.
A freeware utility was used to transfer data from the Zoomer to the PC. This utility, ZDOS, is run on the PC side. A built in communications application was used on the Zoomer side. While both the Zoomer and ZDOS supported data transfer rates up to 38,200 bps, it was found that anything above 19,200 bps was unstable and would cause transfer errors to occur.
Newton Toolkit Development for NewtonOS 2.0 started in May of 1996 and was completed in July of 1996. About 120 hours were spent on application development over eight weeks. After its first introduction into the field, a small amount of additional time was spent debugging to ready the application for field use.
Applications for the NewtonOS (NOS) are written with a special programming language, NewtonScript. Programming in NewtonScript is similar to object-oriented Pascal, with specialized calls for the NOS. Another advantage over Pascal is greatly reduced use of pointers. Large scale NewtonScript programming can only be done with Apple's Newton Toolkit (NTK). The NTK is a graphical programming environment available for either the Macintosh as, or Windows 3.1. Creating dialogs in NTK is very similar to doing so in PenRight!'s DesignForm: you can easily place text, fields, buttons and graphic images in the dialog. However, instead of switching to a separate application (CodeStart) to add code, everything is done directly from the dialog editor. In addition to this, NTK has two major benefits over programming in PenRight! First, NTK provides prototypes for many common dialog elements (see the discussion of 'pickers', below) that PenRight! does not. Second, since programming in NTK is, by default, object oriented, it is easy to re-use segments of code that have been developed for other portions of your application, or even other applications. By reusing code, development time is greatly reduced. 17 ·Oate: Octoher '. 1996
• October 1996 • smtwtfs .Station: .~~±.~.9. . 121145 , 6 7 8 9 1011 12 100+00 1314151617 18 19 98+00 2021 2223242526 157+00 2728293031 300+00 200+00 9+50 [1 ..9J9f61 103+00 10+00 protoOateTextPicker protoLabelPicker
.Hours 0:00
f...... f41 Workers protoTimeOuration TextPicker protoNumberPicker
Figure 9 Prototypes in Newton Toolkit A common feature in the Newton Toolkit is the picker. A picker is any feature in a dialog box that the user can interact with and make a selection, or 'pick.' A large variety of pickers are provided with the Newton Toolkit. Figure 9 shows four of the most common types of pickers. They are: (clockwise from left) protoDateTextPicker, protoLabelPicker, protoTimeDurationTextPicker and protoNumberPicker. The first three of these look like a normal entry field, with a diamond at the left side of the label. The diamond indicates to the user that by tapping on the label, something will happen. In each of these, the picker is shown before and after tapping. protoTimeDurationTextPicker and protoNumberPicker function like an old digital clock: the user taps on the top of a number to 'flip' down the number, or on the bottom to flip up the number.
The advantage of using pickers is that there is less for the user to actually write. For example, they can choose the date from a calendar, the station from a list of values previously entered, or tap to change a time duration or number of workers. An important feature available in the protoLabelPicker is the ability of the application to remember previous entries that the user made. In a situation where there are large numbers of entries with similar dimensions, such as concrete pavement repair where 18 the width is generally l2.0-feet, the user can pick the dimension from the pop-up list instead of having to re-write it each time.
NOS differs from conventional operating systems in that the data files are not directly accessible by the end user. All data is stored in 'soups' that the operating system handles. Since the operating system handles the data files instead of the individual application, this makes the data from one application accessible to other applications. For this reason, we were unable to use the standard dBase file format as specified in the Phase I Report.
A shareware utility, Slurpee, was used to transfer data from the Newton to the PC, with the PC running a standard communications terminal emulator that is capable of transferring ASCII text files. When Slurpee transfers data files, individual fields are delimited by tab characters, and records are separated by carriage return/linefeed character combinations. A file with these delimiters can be imported by a wide variety of software including AREV. For this reason, it was determined that writing to dBase files was of critical importance.
Using Slurpee for a data transfer method requires that the user exit the quantity or diary application first. The Newton OS has a built in method of transferring data, called 'routing'. This should be added to the applications that were developed to make them more consistent with the look and feel of other Newton applications. To simply transfer our data files with routing, a different piece of software on the PC side would be required. However, it would also make it possible for the user to e-mail their measurements to a centralized location, if desired.
Advanced Revelation (AREV) interface The Item Record Account was written in the Advanced Revelation (AREV) database package. Once the software for the Zoomer was nearing completion, it was time to add the ability for the IRA to import entries from a data collector. Approximately 80 hours were spent over the span of four weeks adding connectivity for the Zoomer. Another 20 hours was spent modifying this code for compatibility 19 with the Newton.
The work done thus far in modifying the Item Record Account is a moot point, since WisDOT will be switching completely to a new 'off-the-shelf' application, FieldManager, beginning with the 1997 construction season. Some amount of work will be needed to integrate our application with FieldManager. This is described in greater detail in the Analysis section below. 20 Hardware Platforms Two different levels of hardware platforms were identified for testing in the Phase I Report: Tablet PC's and Personal Digital Assistants (PDA's). Each of these types of devices have common parts: display, power supply, processor and storage.
The most vulnerable part of any of these components is the display. All portable devices made today use Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD's). A LCD is able to display data by running an electrical current through each individual dot, or pixel, in the display. This electrical current changes the temperature of the pixels, which results in them changing color. Because of the way in which they operate, LCD's are somewhat sensitive to temperature extremes. One user did report that the test unit didn't like hot or cold temperatures. This points out a common problem with LCD's: in direct sunlight, the relatively large area of the LCD gets warm, which causes the display to darken. The darkening of the display is fixed easily enough by adjusting the contrast setting on the device. Cold temperatures effect the display by increasing electrical resistance of the Liquid Crystal. This can be counter-effected again by adjusting the contrast, but only to a certain extent. One other effect of cold weather is slowing down the speed in which display reacts; the colder the temperature, the longer it takes for the electrical current to warm each individual pixel. This makes the display appear sluggish. Other displays were examined such as a color STN dual scan display and a TFT active-matrix color display. Neither of these displays, which are commonly found on today's laptops, were visible in daylight hours unless carefully shielded from the ambient light. This was true even on cloudy days. It is our recommendation that only monochrome LCD displays be considered for outdoor use.
Tablet PC's The Tablet PC was targeted for the construction Project Manager, to provide the ability to run the quantity measuring application, the Item Record Account, and CAiCE, WisDOT's new geometric design package on one unit. The major advantage of this was to be gained from being able to run CAiCE on a portable unit. At the time 21 of the Phase I Report, WisDOT had not begun to deploy CAiCE. As a result, the exact system requirements were not known. Now that it has been implemented statewide, WisDOT management has recommended that anything less than a Pentium 90 MHz PC poses too many performance limitations. At this time there are few Tablet PC's available with Pentium or equivalent processors. Furthermore, most of the users felt that the PDA's tested were of ideal size and that a tablet would be too big to carry around on the job.
TelePad3 At the time that the Phase I Report was written, the Telepad3 had not yet been released. It promised to have the most horsepower of any of the pen-based Tablet PC's, and at the time was the only color unit available. It was promised to be a '486DX4 running at 75Mhz, with future models planned at up to 100MHz. It was not released until field testing had begun, and even then it was only available in a '486DX2 running at 66 MHz. It has not been upgraded since. Because of these problems, the Telepad3 was not evaluated as a part of this project.
Compaq Concerto Although this unit is no longer in production, a used one was purchased to evaluate the use of the PenRight! application and CAiCE on it. This unit has a 486DX2 microprocessor running at 33MHz.
PDA's A Personal Digital Assistant, or PDA, is a small handheld computing device. They come in many shapes and sizes. Most have pressure sensitive screens so the user can write or tap on them to interact with the unit. Some have small built-in keyboards, while others rely solely upon handwriting recognition. Some are even available with barcode readers, mini-printers, and Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) receivers.
PDA's usually have custom microprocessors instead of the standard Intel or Motorola CPUs. As such they are, for the most part, not capable of running Windows, 22 Macintosh OS, or even DOS. Instead, they usually run custom operating systems written specifically for their processor. By today's standards, PDA's have much less power than a tablet or laptop Pc. However, they are computing giants compared to the first PC's introduced over 15 years ago.
In general, PDA's run on regular AA or AAA batteries. To conserve power, they do not support hard disk drives. Instead, they rely upon built-in RAM, or interchangeable RAM cards. This limits their storage space. Despite their limited battery capacity, their custom low-power using processors give them lifespans many times that of a typical laptop Pc.
Casio Z-7000 "Zoomer" The Casio Zoomer was one of the first pen-based Personal Digital Assistants (PDA's) on the market. It was developed jointly with pen-based computing leader GRiD Systems Corporation. The Zoomer was introduced in early 1993. Since its release, Casio has not offered any upgrades to either the hardware or the operating system. Since the start of this study, Casio has discontinued the Zoomer. A Zoomer with a 1.8 MB storage card, PenRight! runtime software, and padded case can be purchased for under $600.
The Zoomer runs a reduced set of DOS 3.1 functions. It relies upon the Geos Graphical User Interface (GUl) for interaction with the user. Geos was an early competitor to Microsoft Windows that requires much less RAM and disk space. The Zoomer's standard operation uses Geos to provide the user with calendar, notepad, address book and e-mail functions. Because it is not 100% DOS compatible, the user cannot drop out of Geos directly into DOS to run PenRight! Instead, PenRight! can only be run by rebooting the machine or launching it out of the Geos File Manager.
Geos, the operating system, and all built in software are stored permanently in the Zoomer's Read-Only-Memory (ROM), which is treated as the A: drive. When the Zoomer boots into Geos, it configures about 340 kB of its RAM as a storage disk, the B: drive. User settings are stored on this drive. Any storage card that is used is treated 23 as the C: drive. Since some of the RAM is being used as a disk drive, there is not as much available to PenRight! as is desirable. Because of this, we decided to boot the Zoomer directly into PenRight! This made the full 640k of RAM available to our application. There were two drawbacks to this method: by using the entire RAM as memory, any contents of the RAM disk are lost. This includes the user settings file. If the user wants to return to Geos mode, she must go through a lengthy system configuration procedure. Once this was realized, we decided to restrict the Zoomer to operation in PenRight! mode only. This lead to the second drawback, which is that the user cannot take advantage of some of the built in software on the Zoomer, however this software was of secondary importance to this project.
