TY - JOUR
T1 - An argument against cross-platform development
T2 - Lessons from an augmented reality app prototype for rural emergency responders
AU - Weichelt, Bryan
AU - Heimonen, Tomi
AU - Pilz, Matthew
AU - Yoder, Aaron
AU - Bendixsen, Casper
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding support was provided through the Pilot and Feasibility Projects Program of Central States Center for Agricultural Health and Safety Center (NIOSH 5U54OH010162), the Rural Firefighters Delivering Agricultural Safety and Health project as a part of the Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (CDC-NIOSH U54 OH010170), the National Farm Medicine Center, and the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute. The authors would like to thank the project advisor David Schwebel, PhD, and collaborators Fire Chief Jerry Minor and Matthew Keifer, MD.
Publisher Copyright:
© Bryan Weichelt, Tomi Heimonen, Matthew Pilz, Aaron Yoder, Casper Bendixsen.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Background: Mobile augmented reality (MAR) apps offer potential support for emergency responders in rural areas. Objective: In this report, we described lessons learned from the development process of augmented reality (AR) Farm Mapping to Assist, Protect and Prepare Emergency Responders (MAPPER), a MAR app that provides emergency responders onsite information about the agricultural operation they enter. Methods: Cross-platform frameworks were used to create AR MAPPER to accommodate budget constraints and overcome issues with markerless MAR technologies. Although the single codebase and Web technologies streamlined development, cross-device hardware limitations impacted location accuracy, lengthened the development cycle, and required regular updates to third-party libraries. Results: A hybrid development approach of using Web-based technologies with native tie-ins for specialized components and enhanced performance cut time and costs. This also led to consistency across multiple platforms and ensured that there is only a single set of source files to modify for Android and iPhone operating systems. Meanwhile, active development was delayed by some major hurdles. Apple and Google both released new versions of their operating systems, and the Wikitude framework issued four major updates, each of which brought with it some important enhancements and also led to some new issues. Conclusions: Developers should consider single platform native development to benefit from platform-specific MAR implementations and to avoid development, testing, and maintenance costs associated with cross-platform implementation. Emergency response organizations may be more likely to utilize a single platform across the devices used by their command staff. This also reduces the benefits of cross-platform development. Furthermore, providing map-based, non-AR cross-platform apps for landowners, farmers, and ranchers would help improve and maintain data quality, which is crucial for the utility and user experience of MAR apps.
AB - Background: Mobile augmented reality (MAR) apps offer potential support for emergency responders in rural areas. Objective: In this report, we described lessons learned from the development process of augmented reality (AR) Farm Mapping to Assist, Protect and Prepare Emergency Responders (MAPPER), a MAR app that provides emergency responders onsite information about the agricultural operation they enter. Methods: Cross-platform frameworks were used to create AR MAPPER to accommodate budget constraints and overcome issues with markerless MAR technologies. Although the single codebase and Web technologies streamlined development, cross-device hardware limitations impacted location accuracy, lengthened the development cycle, and required regular updates to third-party libraries. Results: A hybrid development approach of using Web-based technologies with native tie-ins for specialized components and enhanced performance cut time and costs. This also led to consistency across multiple platforms and ensured that there is only a single set of source files to modify for Android and iPhone operating systems. Meanwhile, active development was delayed by some major hurdles. Apple and Google both released new versions of their operating systems, and the Wikitude framework issued four major updates, each of which brought with it some important enhancements and also led to some new issues. Conclusions: Developers should consider single platform native development to benefit from platform-specific MAR implementations and to avoid development, testing, and maintenance costs associated with cross-platform implementation. Emergency response organizations may be more likely to utilize a single platform across the devices used by their command staff. This also reduces the benefits of cross-platform development. Furthermore, providing map-based, non-AR cross-platform apps for landowners, farmers, and ranchers would help improve and maintain data quality, which is crucial for the utility and user experience of MAR apps.
KW - Emergency medical services
KW - Mhealth
KW - Rural health
KW - Telemedicine
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U2 - 10.2196/12207
DO - 10.2196/12207
M3 - Article
C2 - 30920380
AN - SCOPUS:85074191124
SN - 2291-5222
VL - 7
JO - JMIR mHealth and uHealth
JF - JMIR mHealth and uHealth
IS - 3
M1 - e12207
ER -