FIG FIGFIGFIGNO: 0201 FIG NO: 090705 03 FIG FIGFIG NO: 04 NO: NO: FIG06 NO: NO: NO:

1008 NO: FIG NO:

Virtual Micro Lab 1.0

Project Proposal

10/22/2011 Team VML Calvin, Nirmal, Shyam , Ragavan

Overview

The purpose of the system is to develop primary education around the world. We have named this software system Virtual Micro Lab (VML). Many students around the world are unable to use actual physical laboratory equipment. Our research has proven that many primary students and advance level students do not have the opportunity to actually use microscopes and other dives, So we came up with solutions to actually develop a virtual microscope system where the student can interact with it and they will feel as if they are using a really microscope. The system is focusing on biology, mainly in cell biology where students can use VML to gain knowledge on cell structures etc. VML can also be updated to other fields as well. What you need to know is that VML is just not some virtual microscope; VML is a complete learning environment where students will be able to learn theory on the cell structures, listen to lectures, watch video tutorials, read theory and the most important fact is that the student will get a good knowledge on using a microscope even if its not the real thing. VML provides feature where student will be able to change the lenses in the microscope and view the cell structures. This is very similar to a real microscope where students have to change the lens to view different cells and cell components. VML provides many more features such as TRACE PAPER and USE CHEMICALS. These will be explained in detail.

VML interface and functions

The main interface

This will be the main interface that the user will interact with. The purple colored circles which are places on the right and left hand side of the screen are the specimens.

There are 12 built in cell specimens (human cells to bacteria and etc.). The specimens are mainly built for primary level education but it can be updated to advance level as well. All specimens can be dragged and drop to the lens (The big blue circle in the middle). VML interface provides user friendly features such as drag and drop. Now lets see how we use this system. The user can simply drag and drop the above mentioned specimens to the lens. And then it will be zoomed to some default value where some parts of the cell will be visible (but not all). But to view them in detail the user should click Select Lens.

When the user selects this option a new window will pop in. The user will be able to select the type of lens and assigned it to the microscope.

And then after the selection of the lens the user will be able to view the cell structures very easily. The user can actually zoom in and zoom out of the cell and view the structures. This feature will give the user a great experience. The user will actually feel as if working on the real thing.

When the user zooms in to the inner part of the cell, he will be able to view each component individually. And when the user moves the mouse over the components a windows will pop up given some description about the structure and also a play button will pop up to let the user to listen to the tutorial or watch it.

The cells will be designed using flash and 3D models. Now lets talk about the TRACE PAPER features. Well for this feature we will be using a special hard ware device. This device is very cheap in the market. Its actually a modified mouse, it does everything a mouse does but its in the shape of a normal pen.

You can always use the trace paper feature without this device, but we recommended the pen mouse to get the best use of the trace paper feature. What is the trace paper feature? Well before I explain that I will teach you how we manually draw cell diagrams in the laboratory. We basically have to look into the microscope and then draw it in our paper. This is actually not an easy task for primary students. First they have to look into the microscope with one eye and then draw the

diagram with the other eye. And they have to be very careful of not damaging any equipment. VML has the answer for all these problems. By using the trace paper feature the user will be able to draw the cell structure and components on the digital paper and then save it as an image file. And also while he is drawing on the digital paper he can also draw it on a normal paper. This is because the pen mouse will have a normal ink pen in it to. So a hard and soft copy both will be created.

The Use Chemicals feature will let the user to use various types of die to use in different cells. For an example we need to die the plant cell to view some of its components. So this can also be done in VML. Our main intension is to make VML as much as realistic we could. VML can also be implemented in touch devices as well. (Touch screens, TABs etc.). This will increase the user friendliness of the software. But VML runs perfectly well on a normal desktop or laptop computer.

Required Software and Hardware

We will basically be using Micro Soft Visual Studio (c#) as our main development IDE. And also we will be using several graphic packages such as FLASH pro and PROCESS which is 3D programming language. We will embed all these into the software and then complete the product as one functional unit.

VML will require only one hardware device. As mentioned before the user will need a pen mouse which will help the user when using the TRACE PAPER feature.

Selling price of VML

The software solution with the hardware device will be sold for 40$ (4000rs). We think that the price of the product is affordable to any one when considering the price of a real microscope.

User range and user levels in VML

There is a wide user range in VML. Its not only the students; even the teachers will be able to use this for lecturers. Just plug in a projector to your desktop PC or Laptop and you are set to go. VML 1.0 is currently based on Cell biology (primary standards). But this can be updated to advance level Biology as well. Not only in bio science, but we could implement this in chemistry and physics as well.