Power Consumption The Zoomer operates on three AA sized batteries. The manufacturer claims that it will run up to 90 hours on a set of alkaline batteries. The units functionality does not allow for detailed checking of the battery leveL A software alert is only sent if the battery power dropped below a certain level. This is monitored by Geos, but we were unable to detect this change in PenRight! using code provided by the manufacturer. When the batteries got below a certain level, the unit would put itself to sleep, regardless of what was occurring, even file transfer operations. This was most evident during uploads, which are particularly power intensive. The unit would, on occasion, shut itself off during uploading of data due to a low battery. This would disrupt the upload, and the transfer process would have to be started over.
Storage Space The Zoomer comes standard with 1 MB of built-in RAM. The RAM is not expandable. The unit we tested also came with a 1.8 MB SunDisk storage card. This storage card requires no battery to retain its memory. Because we freed up the entire internal RAM for system usage, all program and data files for our application were stored on the SunDisk card. One advantage this provided is that, if the unit was damaged, the card could be removed and the data accessed on another unit. A second 24 advantage is that the Zoomer's built in RAM is volatile: if the unit loses power completely, the contents of its RAM are lost.
Table 2 Zoomer Storage Requirements bytes per a-.erage total max. total record number storage number storage Contractors 107 5 535 20 2,140 Diary 69 4 276 10 690 Item Entries 192 100 19,200 200 38,400 Group Codes 27 4 108 34 918 Bid Items 198 47 9,306 281 55,638 Jumptable 296 10 2,960 20 5,920 Project-Group-Item 63 132 8,316 1,526 96,138 Projects 201 2 402 10 2,010 Pay Units 83 40 3,320 80 6,640 -~~ Total 44,423 208,494
italicized numbers are estimated Table 2 shows the amount of storage required for each record in the data files on the Zoomer, along with the estimated number of records for each file. The number of records for the Project, Group Code, Item and Project-Group-Item files were determined by averaging all let contracts for calendar years 1995 and 1996. It is estimated that on average 44,423 bytes of storage is required for the data for the average construction contract. At most, 208,494 bytes will be required for the data. Add to this 711,500 bytes for storing PenRight ! and our application files and there is still over half of the storage remaining on the 1.8MB SunDisk card.
Handwriting Recognition Handwriting recognition on the Zoomer is handled both by Geos, and by PenRight! PenRight! uses a static built-in algorithm to recognize the user's handwriting. Recognition is on a character-by-character basis. Our users felt that the Handwriting recognition on the Zoomer left much to be desired.
Durability The body of the Zoomer is made of plastic, but it has a somewhat rubbery feel to it. A hard lid latches over the display to protect it, and can be folded behind the unit 25 when not in use. The display itself is remarkably durable. Its surface is a scratch- resistant plastic. Most damage to the displays on pen-based units occurs when a small piece of grit or sand gets caught under the tip of the stylus. Only one of the field units showed slight wear or damage to the display. One of the Zoomers shipped with a broken cover, but in all they seemed of consistent quality.
The Zoomer comes with a collapsible pen that stores in a slot in the bottom of the unit. When extended, the pen is only 4-inches long, and about half the diameter of a standard ball-point pen. Most users found this pen to be somewhat difficult to use. Full-sized pens proved to be much more to the testers' liking.
We purchased protective cases for the Zoomers in hopes of providing some amount of protection from harsh field conditions. Casio offers a padded vinyl case that has a clear piece of vinyl on one side. The Zoomer can be put in the case with the lid open, and the user can write through the vinyl. A shoulder strap was added to make the whole assembly easy to carry. Most users found it too difficult to write through the case, so they used the case to carry the Zoomer, and removed it from the case when they wanted to use it.
The manufacturer's specification indicates that the Zoomer can operate from a range of 32 OF to 104 oF.
The Casio Zoomer is no longer in production. However, Casio still has a large stock of them. They are available from a few mail-order outlets.
Apple MessagePad (Newton) The Apple MessagePad (Newton) was first released in late 1993. This was approximately six months after the Zoomer was introduced. It is slightly larger than the Zoomer at 8" x 4" x 1.25", although the two units weigh the same. Since its introduction, Apple has released three newer versions of the MessagePad hardware, and has upgraded the operating system several times. Two new, much more powerful versions of the hardware are slated for release in the first quarter of 1997. The hardware version tested was the MessagePad 120. Also available is the MessagePad 26 130, which is a 120 with increased RAM, and a backlit display. The MessagePad 120 can be purchased with a padded case for under $500.
The MessagePad runs Apple's Newton Operating System (NOS). It does not run any DOS software at all. Because of this, the software we wrote in PenRight! had to be rewritten for the Newton.
Power Consumption The one major drawback of the MessagePad is its voracious power consumption. The MessagePad runs on four AA-sized batteries. A standard set of alkaline batteries will last approximately 14 hours. Under normal usage, this yields three to four working days of use. We tested two other types of AA batteries for useful life: Rayovac Renewal rechargeable alkaline (75+ hours per set) and Eveready Lithium (25± hours per set). The estimate for the Renewals included recharging the cells about eight times, although the manufacturer claimed that they could be recharged up to 25 times before replacement. Furthermore, in our testing the cells were discharged completely before charging, whereas the manufacturer recommends charging as often as is feasible. The Lithium cells are marketed for photographic usage. The manufacturer claims that they can last three to four times longer than standard alkaline cells.
The long-term costs for these battery options are displayed in Figure 10, below. The costs for the Rayovac Renewal batteries include the initial cost of the charger (about $15). Even with this initial cost, the break-even point between the standard alkalines and Renewals is at about 200 hours, or 50- to 60-working days. If the initial cost is ignored (i.e.: subsequent sets that are purchased when you already have a charger) then the Renewals are immediately more cost effective. The Lithium batteries would have to last over 150 hours per set to be competitive with the Renewals. When the convenience of not having to charge the Renewals is factored in, the standard alkalines may be just as cost-effective. 27
$60 $50 -- • - - . - . Eveready Lithium i ... $40 - --- Rayovac Renewal • ~ $30 --Standard Alkaline o $20 $10 $0 o 100 200 300 400 500 600 Run time, hours
Figure 10 Battery Cost Comparison The NOS provides constant feedback on the battery level across all battery conditions. This made monitoring the battery level much easier than on the Zoomer. When the battery falls below the warning level, a warning message is given to the user. The first warning occurs well in advance of complete loss of power.
Storage Space The MessagePad we tested has 2 MB of internal storage. Additional storage can be added via a Type II PCMCIA card slot. This storage is dedicated entirely to data storage; none of it is used for operating RAM.
Table 3 Newton Storage Requirements bytes per awrage total max. total record number storage number storage Contractors 87 5 435 20 1,740 Diary Entries 200 4 800 10 2,000 Item Entries 148 100 14,800 200 29,600 Group Codes 71 4 284 34 2,414 Bid Items 116 47 5,452 281 32,596 Jumptable 153 10 1,530 20 3,060 Project-Group-Item 95 132 12,540 1,526 144,970 Projects 196 2 392 10 1,960 Pay Units 90 40 3,600 80 7,200 ==~= Total 38,598 221,800
italicized numbers are estimated Table 3 shows the amount of storage required for each record in the data files on the Zoomer, along with the estimated number of records for each file. It is 28 estimated that on average 38,598 bytes of storage is required for the data for the average construction contract. At most, 221,800 bytes will be required for the data. Add to this 207,040 for our application files and there is still over half of the storage remaining in the RAM.
Handwriting Recognition The Newton Operating System handles all handwriting recognition. The recognition algorithm is dynamic, in that it can 'learn' the user's handwriting. It can also be trained to recognize letters written in certain ways and not others. When trying to recognize text, NOS first looks at the individual letters written, and then the words that the letters are grouped in. These words are compared with a built in dictionary; if NOS sees a group of letters that is close to a word in the dictionary, it will use the word in the dictionary. By adding words to the dictionary, the user can increase the Newton's vocabulary, and hence, its recognition accuracy. Our users felt that the recognition on the Newton was much better than on the Zoomer. However, they still felt that it was not perfect enough for lengthy diary entries.
Durability The body of the Newton is made of plastic. As with the Zoomer, a hard lid latches over the display to protect it, and can be folded behind the unit when not in use. The display itself is somewhat of a disappointment. Its surface is plastic, but is not nearly as scratch resistant as that of the Zoomer. To protect the Newton's display a thin mylar overlay was added. That way, if any damage occurred, it would happen to the overlay which could be easily and inexpensively replaced. This overly added more friction to the surface, so it gave a more paper like file when writing. The display surface on other pen-based units is slicker, which makes writing a bit more difficult.
The Newton also comes with a collapsible pen, but it stores in a slot in the side of the unit. When extended, the pen is about 6-inches long, it is tapered in shape, and much more like a standard pen. It was not necessary to substitute different full sized pens for the Newton's pen. 29 After the experience with the Zoomer cases, we decided that it was not necessary to find cases that could be written through. We purchased three different styles of cases: a leather holster and two styles of padded nylon cases. Both of the nylon cases had shoulder straps. One had a flap that opened on one end to allow access to the Newton, whereas the front of the other flipped open so you could use the unit without removing it from the case.
The manufacturer's specification indicates that the Newton can operate from a range of 32 to 104 oF. 30 Analysis
Projects Tested Testing began in the summer of 1995. At that time, projects were selected solely on the basis of ones that began construction after July of that year. This was done to allow use of the new system for as many IRA entries as possible. Two projects fit this criteria. An additional project was added in August.
Testing was extended into the summer of 1996 to gain more user input. This time, projects were selected strictly on a volunteer basis. Of 31 project managers surveyed, eleven returned the questionnaires and eight of these were willing to do field testing. Results of this survey can be found in Appendix B.
