Client: Gary Bishop

Client: Gary Bishop

Contractors:

Mirza Nagji
Tony Penta
Ryan Hillman
Jessica Whitley
Jack Enloe
Ian Quattlebaum
Quentin Dubois

General Description:

The goal of this project is to create a software application to be used by visually impaired students (hereafter referred to as “the students”). Specifically, an enjoyable and educational game will be created to help the students learn to use the QWERTY keyboard. In this game, appropriate letters, combinations of letters, and words will be sounded through the speakers of the computer, to which the user must correctly type into the keyboard to advance to the next level. The hierarchy of the game will be broken down into “Missions”, each mission having several different “Levels”. Approximately 3 to 4 missions will be created; each mission will subsequently have approximately 5 to 8 levels (depending on the mission). The purpose of this hierarchy is for the student to become fluent with different aspects of typing, such as using the home keys and eventually using more difficult parts of the keyboard.

Our goal is to create a working version of this application in C#, the programming language that best provides the functionality needed to complete a software project of this nature.

Interested Parties:

The party of Mirza Nagji, Tony Penta, Ryan Hillman, Jessica Whitley, Jack Enloe, Ian Quattlebaum, and Quentin Dubois shall hereafter be collectively referred to as “the contractor.” The party of Gary Bishop shall hereafter be referred to as “the client.”

Contractor Obligations:

The contractor agrees to provide the client with a fully functional software product that meets the specifications as outlined in the Primary Requirements section to follow. The contractor agrees that the product will be delivered to the client at a date no later than May 1, 2003.

Furthermore, the contractor agrees that if the Primary Requirements are fulfilled before the scheduled deadline, supplementary software and/or additions to the existing product, as specified under Secondary Requirements and Tertiary Requirements, will be developed to be deliverable to the client no later than May 1, 2003. In the event that the Primary requirements are satisfied before the scheduled deadline, Secondary Requirements will take priority over Tertiary Requirements (with respect to completion of the product). However, the contractor’s formal obligation is to meet the Primary Requirements, and furthermore, there is no obligation (explicit or implicit) to meet either the Secondary Requirements or Tertiary Requirements or to fully develop any functionality that falls within either category once it’s development has begun. These requirements will be met only on a time-permitting basis.

The contractor further agrees to provide the client with adequate and sufficient documentation regarding the design and use of all software for the aforementioned product. Such documentation will be provided in the form of a user manual and a technical manual, which will include product code with technical documentation. Both the user and technical manual will be provided to the client no later than the delivery date of the project.

Client Obligations:

The Client hereby agrees to provide to the contractor ample time for meetings between the client and contractor in order to determine the client's wishes, both in functionality and implementation of the product, and to aid the contractor in self-evaluation of progress throughout the product development period. Therefore, the client agrees to be available for a minimum of one one-hour meeting each week during the development period unless the contractor explicitly relieves the client of such a requirement. Furthermore, the client agrees to take on other meetings with the contractor, at the contractor's request unless it is excessive, unreasonable, or impossible to do so.

Furthermore, the client agrees to provide the contractor (either directly or indirectly) reasonable access to resources including, but not limited to:

Relevant audio and visual libraries to aid the coding process
Equipment needed for the development of the product (including access to computers, software, speakers, and literature and documentation of technologies being used where appropriate)
Documentation (either written or verbal) to aid in the software development process
Visually impaired children to aid in the development, implementation, and testing of the product

The client agrees to provide further resources on an as-needed basis (so deemed by the contractor) upon formal agreement by both parties.

The client is also responsible for providing timely assistance and feedback on the specific issues concerning the development of the software product.

Primary Requirements:

The primary requirement is to provide the functional groundwork for the product as described in the General Description section of this contract. The product should fully exhibit the following functionality:

The product will be specially designed with visually impaired users in mind. Minimal, elementary graphics will be provided to guide sighted students, teachers, and parents. However, visually impaired students will remain the target audience.
Sound cues will alert the user of which letter, combination of letters, or words that must be typed into the keyboard in order to advance in the game. Lower levels and missions will be of minimal difficulty, while advancement through the game, and subsequent higher levels and missions will require more skilled keyboard knowledge by the user.
Positive reinforcement will be utilized when the student makes a mistake. A message that will guide the student to the right keys (in lower levels and missions) or a simple “try again” message (in upper levels and missions) will be used when the user makes a mistake.
The game will be organized in such a manner as to create an enjoyable and educational medium for students to become familiar with all keys on the keyboard.

Secondary Requirements:

A tutorial about different keys on the keyboard will be developed for students to use before actually playing the game. This will give students some background and familiarity with keyboard keys before they begin playing the game.
More advanced and involved missions will be made available so that once students fully comprehend and master the Primary levels (levels created in the Primary requirements), they will be able to move to more challenging missions and levels in order to increase their familiarity and fluency with the keyboard.

Tertiary Requirements:

The graphical capacity of the product will be increased, making it possible for not only visually impaired students to use the game, but for sighted students to use it as well.

Resources:

The C# programming language will be used to implement the product
Visual Studio .NET
DirectX (including, but not limited to DirectSound and Direct3D)
Microsoft Speech SDK
Access to sound files and auditory cues

Risks:

Possible incompatibility between DirectSound and Microsoft Speech SDK
Run-time risks (mostly slowdowns and freezes of the game) caused by

threading issues

Access to computer labs with pre-installed versions of VS.NET (the programming environment needed to develop the product

Signatures: