SMS Messaging Applications

1. SMS Messaging Applications Dimuth Kulasinghe Mentor: Nirav Merchant Affiliated with: Stealth Health

2. Introduction • Worked in U of A project Stealth Health • Goal is to educate youth about physical activity and nutrition by using pervasive geospatial technologies • Use of smart phone with GPS capability and data, text messaging plan. Primary pervasive and ubiquitous device provided to youth in the study.

3. Problem Statement • SMS text messaging often limited to one-to-one correspondences • No standard system for group text messaging • Dearth of flexible and simple to use SMS broadcasting systems

4. Solution • Create smart phone application that allows users to broadcast messages using traditional LISTSERV functions • Application simply has to be installed, and system is ready to go • Application cost based only on the administrator’s text messaging plan • User costs depend on subscribers’ respective data plans

5. Application • Users register with application • Users then subscribe to desired topics • Application allows user to broadcast messages to all subscribers in the topic • Specific members can be met and messaged directly • New topics can be suggested • Topics represented as traditional twitter hash-tags (#)

6. Subscribe to #veggies User 1 Message about #veggies User 2 Message about #veggies User 3 Message about #veggies User 4

7. Trials • Tested at Model United Nations Conference • Facilitated communication between speakers at conference • Major improvement over traditional walkie talkies

8. Aspirations • Many other potential use cases • Classroom environment • Farmer’s market • Neighborhood Watch

9. Special Thanks to • Nirav Merchant for introducing me to Stealth Health • Dave Parizek for assistance with programming logic • James Vancel and Stealth Health team for useful feedback • NASA for the opportunity