Table 4 Projects Used for Testing Contract! County State 10 Title Highway Type Start Date 950516020 1111-08-74 Beaver Dam - Waupun Road USH 151 rural grading, 8/14/95 Dodge (Spring Street - CTH C) base 2 950718020 5280-01-72 Waunakee - Lodi Road (DBE Demo) STH 113 intersection 9/6/95 Dane (STH 113&CTH V/CTH V &CTH P Inters) improvements 3 950718040 5994-02-15 Monona Drive, City of Monona CTH BB urban grading, 8/30/95 Dane (Nichols Road/Pflaum Road Intersection) base, PCC pav't 4 951212020 1201-04-81 Verona Bypass USH 18/151 Grading, Asphaltic Pav't 4/4/96 Dane (Legion Street-East Interchange) Water Main & Concrete Sidewalk 5 951114090 6070-00-60 Fox Lake - Waupun Road STH 68 rural resurfacing Dodge (STH 33 - STH 49) 6 960618400 0081-09-68 Clark Street, City of Mayville STH 28 Urban intersection 9/3/96 Dodge (STH 28 Intersection) 7 960220030 5340-03-72 Portland Avenue, City Of Beloit STH 81 Structure appro 4/30/96 Rock (Rock River Bridge Approaches) 5340-03-75 Portland Avenue, City Of Beloit STH 81 Structure rem. (Rock River Bridge Removal) 5989-02-71 Fourth Street, City Of Beloit STH81 (Roosevelt Avenue To Merrill Avenue) 5989-02-73 Portland Ave. Bridge Approaches Enh. STH 81 (Fourth Avenue - Riverside Drive) 5989-02-77 Riverwalk Bike Path, City Of Beloit bike path (Henry Avenue - Public Avenue) (Phase 2) Two of these projects are of note. Project I was a large project that consisted of widening an existing two-lane highway to four lanes. It included culvert pipes, grading and base course. The staff of this project chose not to use the software. This is indicative of the level of resistance to change that WisDOT has experienced when attempting to implement new technology. Project 3 was already well underway, but it 31 was felt that the user feedback would still be of use. Instead of WisDOT personnel, a consultant staffed this project.
User Feedback On the whole, the users liked the idea of this system. They felt that is speeded up both the quantity measuring, and finals processes. The size of both units tested were similar, and all felt that it was appropriate for the application. However, most also felt that a full-sized tablet PC would be too large to carry around on a project all day. They were relatively comfortable with the durability of the devices.
Despite the ability of the test units to recognize the user's handwriting, most still desired a keyboard to 'touch-type' some data entry. This was most evident on the Zoomer running PenRight! After initial user feedback the software was configured so that as soon as the user tapped in an entry field, a small keyboard would appear on the display. The user could then touch-type any words they were having trouble getting the computer to recognize.
All who tested the system agreed that it is not appropriate for quantity entries for every bid item. Some types of bid items can be entered just as easily directly into the IRA. For instance, any item that is paid by Lump Sum (e.g.: Mobilization, Removing Building, Structure Backfill) is often entered directly into the IRA as a 'direct field entry'. No source document exists. When the IRA is being checked as a part of the finals process, the checker only needs to verify that the total quantity for a particular Lump Sum item is exactly 1.0. Another such item is anything that is paid with load or tickets: Crushed Aggregate, Asphaltic Material, etc. There are typically a large number of these tickets generated on a given day. It is much quicker to enter them into a spreadsheet to tally them.
Cost Analysis When implementing a new system such as this, it is important to compare any associated costs with any benefits derived from the new system. Costs and benefits include the obvious, monetary, as well as 'soft-costs'. Soft-costs in this case are 32 things such as increased accuracy, and time savings when finaling a project. By speeding up the finals process, construction contracts can be closed out earlier. This is an advantage because closing out construction contracts sooner reduces administrative costs.
On average the users felt that about 5 minutes was saved for each IRA entry that did not have to be checked. To determine the number of potential entries, we analyzed all of the WisDOT construction contracts that were let in calendar years 1995 and 1996. There were an average of 1.9 projects per contract. Bid items that are not likely to have entries made on the data collector were eliminated based on their unit of measure. Items measured by the Hundredweight, Gallon, Lump Sum or Ton are generally paid for using load tickets or direct field entries, so they do not lend themselves to data collector use. Once these items were eliminated, we found that of these 859 contracts, the average construction contract had 201 bid items that the data collector can be used for. A sampling of 149 construction contracts in District 1 that were let from January 1994 to December 1996 found that an average of 4.3 IRA entries are made for each bid item. The resultant time and cost savings are shown in Table 5, below.
Table 5 Average Cost Savings average number of IRA entries per project 864 time savings per entry* (H:MM) 0:05 time savings per project (hours) 72 @ $50 /hour cost savings per contract $3,600
* primarily from eliminating finals checking
When this project was begun, we had hoped to compare projects that had used the data collector with similar sized and type project that had not. As the table above illustrates, the cost savings would be too small to effectively use this comparison method. 33 Recommendations The cost comparison above indicates that the payback time on each individual device is about 6-weeks, assuming a $1,000 price-point for the hardware and software, and a 20-week contract. This is a generous figure, given that the Zoomer and MessagePad both retail for around $500. The number of devices required for each contract is dependent upon the number of personnel on staff. While no historical data is readily available for project staffing, the short payback time will easily allow for every construction inspector statewide to have their own data collector.
Keep in mind that the payback is figured from a strictly numerical comparison. As mentioned before, there are intangible costs, such as benefits gained from closing out contracts earlier, increased accuracy in entries, etc. All of these factors point to our recommendation that the concept of handheld data collectors is certainly viable. Given an entry point cost of well over $4,000 per unit, and since no appreciable benefit arises from purchasing Tablet PC's, we have concluded that the cost of these devices is not justifiable in the scheme of deploying over 300 units statewide. Even using these larger devices strictly for the Project Managers is not feasible. The only way the tablets could be justified is in quick development costs associated with having in-house staff developing the applications in the State's standardized database environment, Microsoft Access. Even if this were an option, most users felt that a tablet PC would be too large to carry around on a project. Furthermore, this would marginalize the costs associated with the software development for the smaller platforms. Lastly, a full-fledged PC is simply overkill for relatively low-power demands of inspection activities.
The exact flavor of the data collector to deploy is a much larger issue. Factors in this decision are the same ones that any large corporation runs into today in deciding what hardware platforms and software to implement. Of the products we tested, the Newton seems to be the winner over the PenRight!lZoomer combination. Since we have recommended against the Tablet PC's, there is no compelling reason to 34 go with a software development environment that can run on a DOS or Windows device. _
Many question the long-term prognosis of Apple Computers, the manufacturer of the Newton. Apple has always been known as a market leader in hardware and software innovation. As mentioned earlier, the Newton was one of the first of its kind on the market. Despite initial problems, Apple stuck with it, and has since improved the MessagePad greatly a number of times. Their new releases promise to make the Newton an even stronger, more useful platform. The MessagePad is almost assured a long, happy product lifespan for as long as Apple Computers is still around.
However, there has recently been an interesting newcomer to the handheld computer market: Windows CE (WinCE). WinCE is a new operating system that was introduced in November of this year. It is essentially a reduced version of Windows 95 (Win95), that is designed to run on a new breed of hardware, the Handheld PC (HPC). HPC's are rougWy the same size as the Hewlett Packard HP95 palmtop PC. In fact, one of the first hardware manufacturers embracing the WinCE architecture is Hewlett Packard. These HPC's have a built in keyboard and a small stylus that is used as a pointing device. Unlike the products studied for this project, it does not inherently support handwriting recognition; third-party software must be purchased for this task, but the ergonomics of the hardware are not ideally suited for lengthy handwritten entries. It does however, use a stylus for a pointing device instead of a mouse.
Windows CE has the same interface as Windows 95 and Windows NT. This makes it a simple transition for someone who is used to that interface. Because WinCE is a reduced version of Win95 (it uses about one quarter of Win95's 2000+ l toolbox routines ), a HPC cannot run standard Windows applications. In addition, there are some toolbox routines that are WinCE specific. For these two reasons, the software must be written especially for the HPC. This fact makes this platform no more attractive than the Newton from a software development cost standpoint. Software authoring for each platform promises to be just as easy as the other, 35 2 although some developers have expressed a preference of writing for the Newton •
-- Another difference is the lack of built-in handwriting recognition on the HPC's. If we were to focus solely on the quantity measurement aspect of this project, this may not be a problem. Entries in most data fields in our applications were typically less than 15 characters-not excessive for hunting-and-pecking on a very small keyboard, given the DOT's experiences with the HP95's. However, this small of a keyboard would prove too small for most to make any but the shortest diary entries.
HPC's have many of the same features as the Newton: small form factor, built in address book and calendar, e-mail support. However, the HPC's do not have enough power from their two AA batteries to run a modem. For this task, you must be plugged in to an AC adapter. This may not be an issue, depending upon the level of field automation one wishes to pursue. One other area of concern is battery life. Although the HPC's have long battery lives, if the battery level becomes too low, and the backup battery is low, it is possible to lose all data that is stored internally.
The final choice of hardware platform may come down to, simply put, "How lucky do you feel?" With the computer market being such a volatile place, one cannot ignore companies that have huge market shares and/or (relatively) long lifespans. Microsoft has such a market share, and Hewlett Packard is one of the oldest hardware manufacturers in the business. But, again, it comes down to luck. There have been many times in the last eight years that a particular handheld PC has heralded itself as the new 'breakthrough' platform. Most industry analysts agree that computers will eventually go this way. However, no hardware or software manufacturer has been able to really make a particular architecture 'stick'. Apple has had the best luck of any in making it happen. Their innovation and determination have been their best allies. Even so, the MessagePads are still not household devices. They are relegated, more often than not, to high tech toys or strictly vertical market applications-and they have been very successful as a vertical market platform. Because of the clout of Microsoft, the WinCE operating system already has a large number of software 36 companies writing for it, even though the hardware has been out for less than two months.
There has been one lesson repeated over and over again in the handheld market over the last eight years. Any handheld device that offers a relatively large amount of power, that can be sold for less than $400, will be successful. Apple learned this when they reduced the price of their Original MessagePad to $200 upon the release of their next version: the Original MessagePads sold like hotcakes! If Microsoft can, once again, come up with a user interface that is halfway decent, and most importantly, can put it into hardware that can be sold at around or under $500 apiece, Windows CE may just be the Next Big Thing. However, the WinCE units that are initially available are more towards the $500-$800 range, which tends to be a little expensive for broad consumer acceptance.
The success of this platform would make it a certain choice for the DOT. Hardware could be purchased from a vendor that the state is familiar with: Hewlett Packard. Since the DOT is in the process of migrating to Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, there will be very little training required for the users.
Current Hardware Market The Phase I Report gave an extensive overview of the pen-based hardware that was on the market at the time. As stated earlier, the computer market changes rapidly. In some cases, state-of-the-art technology can be come obsolete in as little as six months. The hardware recommended in our first report was the best available at that time. Since then, there have been quite a few new PDA's introduced, and the best tablets available have Pentium processors. Appendix A contains a survey of all hardware that is now available.
