{"id":13609,"date":"2017-05-03T19:05:34","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T18:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/?p=13609"},"modified":"2017-07-12T20:37:19","modified_gmt":"2017-07-12T19:37:19","slug":"techblog-smartphone-science-no-programming-required","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/2017\/05\/03\/techblog-smartphone-science-no-programming-required\/","title":{"rendered":"TechBlog: Smartphone science, no programming required"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"MIT<\/a>

MIT App Designer 2<\/p><\/div>\n

In the 4 May Nature\u00a0<\/em>technology feature, I explore\u00a0the growing use of smartphones to drive scientific research<\/a>. Today’s phones are so full-featured, they’re often ready for use out-of-the-box. Sometimes, though, a custom app is required, and that can be a sticking point, as programming a mobile app isn’t easy.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Traditionally, mobile apps are written like software always has been \u2014 in code. Using\u00a0a so-called\u00a0\u2018integrated development environment\u2019, for instance \u2014 all-in-one workspaces\u00a0combining a code editor, help center, debugger, and interface designer \u2014 researchers with a bit of programming savvy\u00a0can build an app more or less from the ground up.\u00a0Apple\u2019s Xcode<\/a> programming environment, Google\u2019s Android Studio<\/a>, and Microsoft\u2019s Visual Studio<\/a>\u00a0all fit into this category.<\/p>\n

For those with limited programming skills, there are simpler\u00a0alternatives. One is Fulcrum<\/a>, a tool for creating smartphone-based data-collection forms, whose data can then be synced with the cloud.\u00a0Christopher Carr<\/a>, a research scientist at MIT and part of a NASA-funded team developing instrumentation to detect extraterrestrial life<\/a>, has used that approach at Volc\u00e1n Copahue in the Andes mountains. The site serves as a \u201cMars analog<\/a>,\u201d and the team uses Fulcrum to document the \u201ccontext\u201d \u2014 the GPS coordinates and soil pH, for instance \u2014 of the microbial samples they collect there.<\/p>\n

Another option is \u2018visual programming\u2019, in which apps are created graphically, with little or no\u00a0coding. Emil Schwan, a pharmaceutical inspector in Sweden\u2019s Medical Products Agency, helped develop an Android-based time-lapse imaging tool for monitoring cell migration<\/a>. Though time-lapse imaging software already exists, Schwan says, his team required a custom app to run the experiment itself \u2014 for instance, to set the incubation temperature and control an external shutter that they installed to control light exposure.<\/p>\n

Schwann took advantage of the MIT App Inventor<\/a>, a visual programming environment in which code is built by positioning and connecting blocks of code on a virtual canvas like puzzle pieces. (Microsoft Phone developers can use Windows App Studio<\/a> instead.) Once assembled, the app can be uploaded to an Android phone and run.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can write an app with more or less no skill,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

There’s one other tool for smartphone scientists\u00a0I should mention here: LEGO Digital Designer<\/a>.\u00a0Though smartphones formed the heart of many of the tools I covered, those phones (or\u00a0the samples they worked with) were often held in place\u00a0on scaffolds created using\u00a03D printing.\u00a0But Julien Colombelli,\u00a0head of the Advanced Digital Microscopy Core Facility at the\u00a0Institute for Research in Biomedicine\u00a0in Barcelona, designed his smartphone-enabled light-sheet microscope<\/a>\u00a0out of\u00a0LEGO bricks.<\/p>\n

LEGO is actually a great choice for instrument prototyping, Colombelli says, because users can iterate designs so\u00a0rapidly. By comparison, 3D printers\u00a0are relatively slow and often shared, meaning they may not be available when you\u00a0need them. Using the Digital Designer software, researchers can develop designs in virtual space, then order the necessary pieces using LEGO’s “Pick a Brick<\/a>” service.<\/p>\n

“In terms of workflow, for a potential customer, a kid, school, or lab to actually get this instrument quickly, then the LEGO is [the most accessible option],” he says \u2014\u00a0“at least, faster than a 3D printer.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jeffrey Perkel<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>is Technology Editor,\u00a0<\/em>Nature<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Suggested posts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Need an instrument? Build it!<\/a><\/p>\n

My digital toolbox: Lorena Barba<\/a><\/p>\n

JOSS\u00a0<\/em>gives computational scientists their academic due<\/a><\/p>\n

Santiago Perez De Rosso on Git, reimagined<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the 4 May Nature\u00a0technology feature, I explore\u00a0the growing use of smartphones to drive scientific research. Today\u2019s phones are so full-featured, they\u2019re often ready for use out-of-the-box. Sometimes, though, a custom app is required, and that can be a sticking point, as programming a mobile app isn\u2019t easy.  Read more<\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104777,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,865,199,200],"tags":[328,6677359,5380847,5945961,6677361,3789011,13,6677365,6677363,2413529,6677357,75],"class_list":["post-13609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-2","category-data","category-research-2","category-technology-2","tag-computing","tag-digital","tag-jeff-perkel","tag-jeffrey-perkel","tag-lego","tag-programming","tag-research","tag-smartphone","tag-smartphone-science","tag-tech","tag-techblog","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104777"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}