Sponsored By
Efika 5200B Project
Low cost system for creation and administration of video-based surveys & analysis of resultsin category Applications & Software
proposed by JGibson on 24th February 2006 (accepted on 20th March 2006)
Project Summary
Questionnaire based research is an important tool in a variety of fields including public health & epidemiology, market research & economics, political science and the media. Undertaking such research in developing countries and new markets can be a challenging and expensive proposition. A major obstacle to the effective conduct of such research is poor literacy, which can make it impossible to use paper-based questionnaires to evaluate the opinions and experiences of a representative sample of the population in question.The usual approach to overcoming this problem is to use interview-based questionnaires. This approach is expensive in terms of human resources, logistically difficult, and can lead to interviewer bias (1). In order to avoid such bias it is necessary to provide comprehensive training to the interviewer to ensure standardised conduct of the interview, further increasing expense.
Video based interviews using a recorded interview and simplified data entry systems (such as colour-coded buttons) can provide a solution to these problems, but can be expensive to set up and may require specialist technical knowledge. This project seeks to provide a low cost, low power consumption system allowing the easy creation, conduct and analysis of video based surveys.
The system will consist of an EFIKA motherboard, an inexpensive USB video camera, a microphone, a modified keyboard or alternative input device (with large, colour-coded buttons), a graphics card with composite video output capability (to allow use of a TV set for playing interviews to minimise costs) and a small (20-40 GB)hard disk for video and data storage. These devices could theoretically all be integrated into a single, plug-and-play type box/case.
The system will run a minimal, customised Linux operating system to provide driver support and recording capabilities.
The survey application will be based on existing, open-source AV recording and playback software with extensions to allow the overlaying of visual cues related to the input device (eg. a green square might be overlaid as the video prompts the subject to \"press the green button to answer Yes\"). Answers will be recorded in a format (such as .csv) compatible with the major statistical analysis applications (STATA, S-Plus, Epi-Info, SPSS etc.). The software will also interface with the open-source statistical analysis system \'R\'(2), providing simplified syntax and point-and-click operation for common tasks. All functions will be available from a single integrated interface to maximise ease-of-use.
In addition, a basic desktop environment will be provided, with common applications such as openoffice.org and mozilla firefox preinstalled.
Depending on initial success, possible future improvements to the system might include touchscreen support, server capability (using OSW hardware and flash or similar technologies) to allow surveys to be carried out in multiple locations via the internet, and the use of voice-recognition technology to further simplify data input.
References:
(1) Salazar, MK: AAOHN J. 1990 Dec;38(12):567-72
(2) R statistical analysis language. Homepage: http://cran.r-project.org/index.html
Project Blog Entries
It looks as though someone has finally made it all work
Link
What fantastic timing. Must definitely have a play with this over christmas...
Ok, the Efika has arrived. Very neat little board - was surprised how small the box is.
I have a 2.5" HD on the way courtesy of Ebay, a spare Radeon 7k in my desk drawer, and just need to sort out some sort of PSU to get going.
Now is probably a good time to think about the OS requirements.
Judging by some of the comments on the developer forum, a full KDE or Gnome install is probably going to be a bit OTT for a processor of this class. Ditto OpenOffice. I therefore need to look into alternatives.
The main requirements as I see them are as follows:
1. Basic desktop functionality. Should be at least somewhat similar to Windows to make simplify things for users that haven't experimented with Linux before.
2. A system that obscures the Linux filesystem as much as possible - something that puts (or will allow me to put) the devices on the desktop so that users don't need to go digging around in /mnt/ or /dev/ to get access to their folders. Ideally, it would be nice to have disks mounted as (e.g.) /c-drive /usb-drive to make things really obvious.
3. The best NTFS support currently possible. A lot of the data collected on this system will probably end up being analysed in STATA or SPSS on windows (NB. need to find out whether there is a PPC version of STATA for linux), so external HD transfer needs to be as seemless as possible. Need to see how effective the newer NTFS compatibility solutions are.
4. An office suite. Basic word processing is important, but doesn't need all the bells and whistles. AbiWord is probably more than adequate. Presentation software might be useful, but isn't essential. A top-notch spreadsheet is essential. The one in OpenOffice is fine, but I'm not too familiar with the alternatives. I'd like to avoid using OO if there is a snappier (faster, smaller) alternative that has most of the necessary functions.
5. Minimal bloat. The best bet will probably be to start with a very, very basic debian install and add in only those packages necessary to get everything working as intended.
Will report back with suggestions as they come to me...
A possible candidate:
Large keys, simple layout, apparently durable construction.
No colour coding, but the use of an adhesive or clip-on/interchangeable background inlay would probably do the job. Will email for indication of price/availability/UK supplier.
It now appears there will be three different EFIKA products.
1) PCI only
2) PCI + FPGA
3) No PCI, but Integrated Graphics + FPGA
(if I read BBRV's forum post correctly)
The FPGA option is interesting - it might be possible to use it as a h/w video codec to reduce CPU usage when recording/playing.
The integrated graphics option would help to reduce costs and minimise the size of the finished unit, but will this have composite output?
Received notification of project approval this morning.
First stages:
1) Await detailed information about efika motherboard case/power requirements and begin to acquire necessary h/w.
2) Investigate options for video recording / playback components and select base linux distribution. Emphasize good performance and low disk & memory footprint.