Issues Remaining
Status Of Software Written For This Study The PenRight (Zoomer) version of Walker will have to be debugged and 37 polished before full-scale implementation can take place.
The Newton version of Walker will require slight debugging before full-scale implementation can occur. Additionally, the user interface will needs some polishing to bring it up to Apple standards. Furthermore, a separate shareware file transfer utility is currently being used to transfer data from the Newton to the Item Record Account. This should be replaced with true Newton routing, to make this application consistent with other applications on the Newton. This would simplify use, both on the Newton and PC side of the transfer. A field diary application has been partially written for the Newton. Approximately 40 hours would be required to make this software ready for release. If desired, this functionality of this application could be added into the pay quantity measuring application.
FieldManager Integration WisDOT will be switching to a new PC based pay quantity application for Construction Season 1997. The new application, FieldManager, will interface with WisDOT's new mainframe accounting system. It will completely replace the Item Record Account. As such, a new data transfer method will need to be developed. The IRA is written in a database application, so it could be relatively easily modified to add support for importing quantity entries. Unlike the Item Record Account, FieldManager is a complied Windows executable. As such, it is not modifiable by anyone but the software author.
Release 1.9a of FieldManager does not support importing of text files, which would be required for simple integration with our application. There are two options: the FieldManager author can add text file import capabilities, or the author can provide the binary file format for data transfer. Even this would only solve part of the problem: getting the summary entry into FieldManager. A new Windows application would need to be written to print the compo sheet and create the summary entry to be imported.
FieldManager's author, InfoTech of Gainesville Florida, is in the process of 38 writing an application for Windows CE devices that will interface with FieldManager. Exact features are not known, but this. application will contain a subset features of FieldManager. A pilot version is projected for completion some time this summer. Because of the large market that InfoTech is developing this application for, it is unlikely that they will be willing to customize the application for WisDOT. The Windows CE operating system provides connectivity between the handheld device and the PC. File translation will be handled by software built in to Windows 95 or Windows NT. InfoTech will be providing a separate Windows 95/NT application to import the data into FieldManager.
InfoTech's development of a Windows CE application raises two issues. First, it provides a somewhat more compelling argument for WisDOT to have a custom written Windows CE application, since some of the connectivity would be handled by Windows CE, and the special application being produced by InfoTech, however we'll still need an additional Windows application to print the compo sheets from imported data. Second, it could make InfoTech less willing to provide source code.
Additional Enhancements The introduction of a new hardware platform by WisDOT opens the door to many additional enhancements that could yield great savings to the state.
Time Sheet Recording DOT employees must submit timesheets each week in order to be paid. These timesheets are filled out by hand, using a four-part carbon paper form. Timesheets must be delivered by hand to the local District office, so that they can be entered by noon on Wednesday of each week. In some cases, the drive to the District office can take over an hour each way. A one hour trip can cost upwards of $30 in mileage (at $0.26/mile) and $100 in salary and benefits each week. Over a four month construction season, this cost adds up to over $2,200! A timesheet application alone could justify the purchase of data collectors for the more remote jobs. If you assume that the investment in a data collector (hardware and software) is $1,000, a timesheet 39 application alone would pay for itself in one four month construction season for every projectthat is more than25 miles from the Districtoffice.
Currently all timesheets must be hand-entered into a mainframe database. This would not have to change. Using the Newton (or, presumably, a WinCE platform) an application could be written in which the user can enter their timesheets, much in the same way as they currently do. When they are ready to submit a timesheet, they could actually sign the timesheet on the screen. The timesheet would then be faxed to the District office. Fax capability is built into every Newton device-all that need be added is an external modem, which every field office already has. Once it is faxed to the District office and signed by the individual's supervisor, a clerk could make any additional copies. From there, the process would remain identical to what it now is. Once a system like this was in place, it would open the door to uploading timesheets directly to the mainframe (much as contract payments are already being uploaded from the IRA).
Implementation Plan One concern that many construction engineer's have expressed over the last four years is that much of the new technology that has been deployed was implemented too rapidly. In most cases, a decree has been put out that any project let after a certain date will use the new technology. While it is important to get new technology out into the field in an expedient manner, there is concern that it is put out without sufficient field testing. Any programmer knows that, no matter how much their software is tested in the lab, the first version or two will contain bugs that only the end user can detect. There is simply no substitute for field testing.
When the DOT was implementing contractor testing of materials (as opposed to DOT staff doing the testing) in the early 1990's, it was done in the first year on a case-by-case basis. Implementation in subsequent years was gradually increased. It took about three years for 100% of the jobs to use this new method of testing. There were many reasons for this gradual implementation, but one of the larger ones was to 40 reduce the 'shock' of it to the contractors and the field staff. Before going whole-hog, managementwanted to work alLof the glitches out of the contract language so that everything was running smootWy and there would be greater acceptance. A similar approach was used when the Item Record Account was first deployed. It was phased in over a period of three years. However, since then, most field staff that we interviewed felt that major new enhancements have been thrust upon them before they have been field proven. This has caused undue strain on the already stretched District Automation Support staff.
If development were started this summer on a WinCE application, or this fall on enhancing the Newton applications, initial introduction could start in construction season 1998. Initial deployment should be on medium-sized jobs that would have only the project manager and perhaps one inspector. In addition, it should be strictly on a volunteer basis. It is important to have favorable results for the first round of use. It is also very important to have testers that will provide constructive feedback. Volunteers will tend to be more willing to work through problems that they encounter before discarding the new idea. Ifthese jobs start early enough in the season, it will be possible for the project managers to continue their use of the device on subsequent jobs that year. This essentially gives you two construction seasons-in-one, by having some managers using the system from start to finish on at least two jobs. By the beginning of the next construction season, the software should be solid enough for a much larger installation base, as much as 80 or 90%. Saturation can be achieved by the third year, but it must be kept in mind that there are some types of jobs that this system simply isn't applicable to, unless you're interested in some of the additional features mentioned above. Appendix A
Current Hardware Marker 42 HPC Casio Compaq HP Cassiopeia A-lO CompaqHPC OmniGo Handheld PC Operating Environment Microsoft Windows CE Microsoft Windows CE Microsoft Windows CE Communications PC card (opt.) PC card (opt.) PC Card (opt.) Processor Hitachi SH-3 RISC Hitachi SH-3 RISC Hitachi SH-3 RISC Power two AA batteries, ACIDC, 20 hrs. two AA batteries, ACIDC, 20 hrs. two AA batteries; ACIDC Std/Max. RAM, ROM (MB) 2 MB/4 MB, 4 MB 2 MB/4 MB, 4 MB 2 MB/4 MB, 4 MB Intemal Storage PCMCIA memory card PCMCIA memory card PCMCIA memory card Expansion/Card Slot(s) I PCMCIA rype II card I PCMCIA rype II card 2 PCMCIA rype II cards Screen Type backlit FSTN LCD touch screen backlit FSTN LCD touch screen DFSTN LCD touch screen Screen Size, pixels 480 x 240 480 x 240 640 x 240 Digitizer yes (clamshell design: yes (clamshell design: Yes (clamshell design: Keyboard RS-232; IR (ASK+ IrDA) RS-232; IR (ASK+ IrDA) RS-232, IrDA Input/Output Port(s) pressure-sensitive pressure-sensitive pressure-sensitive Handwriting Recognition yes (opt.) yes (opt.) yes (opt.) Desktop Connection serial to Windows 95 serial to Windows 95 Serial to Windows 95 Dimensions, in. 6.9 x 3.6 x I 6.9 x 3.6 x I 6.9 x 3.75 x I Weight, Ibs. 0.8 0.8 0.8 Options cradle; camera; paging card; 2-way pagel cradle; camera; paging card; 2-way pagel
List Price $499 Comments rebadged Casio A-I 0 Lucky Goldstart NEC Phillips Pegasus Device MobilePro 200 VELO] Operating Environment Microsoft Windows CE Microsoft Windows CE Microsoft Windows CE Communications PC Card (opt.) PC Card (opt.) up to 19.2 built in faxldat~ Processor Hitachi SH-3 RISC NECVR4101 (MIPS 4000 core) MIPS R3900 embedded, 36.6Mhz Power two AA batteries; ACIDC, 70 hrs. two AA batteries; ACIDC, 50 hrs. two AA batteries; ACIDC, 70 hrs. Std/Max. RAM, ROM (MB) 2 MB/4 MB, 4 MB 2 MB/4 MB, 8 MB 2 MB/4 MB EDO, 8 MB Intemal Storage PCMCIA memory card PCMCIA memory card up to 32 MB DRAM miniature card Expansion/Card Slot(s) I PCMCIA type II card I PCMCIA type II card 2 miniature card slot! Screen Type DFSTN LCD touch screen DFSTN LCD touch screen transflective backlit LCD touch SCreer Screen Size, pixels 480 x 240 480 x 240 480 x 240 Dig~izer Yes (clamshell design: Yes (clamshell design: Yes (clamshell design: Keyboard RS-232; IR (ASK+ IrDA) RS-232, IrDA RS-232, IrDA, microphone Input/Output PortIs) pressure-sensitive pressure-sensitive pressure-sensitive Handwriting Recognition yes (opt.) yes (opt.) yes (opt.) Desktop Connection PC (opt.) serial cable Serial to Windows 95 Dimensions, in. 6.7 x 3.9 x I 6.9 x 3.7 x 1.0 6.7 x 3.6 x I Weight, Ibs. 0.9 0.8 0.9 Options TBA cradle, direct connection, NiMH batter) dock
List Price Comments has voice recording
Appendix A 43 PDA Apple Apple Casio MessagePad 130 MessagePad 2000 Z-7000 "Zoomer" Operating Environment Newton OS 2.0 Newton OS 2.1 Geos. PenRight!. HOPE Communications fax/data modem fax/data modem PCMCIA fax/data optional Processor ARM 610. 20Mhz StrongARM SA-II O. 160MIu Casio custom (x86 compatible: Power four AA batteries, ACIDC. 22 hrs. four AA batteries. ACIDC, 44 hrs. three AA batteries. ACIDC, 90 hrs. Std/Max. RAM, ROM (MB) 2.5 MB/2.5 MB, 8 MB 5 MB/5 MB. 8 MB 1MB/I MB, 4 MB Intemal Storage PCMCIA Card PCMCIA memory card PCMCIA memory card Expansion/Card Slot(s) I PCMCIA type II slot 2 PCMCIA II card slots I Type II card slot Screen Type backlit transflective LCI: backlit transflective. 100 dpi reflective LCD Screen Size, pixels 320 x 420 480 x 320, 16 grays 320 x 256 Digitizer external (optional; external (optional; N/A Keyboard Serial RS-422. Infrared Interconnect. IR (ASKlIrDA; Serial RS-232. infrared InpuVOutput Port(s) pressure-sensitive pressure-sensitive pressure sensitive Handwriting Recognition yes; word and letter yes; word and letter yes -letter Desktop Connection PC WindowslMac (opt.) PC WindowslMac (opt.) PC (optional) Dimensions, in. 8 x 4 x 1.25 8.25 x 4.5 x I 6.8 x 4.2 x I Weight,lbs. 1.0 1.3 1.0 Options Message card, printer connection, wireless, Message card. printer connection, wireless, messaging card; fax modem;printer GPS,LAN GPS,LAN connection; flash storage List Price $799 $949 $399 Comments will be released Q197 Hewlett Packard Motorola Motorola OmniGo 100 Envoy Envoy 150 Operating Environment Geos 2.1 Magic Cap Magic Cap 1.5 Communications Wynd 2-way messaging (optional 9600/2400 fax, 4800 wireless 9600/2400 fax. 4.8/19.2 wireless Processor 80186 VG230 Motorola Dragon 68349, 16Mbz Motorola Dragon 68349. 16Mh2 Power two AA batteries, ACIDC, 80 hrs. NiCad. ACIDC, 8 hrs. NiCad, ACIDC, 8 hrs. Std/Max. RAM, ROM (MB) I MBII MB. 3 MB 1MB/I MB. 4 MB 2 MB/2 MB. 4 MB Internal Storage PCMCIA memory card (optional PCMCIA memory card PCMCIA memory card Expansion/Card Siot(s) I PCMCIA type II 2 PCMCIA type II cards 2 PCMCIA type II cards Screen Type reflective FSTNlholograph-reflective. LCI reflective LCD optimax holograph-reflector LCI SCreen Size, pixels 240 x 240 480 x 320 480 x 320 Digitizer built-in (clamshell design N/A N/A Keyboerd RS-232 RS-232; infrared; Magicbm RS-232; infrared; Magicbm tnpuVOutput Port(s) pressure-sensitive pressure-sensitive pressure-sensitive Handwriting Recognition yes - integrated Graffiti no No Desktop Connection PClWindows (transfer program: PC (opt.) RC(opl.) Dimensions, in. 3.75 x 6 x 0.9 7.5 x 5.75 x 1.2 7.5 x 5.75 x 1.2 Weight, Ibs. 0.7 1.7 1.7 Options messaging card; printer connection; parallel messaging card; printer connectior messaging card; printer connectior converter; memory List Price $249 $999 Comments upgraded Envoy with backligh Motorola Sharp Sharp Marco Zaurus ZR-3000 Zaurus ZR-5800 Operating Environment Newton OS 1.3 Synergy Synergy Communications 4.8119.2 wireless PCMCIA fax fax/data modem optiona 9600/2400 fax/data moderr Processor ARM 610. 20Mhz 16-bit Sharp proprieta1') 16-bit Sharp proprieta1') Power NiCad. ACIDC. 8 hrs. two AA batteries. AClDC, 70 hrs. two AA batteries. ACIDC. 70 hrs. SId/Max. RAM, ROM (MB) I MBII MB. 5 MB 1MB/I MB (650k user space) 2 MB/2 MB (1.6 MB user space) Internal Storage PCMCIA memory card TBA PCMCIA memory card Expansion/Card Slot(s) I PCMCIA type II card TBA I PCMCIA type II card Screen Type reflective LCD DFSTN LCD touch screen DFSTN backlit LCD touch screer Screen Size, pixels 320 x 240 320 x 240 320 x 240 Digitizer N/A yes yes Keyboard RS-422; infrared RS-232; IR (ASK+ IrDA) RS-232; IR (ASK+ IrDA) InpuVOutput Port(s) pressure-sensitive pressure-sensitive pressure-sensitive Handwriting Recognition yes - word and letter No No Desktop Connection PC WindowslMac (optional) Win95 via serial cable or IR PC via IR or cable (opt.) Dimensions. in. 7.5 x 5.8 x 1.4 6.3 x 3.6 x 0.9 6.7 x 3.9 x I Weight. Ibs. 1.8 0.7 0.9 Options messaging card; printer connectior fax/data modem; MS Maillcc:Mail acces! Zaurus Mail; MS Mall; wireles!
List Price $849 $399 $649 Comments not yet released Appendix A 44 PDA Sony Sony US Robotics PIC-lOOO PIC-2000 Pilot 1000 Operating Environment Magic Cap Magic Cap 1.5 Palm OS Communications 9600/2400 fax; paging (opt.; 14400 fax; pagi'ng (opt.; Docking Cradle Processor Motorola Dragon 68349, 16Mhz Motorola Dragon 68349, 16Mhz DragonBall (68xxx compatible Power Six AAA batteries, ACIDC. 8 hrs. Lithium ion; ACIDC. 10 hrs two AAA batteries StdlMax. RAM, ROM (MBl 512 KB/512 KB. 4 MB 2 MB/2 MB. 4 MB 128 KB/512 KB Internal Storage PCMCIA memory card PCMCIA memory card NA Expansion/Card Slot(s) I PCMCIA type II card 2 PCMCIA type II cards NA Screen Type reflective LCD {FSTN rype: backlit reflective LCD {FSTN type: LCD touch screen Screen Size, pixels 480 x 320 480 x 320 160 x 160 Digitizer yes (op.t.) yes (op.l.) desktop data entry possible Keyboard serial; phone; infrared; remotf serial; phone; infrared; remo\( 9-pin RS-232 Input/Output Port{s) pressure-sensitive pressure-sensitive pressure-sensitive Handwriting Recognition yes (opt) yes (opt) Graffiti Desktop Connection MaclWindows connectivity pack MaclWindows connectivity pack PClMac through docking cradlE Dimensions, in. 7.5 x 5.2 x I 7.5 x 5.2 x I 4.7 x 3.2 x 0,7 Weight, Ibs. 1.2 1.3 0.4 Options pager card; keyboard; headset pager card; keyboard; headset memory; HotSync cable; cradlE
List Price $399 $699 $299 Comments improved PIC-I()()(J battery life up to 12 weeks
Appendix A 45 tablet Badger Dauphin DES TKX-3000 DTR-2 MiniWriter Operating Environment DOS 6.22, WinPen WinPen, PenRight!, PenDm Communications CDPD/ArdislRAMlspread (opt) through PC cards Processor 486DX2/50 or DX4n5 486SLC2, 50Mhz Power NiMH, 12V vechicle, ACIDC batteries, ACIDC Std/Max. RAM, ROM (MB) 4 MB/36 MB, BIOS 4 MBIl6/MB, BIOS Internal Storage 40-810 MB HD, 4-175 MB SS 260-520 MB HD Expansion/Card Slot(s) I PCMCIA type n, I type ill 2 PCMCIA type 11I1 cards Screen Type backlit LCD transmissive Lce Screen Size, pixels 640 x 480 640 x 480 Digitizer Yes (clamshell design; yes (opt) Keyboard 2 seriallP, keyboard, expansion pon P, SVGA, keyboard, mic, stereo, expansion Input/Output Port(s) touchscreen electromagnetic Handwriting Recognitio n CIC, Lexicus application specific Desktop Connection LAN (opt) LAN (opt) Dimensions, in. 11.8 x 8.9 x 2.9 9 x 5.5 x 1.2 Weight, Ibs. 6.6 2.7 Options bar code reader, GPS, wireless ethernet, hard/floppy drives, GPS, WAN, external battery List Price $3,495 Comments DES Digital Ocean Digital Ocean ScriptWriter SL Seahorse Tarpon PDA Operating Environment Communications Processor Power Std/Max. RAM, ROM (MB) Internal Storage Expansion/Card Slot(s) Screen Type Screen Size, pixels Digitizer Keyboard Input/Output Port(s) Handwriting Recognition Desktop Connection Dimensions, in. Weight, Ibs. Options
List Price Comments Epson Epson Epson EHT-400C EHT-400S EHT-40L Operating Environment MS-DOS 6.22/WinPen, PenRight MS-DOS 6.22 DOSlWindows Communications PCMCIA fax/data/radio optiona PCMCIA fax/data/radio optiona PCMCIA fax/data optional Processor i486DX2, 50Mhz i486SX, 25Mbz 386SX, 25Mhz Power Li-Ion, 1200 mAh ACIDC Li-Ion, 1200 mAh ACIDC Li-Ion, ACIDC Std/Max. RAM, ROM (MB) 4 MB/20 MB, 512 KB flash ROM oMB120 MB, 512 KB flash ROM 4 MB/I MB, 256 KB Internal Storage 170MB HDD in PCMCIA card slot DIMM 4/8/16 MB (opt) up to 3 MB flash RAM Expansion/Card Slot(s) 2 PCMCIA type ill or 4 Type n cards 2 PCMCIA type ill or 4 Type n cards I PCMCIA type 1lI card Screen Type transflective DSTN 256 color LCD, sideli' transflective DSTN LCD, sidelil transflective FTH LCD, backli Screen Size, pixels 640 x 480 640 x 480 200 x 320 Digitizer Yes Yes NA Keyboard serial/paralIel; IrDA; headphont serial/paralIel; IrDA; headphont serial; optical; cartridge Input/Output Port(s) Resisti ve Filrr Resistive Filrr - Handwriting Recognition CIC Handwriter recognitior CIC Handwriter recognitior application specific Desktop Connection LAN through external communications. slo LAN through external communications. s10 - Dimensions, in. 8.9 x 8.3 x 1.3 8.9 x 8.3 x 1.0 3.6x 7.0x 1.6 Weight. Ibs. 2.4 2.2 1.3 Options Sound; touch scanner; magnetic. card reader; Sound; touch scanner; magnetic. card reader; thermal printer; magnetic card reader; barcode; numeric. keypad;printer numeric. keypad;printer scanner; communications unit List Price $3,799 $2,519 $2,420 Comments faster color version of -4OOS Appendix A 46 tablet Fuiitsu Fujitsu Granite Stylistic 1000 Stylistic 500 Videopad VP7 Operating Environment Win 95 orWFW 3.11 WinPen, PenRight!, Win 9~ Proprietary Communications Integrated proxim RangeLAN; PC Card 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz radio Processor AM486DX4,50100Mhz i486DX2,50Mhz Mitsubishi 37702, 14.7Mhz Power Li-Ion, ACIDC Li-Ion, ACIDC NiCad, 10 hrs. Std/Max. RAM, ROM (MB) 8 MB/24 MB, 512 KB flash ROM 4 MB/20 MB, 128 KB flash ROM 512 KBI13 MB Intemal Storage 260/340 MB PCMCIA drive 170 MB PCMCIA drive (opt.) Internal DRAM Expansion/Card Slot(s) lATA Type III, 2 type IT cards I ATA Type III, 2 type IT cards nla Screen Type color transmissive. transflective, backli Transmissive LCD, backli' Transflective LCD, backlil Screen Size, pixels 640 x 480 640 x 480 120 x 96 Digitizer Yes Yes No Keyboard serial, parallel, keyboard, floppy, IrDA, serial, parallel, keyboard, floppy, infrarec Class IT laser; IR InpuVOutput Port(s) Electromagnetic Electromagnetic resistive touchscreen Handwrfting Recognftion CIC Handwriter recognitior CIC Handwriter recognitior nla Desktop Connection Docking Station (opt.; Docking Station (opt.; spread spectrum radio Dimensions, in. 7.3 x 11.0 x 1.6 7.2 x 10.7 x 1.5 7.5 x 4.0 x 2.2 Weight, ibs. 3.7 2.6 1.4 Options Memory, fax, data cards; cradle; floppy drive; Memory, fax, data cards; cradle; floppy drive; battery charger; GPS; signature caprun keyboard keyboard List Price Comments Color 500 with integrated radic Husky IBM IBM FC-486P 2488 Model 300 2488 Model 800 Operating Environment MSDOS 6.22, WinPen (ROM) MSDOS 6.22, PenRight!, WinPer WinPen, Win 3.11, PenRight Communications Internal RF modem (opt) 2.4GHz Spread Spectrum (opt.) 2.4GHz spread spectrum (opt.) Processor TI80486slc, 50Mhz 486SLC, 50Mhz 486SLC, 50Mhz Power Duracell DR30 NiMH, 10 hrs. NiCad 1.4 Ah, ACIDC (opt.) NiCad 1.7 Ab, ACIDC (opt) Std/Max. RAM, ROM (MB) 2MBI16MB, MSDOS in ROM 4MBI12MB, 256kB OS flash 8MB/32MB, 4MB EPROM Intemal Storage up to 16MB Flash, PCMCIA HD 40 or 60MB solid state drive 4O/60MB solid state/540 HD (opt.) Expansion/Card Slot(s) 4 Type IT or 2 Type ITI (2 int.) I PCMCIA ITIITI card slot (sealed) I Type IT, I Type IIIIIT card slot Screen Type Electroluminescent. lransflective LCI Backlit transflective LCe backlit transflective LCD, 64 gra) Screen Size, pixels 640 x 480 640 x 480 640 x 480 Digftizer Yes, 81 keys (65% size) Yes Yes Keyboard 2 serial(l6550), I parallel Serial, keyboard, cradle, modulf Serial, keyboard, antenna, barcode InpuVOutput Port(s) Electromagnetic Resistive/480 ppi resolutior Electromagnetic.llOOO dpi/150 PP! Handwriting Recognition Application specific optional CIC Handwriter Recognition Sys Desktop Connection Serial/network EIA-232 via cradle Ethernet. Token Ring, RS-485 Dimensions, in. 8.4" x 11.0" x 1.70" 5.4" x 8.8" x 2.2" 12.25" x 9.5" x 1.5" Weight, Ibs. 4.8 2.4 4.8 Options Fast charger, internal radio, Flash memor: Stdllong/extra long range lasers, solid state Handheld laser, pencil scanner, keyboard, disk,PC Cards audio, PC Cards List Price $2,999 $3,495 $3,995 Comments Rebadged Telxon PTC-I134 IBM IBM IBM 2489 Model 600 Sure Point Mobile Computer ThinkPad 360PE Operating Environment MSDOS 6.22, Win, Win95 PenDOS, WinPen WinPen, PenDOS, Pen OS/2 Communications ArdisIRAMIWAN/CDPD (opt.) Spectrum24 (opt.) PCMCIA Faxldata (opt) Processor n 486SXLC2, 50Mhz 486DX2, 66Mhz 486DX2, 50Mhz Power NiMH, NiCad, ACIDC NiMH, ACIDC through dock NiMH, ACIDC, 2.5 hrs. Std/Max. RAM, ROM (MB) 8MB/16MB, BIOS 8MBI16MB, 2MB Flash ROM 4MB/20MB, system ROM Internal Storage 340-IOOOMB ruggedized HI: Any ATA HD 34O/54OMB hard disk Expansion/Card Slot(s) I Type ITI 2 Type IT + I Type lIT 2 Type 1111 (or I lIT) card slots Screen Type Reflective LCD, backlit Transflective LCD, backli' Dual scan color STN, backlit Screen Size, pixels 640 x 480 640 x 480 640 x 480 Digftizer Yes, clamshell design Yes, clamshell design Yes, clamshell, flip over screer Keyboard serial, parallel, RJ-II 2 ~~~al, parallel; keyboard, JR, RS-485 (for serial, parallel; keyboard, mouse, SVGA, AT InpuVOulput Port(s) Touch screen Resistive, 1340 x 460 dpi ~Iectromagnetic; I Handwrfting Recognition CIC Handwriter Recognition Sys ThinkWrite Application specific Desktop Connection LAN (opt.) LAN (opt) SIPILAN card (opt.) Dimensions, in. 10.5" x 7.5" x 3.0" 8.8" x 5.1" x 3.8" 11.7" x 8.3" x 2.1" Weight, Ibs. 6.5 2.3 6.8 Options Laser scanners, bar code, CD-ROM, wireless, Scanner, MSR, keyboard, headset, floppy, Memory/faxldataILAN/wireless card, LAN strop, dock List Price $5,207 $3,445 $3,699 Comments Rebadged Itronix Still available in quantity orders Appendix A 47 tablet IBM Itronix Kalidor ThinkPad 730TE X-C6000 K2IOO Operating Environment WinPen, PenDOS, OS/2, PenRight MSDOS 6.22, Win, Win95,OS/2 Windows, PenDOS, PenRight Communications PCMCIA Fax/data (opt.) ArdislRAMIWAN/CDPD (opt.) PCMCIA, docking station, AIRLAI' Processor SL enhanced i486 DX4, 75Mhz 11486SXLC2, 50Mhz 486SXLC, 25Mhz Power NiMH, ACIDC (dual battery; NiMH, NiCad, ACIDC NiMH,ACIDC Std/Max. RAM, ROM (MB) 8MB/24MB, system ROM 4MBII6MB, BIOS 4MB/16MB, 256kB flash Internal Storage 260MB hard disk card 240-420MB ruggedized HD 85MB HD, 1O-80MB IDE flash Expansion/Card Slot(s) 2 Type ill or 3 Type II card slots I Type ill PCMCIA II or ill available Screen Type Transflective LCD, backlil Reflective LCD, backlit transflective sidelit LCe Screen Size, pixels 640 x 480 640 x 480 640 x 480 Digitizer Yes Yes, clamshell design Yes Keyboard Serial, parallel; floppy, keyboard, mouse, Serial, parallel; RJII Serial RS-232, parallel, infrarec InpuVOutput Porl(s) t:feciromagnetic Touch screen Pressure sensi tive Handwriting Recognition Application specific CIC Handwriter Recogn ition Sys Application specific Desktop Connection LAN card (opt.) LAN (opt.) File transfer and network utilitie: Dimensions, in 10.6" x 8.3" x 1.37" lOS' x 7.5" x 3.0" 9.7" x 6.4" x 1.8" Weight, Ibs. 3.9 6.5 3.3 Options Memorylhard diskifax/datalLAN cards, Vehicle cradle/charger floppy, CD- ROM in Kloo docking station, keyboard, floppy drive, keyboard cradle tethered/integrated cameras List Price $3,499 $3,995 Comments Kalidor M3i MicroSlate K2500 PCMOBILE 486 Datellite 400L Operating Environment Win 3.1195, PenDOS, PenRight' MSDOS 6.22, Win, Win95, OS/2 WinPen, PenRight!, PenD05 Communications PCMCIA, docking station, AIRLM ArdislRAMlWAN/CDPD (opt.) Int. RF, CDPD, Fax, Spread Spectrum Processor AMD80486DX4, lOOMhz 80486 DX4, 75Mhz Cyrix 486SLC, Co.Pr.. 50Mhz Power NiMH, ACIDC NiCad, ACIDC 2 x 1.5 amp, ACIDC DCIDC Std/Max. RAM, ROM (MB) 8MB/24MB, 256kB flasb 4MB/32MB, BIOS 4MB/16MB, I 28kB Flash Internal Storage 85MB HD, 1O-80MB IDE flasb l30-34OMB ruggedized HD 130MB 2.OGB hard disk Expansion/Card Slot(s) PCMCIA II or ill available 4 Type II or 2 Type III PCMCIA Type II or I Type III Screen Type Reflective sidelit LCe transflective LCD, backlil Transflective LCD, backli. Screen Size, pixels 640 x 480 640 x 480 640 x 480 Digitizer Yes Yes, clamshell design Yes (also software keyboard) Keyboard Serial RS-232, parallel, infrarec 4 Serial, parallel;mouse, keyboard, VGA 2 Serial, parallel; SCSI, keyboard, VGA InpuVOutput Porl(s) pressure sensitive Resistive touch screen Touch sensitive, $2 pens' Handwriting Recognition Application specific N/A Application specific Desktop Connection File transfer and network utilitie, LAN (opt.) LAN, LinkSlate, FASTLYN}\ Dimensions, in. 9.7" x 6.4" x 1.8" 11.4" x 10.6" x 3.2" 12.5" x 10 0" x 2.6" Weight,lbs. 3.7 8.6 6.0 Options Docking station, keyboard, LAN, WAN, RF modem, hard case, power pack, PC Cards, Docking stations, GPSIDGPS, CDPD, Fax & MAN,GPS vehicle dock RFmodems List Price $4,445 $4,495 Comments :==:::;::;:;::::::=:::;:==~ Microslate Mitsubishi Motorola Datellite 500P AMiTYSP Forte CommPad Operating Environment Win95, WinPen, PenDOS, OS/2 Windows 95, WinPen MS DOS, WinPen, PenDOS Communications Int. RF, CDPD, Spread Spectrum PC Card (opt.) Integrated 3W radio moderr Processor Intel Pentium 90, 120Mh2 i486 DX4, looMhz i486SX (3.3V), 25Mhz Power 2 x 1.8 amp, ACIDC-DCIDC Li-Ion 1.35 AMh, ACIDC NiMH StdlMax. RAM, ROM (MB) 4MBII6MB, 128kB Flash 16MB/32MB 8MB/8MB, 8MB Flash Internal Storage 54OMB-2.OGB hard disk 340MB 1.8" hard disk PC Cards (opt.) Expansion/Card Slot(s) PCMCIA Type II or I Type III I PCMCIA Type IIll1 2 Type II or I Type III Screen Type Mono LCD or active matrix colol STN Color, backlit Transflective. LCD, CCFL bacldi Screen Size, pixels 800 x 600 640 x 480 640 x 480 Digitizer Yes (also software keyboard) Yes (also software keyboard) Yes Keyboard 3 Serial, parallel; keyboard, mouse, SVGA S, keyboard, SVGA RS-232, keyboard (through ext. dock: InpuVOutput Porl(s) Touch sensitive, $2 pens ~ Electromagnetic (no-battery pen Electromagnetic 1200 dpi Handwriting Recognition Application specific Application specific Application specific Desktop Connection LAN, Infrared, int. Ethernel LAN Docking station Dimensions, in. 12.5" x 10.0" x 2.61 9.5" x 6.65" x 1.1" 9.75" x 7.9" x 2.0" Weight, Ibs. 6.0 1.9 4.2 Options Docking, Infrared, GPSIDGPS, CDPD, Fax & Dock with PC Card slot and ports, Memory, flash, ext radio, vehicle dock, RFmodems battery/charger case printer, charge station List Price $5,595 Comments Appendix A 48 tablet Norand Norand Norand PEN*KEY 6100 PEN*KEY6210 Pen *KEY 6300 Operating Environment MSDOS, WinPen, PenRight' MS DOS 5.0 WinPen, Power Pen Pal Communications RF WANILAN (opl.) CDPD/ArdislRAM/spread (opl.) PCMCIA fax/data, wireless Processor AM386·SC300 "Elan' 80386, 25Mhz 386SU25 or 486SLC, 50Mhz Power Li-Ion smartpack (2.5 hr charge: NiCad (NiMH or 5 AA allcaline: NiCad, 6 AA batteries Std/Max. RAM, ROM (MB) 1MB/16MB, I-8MB Flash 2MB/4MB, 512kB Flash 4MB/12MB, 1MB Flash Internal Storage PCMCIA SRAM (opl.) N/A PCMCIA memory card Expansion/Card Slot(s) 2 Type II or I Type ill I Type II and I Type III 2 Type II or I Type ill card slot Screen Type LCD, backlit/temp. compensatior LCD, haclclit/temp. compensatior Reflective LCD, backlit Screen Size, pixels 240 x 320 160 x 200 320 x 480 Digijizer Yes, progranunable numeric Yes, alphanumeric or numeric Yes Keyboard 9 RS-232, RS-485, IrDA RS-232, RS-485 RS-232, RSo485, keyboard, IrDA (opt) Input/Output Port(s) Touch activated Touch activated Touch activated Handwriting Recognijion Application specific Application specific Application specific Desktop Connection RS-485 LAN (opl.) RS-485 LAN (opl.) RS-485 LAN Dimensions, in. 4.5" x 7.0" x 1.25" 9.5" x 3.3" x 2.8" 5.0" x 9.0" x 1.5" Weight, Ibs. 1.4 1.9 2.5 Options Tethered wand, CCD, laser scanner, WAN, Tethered decoding scanner, WAN, wireless, Docking station, NiMH paclc, inl. laser LAN, vehicle dock inl. IOBaseT scanner, radio List Price $1,195 $1,995 Comments Newton sized Windows capable Norand Ricoh Symbol PEN*KEY 6600 G-1200S PPT4100 Operating Environment MSDOS 6.22, WinPen, PenRight' WFW3.1 MSDOS 5.0, PenDOS Communications RF WANILAN (opl.) PC Card options PCMCIA fax/data wireless Processor i486DX2, 50Mhz i486DX2, 50Mhz F8680A, 14Mhz Power Li-Ion smartpack (1.5 hr. charge: Li·lon, 2 hrs. NiMH 1.1 Ab, ACIDC StdlMax. RAM, ROM (MB) 4MB/16MB, 2-8MB Flash 8MB/24MB 1MB/4MB, 1MB Internal Storage PCMCIA 340MB PC Card 1MB Flash Expansion/Card Slot(s) 2 Type II and I Type III I Type II and I Type III 2 Type II card slots Screen Type LCD, backlit/temp. compensatior Backlit 256 color DSTN Reflective LCD, backlit (opl.: Screen Size, pixels 640 x 480 9.5",640 x 480 640 x 200 Digitizer Yes, exl. PS/2 Yes (PS/2 style) Yes Keyboard RS-232, RS-485, IrDA RS-232, IR (IrDA), audio Serial, infrared, laser scan Input/Output Port(s) Inductive, I (Wacom; Resistive membrane Passive, I, 180 dpi Handwriting Recognijion Application specific Application specific CIC Handwriter Recognition Sys Desktop Connection RS-485 LAN (opl.) LAN LAN, cradle/chargel Dimensions, in. IO.\" x 8.5" x 2.1 " 10.9" x 7.9" x 1.7" 4.0" x 8.2" x 1.3" Weight, Ibs. 4.0 4.4 1.4 Options Tethered decoding scanner, WAN, wireless, PC Cards, floppy, wireless printel Wireless LAN, backlighting, memory, inl. IOBaseT fax/data other OS List Price $3,795 $3,995 $3,895 Comments Symbol Telepad Telepad PPT4600 SL Telepad 3 Operating Environment MSDOS, WinPen (opl.) WinPen,PenRight' WinPen, OS/2, UNIX Communications PCMCIA fax/data, wireless Fax/data, spread spectrum, RF PCMCIA fax/data,wireless Processor 486SLC (3.3 Volt), 20Mhz Intel 80386SL, 25Mhz ffiM 1486DX2, 66Mhz Power Li-Ion (2 hr recharge), ACIDC NiCad, ACIDC Dual NiMH (I .8 Ahr each), ACIDC Std/Max. RAM, ROM (MB) 2MBIl6MB 8MB,system 12MB/36MB, N/A Internal Storage 204MB Flash 170/34OMB hard disk Max. of 1300MB hard disk Expansion/Card Slot(s) I Type II and I Type III I PCMCIA II card slot 4 Type II or 2 Type III Screen Type Backlit LCD Backlit LCD/transflective LCI: Dual scan color LCD Screen Size, pixels 320 x 480 640 x 480 640 x 480 Digitizer Yes Yes, detachable Keyboard Serial, infrared serial Serial, parallel; VGA, keyboard, floppy, Serial, parallel; SVGA, audio, keyboard, Input/Output Port(s) Passive, I, 180 dpi Yes·· ~leCiromagntitic Handwriting Recognition CIC Handwriter Recognition Sys Application specific Application specific Desktop Connection LAN, cradle/charger PC (opl.) LAN, WAN Dimensions, in. 5.4" x 9.6" x 3.5" 11.0" x 11.0" x 1.3" 11.5" x 10.7" x 2.0" Weight, ibs. 1.9 4.5 5.0 Options Vehicle mount, Cradle, stdllong range GPS, camera, bar code reader, cellular, Keyboard.PCMCIA. floppy, custom, scanner PDF417 keyboard, CD- ROM memory,GPS List Price $3,400 $1,895 $3,975 Comments Appendix A 49 tablet Telxon Telxon Telxon PTC-1l34 PTC-1l44 PTC-1l784 Operating Environment WinPen Win 95, PenRight!, PenDm WinPen, PenRight!, PenDm WinPen, PenRight!, PenDOS ~ Comm unications Spread SpectrumIMicroRadio (opt.: Spread SpectrumIWAN RF (opt; spread SpectrumIWAN RF Processor 486SLC, 50Mhz 486SLC, 50Mhz 486SLC, 50Mhz Power NiCad 1.4 Ab, ACIDC (opt.) NiCad 1.4 Ab, ACIDC (opl.) NiCad 1.7 Ab, ACIDC (opt.) Std/Max. RAM, ROM (MB) 4MBI12MB, 2-4MB EPROM 4MBI12MB, 2-4MB EPROM 4MB/l2MB, 2-4MB EPROM Internal Storage 20/4O/60MB solid state drive 20 or 40MB solid state drive 2060MB solid state (opt.) Expansion/Card Slot(s) I PCMCIA WIll card slot (sealed) 1 PCMCIA II card slot I Type II, 1 Type WIll cord slOI Screen Type Backlit transflective LCe Sidelit transflective LCe Backlit transflective LCe Screen Size, pixels 640 x 480 640 x 480 640 x 480 Digitizer Yes Yes Yes Keyboard Serial, keyboard, cradle, modulf Serial, keyboard, antenna, barcode Serial, keyboard, antenna, barcode Input/Output Porl(s) Resistive/480 ppi resolutior Electromagnetic.!looo dpi/150 PP! Electromagnetic./looo dpi/l50 PP! Handwriting Recognitio n CIC Handwriter Recognition Sys CIC Handwriter Recognition Sys CIC Handwriter Recognition Sys Desktop Connection EIA-232 via cradle EIA-232 via cable or dockin~ EIA-232 via cable or dockin~ Dimensions, in. 5.4" x 8.4" x 2.2" 6.25" x 8.75" x 1.5" 12.25" x 9.5" x 1.5" Weight, Ibs. 2.2 3.3 4.4 Options Charging/communications cradle, vehicle. Int: spread spectrum)ArdislRAM, scan; Ext: Int: Aironet spread spectrum, LAN; Ext: mount, keyboard,PCMCIA, bar code cradle, dock, keyboard,PCMCIA Comm, keyboard, PCMCIA List Price Comments Texas Micro WalkAbout HardBody PC Hammerhead 586 Operating Environment MSDOS, WinPen, PenDOS MSDOS, WinPen, Win95 Communications through PC Cards Int. cellular/radiolLANIWAN (opl., Processor i486DX4,75Mhz Cyrix 5x86, lOOMhz Power NiMH, ACIDC (opt.) Duracell NiMH, ACIDC (opt.) SldlMax. RAM, ROM (MB) 8MB/32MB, up to 2MB CMOS 4MB/32MB 170MB Internal Storage 260MB HD 1.03GB HD, flash (opt.) Expansion/Card Slot(s) I Type II + I Type IIIIII card slol Port replicatOl Screen Type Backlit transflective Lce Backlit transflective LCe Screen Size, pixels 640 x 480 640 x 480 Digitizer Yes Yes Keyboard 2 Serial, parallel; keyboard, VGA, floPPl 2 Serial, parallel; keyboard, VGA Input/Output Porl(s) Capacitive pen/touch screeD Electromagnetic/inductivl Handwriting Recognitio n Application specific CIC Handwriter Recognition Sys Desktop Connection PC LAN (opt.) PC LAN (opt.) Dimensions, in. 6.4" x 9.0" x 2.1" II " x 7.75" x 1.5" Weight, Ibs. 3.1 4.0 Options GPS, LAN, Sound/audio, digital WalVvehicle dock, GPS, Flash, heater, photography floppy, ext. modems List Price $3,975 Comments
Appendix A Appendix B.
Survey Results 51 December, 1995 Survey
The following survey was distributed to the two Project Managers that tested the system on the Casio Zoomer at Transportation District 1 in Madison.
1. How much did you use it? TOTAL Why was it not used for more bid items? A o B 1 A. Every bid item C 1 B. Most bid items D o C. Half of the bid items E o D. A few bid items E. Not at all 2
Respondents agreed that the data collector is not practical for all types of bid items. For instance, some items such as traffic control, or items paid for by load tickets are easier to enter into spreadsheets on the Pc.
2. How did you like being able to upload measurements directly into the Item Record Account? Response was favorable.
3. In general, what did you think of the system? Response was favorable. "It would be a definite plus on ajob."
Hardware
1. Was the physical size of the hardware OK? TOTAL
A. Yes B.No A 2 B o
2
2. Did you like using a pen for entering information? TOTAL
A. Yes B. No A 2 B o
2
There was some trouble with getting the handwriting recognition to work. This caused some frustration for the users.
Appendix B 52 3. Would you like the hardware better if it had a keyboard TOTAL instead of (or in addition to) the pen? Why? A 1 B 1 A. Yes B.No 2
It was felt that a keyboard may not be practical. There was concern that the keyboard would add to the size of the unit.
4. Was the hardware sufficiently rugged for this application? TOTAL Describe any problems you encountered. A 1 A. Yes B.No B 1 2
One person commented that the unit "did not like hot or cold temps." Another said that the inspector did drop and mishandle the unit, but it did not suffer any malfunctions or data loss.
5. Was not having a backlit display a problem? TOTAL
A. Yes RNo A 1 B 1
2
Software
1. Have you used pantry software on an HP95? If you TOTAL answered yes, which do you prefer, the HP95 or the Zoomer software? Why? A o B 2
A. Yes B.No 2
2. Did you use the quantity measuring system? If no, why TOTAL not? A 2 A. Yes B.No B o 2
3. How much time do you feel it saved you on each quantity TOTAL entry (both measurement entry and finals checking)? A o A. 5 minutes B 1 C B. 1 minute o
Appendix B 53 C. took about the same time D 1 D. took an extra minute E 0 E. took an extra 5 minutes ----- 2
4. Did you use the inspector's diary system? Ifno, why not? TOTAL
A. Yes B. No A 0 B 2 ----- 2
It was generally felt that the difficulties with the handwriting recognition would make the system too cumbersome for any lengthy diary entries. The convenience of being able to stuff a field book in your back pocket is desired.
5. Was the layout of the data entry screens suitable and TOTAL logical for this application? How might it be altered to improve the software? A 2 B o
A. Yes B. No 2 There was a request for a field to enter the bid item number, if you know it, when creating a new quantity entry. This would avoid having to scroll through a potentially large list of items to find the one you want.
6. Are there other data collection tasks (other than quantities or diary) or applications that would be helpful? "If contractor's tickets had a bar code on each ticket with appropriate information, and data collectors had a sensor to read [the] bar code, this could be a definite time- saver."
7. How frequently did the system 'lock up' (so that you had to press the reset button)? The software tended to lock up frequently. This was mostly attributed to low battery conditions.
8. Other general comments about the hardware or software (attach additional sheets if necessary): There was concern about the length of time that it took to upload to the Pc. Also, this unit is not suitable for all types of bid items.
Appendix B 54 March 13, 1996 Survey
The following survey was distributed to 31 Project Managers and Assistants at Transportation District 1 in Madison. Eleven of these people responded.
The Office of Construction (Central Office Construction) is conducting a study to determine the usefulness of a new quantity measurement recording system. Using this system, you would write your quantity measurements on a handheld computer (much like you can do with an HP95 and Pantry Software). Once you've made these measurements, they can be uploaded directly into your Item Record Account. This eliminates the need to check the IRA entry. Once it is uploaded, a compo sheet is printed out as a permanent record. Another feature of this system would be the ability to make diary entries. This system has been developed using a computer that you write on, which will then recognize your handwriting.
Please take a moment to answer a few questions below. We are looking for volunteers to test the system this summer.
1. How useful do you think this system would be? TOTAL
1. Very useful. 1 5 2 2. Somewhat useful. 3 3 3 3. Don't see why we're wasting time on it. ----- 11 Mean 1. 82
Questions 2 through 4 were answered with the following responses: 1. Quite a bit. 2. Some. 3. None. 4. Would take more time.
2. How much time do you think it would save during field TOTAL measuring? 1 1 2 5 3 5 4 o
11 Mean 2.36 3. How much time do you think it would save during the finals process? 1 3 2 6 3 2 4 o
11 Mean 1.91 4. How much time do you think it would save on diary entries? 1 5 2 2 3 2 4 2
11 Mean 2.09
5. Would you be willing to test this system in the field this TOTAL
Appendix B 55 summer? 1 7 1. Yes. 2 4 2. No.
Appendix B 56 December, 1996 Survey
The following survey was distributed to the five people that did field testing this summer.
1. What hardware platform did you test? ZMR NWT N/A TOTAL
1. Casio Zoomer. 1 2 2 2 2. Apple MessagePad (Newton). 3 3 NA ======2 3 5 2. How much did you use the field data collector? 1 1. Every bid item. 2 3 1 2 2. Most bid items. 1 4 1 1 3. Half of the bid items. 5 4. A few bid items. NA 2 2 5. Not at all. ======2 3 5
3. If you answered Not at all,' why not?
4. How useful was being able to upload measurements ZMR NWT N/A TOTAL directly into the IRA? 1 1 1 2 1. Very useful. 2 1 1 3 2. Somewhat useful. 4 3. Not useful at all. NA 2 2 4. A hassle. ======2 3 5
5. In general, what did you think of the system overall? Most respondents felts that the size of both units was fine. They also felt that a keyboard was not practical in -field. One said that the Zoomer handles easier than pencil and paper. There was some difficulty seeing screen of the Zoomer through the case. Generally, all agreed that the handwriting recognition on the Zoomer left much to be desired. In addition, the system locked up frequently. They also found the handwriting recognition on the Newton to be considerably better than Zoomer.
Hardware
6. How was the size of the device you tested? ZMR NWT N/A TOTAL
1. Too biglheavy to carry around. 1 2. Just about right. 2 1 2 3 3 1 1 3. Too small--the screen was difficult to write on.
Appendix B 57 NA 1 1 ======2 3 5 7. Do you think the unit is rugged enough for field use? 1 1 3 4 1. Yes. 2. No. 2 1 1 NA ======2 3 5 8. Would a keyboard be helpful on this unit? 1 1 2 3 1. Yes. 2. No. 2 1 1 2 NA ======2 3 5
9. In general, how did you like the hardware? One person thought the screen was too small. The Newton had quite an appetite for batteries.
10. Was not having a backlight a problem? ZMR NWT N/A TOTAL
1. Yes. 2. No. 1 2 2 2 4 NA 1 1 ======2 3 5 11. Do you think it would be useful to have a pen-based portable computer running this software (instead of the 1 1 2 3 Newton/Zoomer) on which you could also run the Item 2 1 1 2 NA Record Account? ======2 3 5 1. Yes. 2. No.
Software
ZMR NWT N/A TOTAL 12. Have you used pantry software on an HP95? 1 2 3 5 2 1. Yes. 2. No. NA ======2 3 5 13. Ifyou answered yes, which do you prefer, the HP95 or the ZoomerlNewton software? 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 NA 1 1. HP95. 2. ZoomerlNewton. 1 ======2 3 5 14. Did you use the quantity measuring system? 1 2 1 3 1. Yes. 2. No. 2 NA 2 2 ======
Appendix B 58 2 3 5 15. How much time do you feel it saved you on each quantity entry (in measurement entry)? 1 '2 2 1 3 3 1. More than 5 minutes. 4 2. 5 minutes. 5 3. 1 minute. 6 4. Took about the same time. 7 5. Took an extra minute. NA 2 2 6. Took an extra 5 minutes. ======7. Took more than an extra 5 minutes. 2 3 5
Mean =2.0
16. How much time do you feel it saved you on each quantity entry (in finals checking)? 1 1 1 2 3 1 1 2 1. More than 5 minutes. 4 2. 5 minutes. 5 3. 1 minute. 6 4. Took about the same time. 7 5. Took an extra minute. NA 2 2 6. Took an extra 5 minutes. ======7. Took more than an extra 5 minutes. 2 3 5
Mean = 2.33
17. Did you use the inspector's diary system? 1 1. Yes. 2. No. 2 2 1 3 NA 2 2 ======2 3 5
18. If no, why not? Respondents were unwilling to spend the extra time to make diary entries this way since they wouldn't transfer to the IRA. Handwriting recognition was poor, which made data entry too slow. Although the handwriting recognition on the Newton was much better than Zoomer, it was still too slow to make it practical.
19. Any other general comments? Respondents agreed the system has limited items where it is practical; some projects would use it extensively, and rarely on others. The system is good, and could be very useful with a few modifications. A person with minimal computer experience as able to utilize this hardware on the project.
More geometric shapes would make the system even more useful.
c:\files\penb\finalrep,doc
Appendix B 59
I "Windows CE: a look under the hood" Pen Computing Magazine, December 1996, p. 28. 2 Ibid., p. 28. 3 Ibid., pp. 88-97
Appendix B
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