Basically this is a vocal alarm clock iphone app and web server development included.

Overview

Morning Report is a vocal alarm clock service which wakes users up with spoken information about the time and the weather in their location.

Morning Report operates on a web server, and is accessed by the client-side application on iphone. This is to keep file size low (we’re aiming for a very small download).
Weather data is provided via a weather network we have an account with. International feeds and their weather API will be available.

Process
The client sends the following information to the web server:
1) The user’s time
2) The location of the user

The server responds by streaming a professionally recorded message of:
1) A greeting (“Good morning”)
2) The user’s set alarm time (“It’s 7 o’clock”)
3) The weather in the user’s location (“The weather outside is 16 degrees, with clear skies.”)

The user in question would hear the following at 7am:

“Good morning. It’s 7 o’clock. The weather outside is 16 degrees, with clear skies.”

Client
The focus of this operational setup is to offer MorningReport to a range of client platforms. We intend to create applications for iphone and ipad
Priority 1. iphone
Priority 2. HD ipad app

The Web Server
The web server will host a library of professional sound recordings for each piece of information the client sends.
These will be named in a way which can be easily identified by the system, and expanded upon later on with additional voices and recordings for Facebook, twitter etc.
Eg.
V01_g01.mp3
Voice actor 01, greeting 01 – good morning

V01_c0700.mp3
Voice actor 01, clock time 0700 hrs

V01_t16.mp3
Voice actor 01, temperature 16 degrees

V01_w003.mp3
Voice actor 01, weather category 003 – clear skies

The client would be streamed the audio from this set of files like so:
V01_g01.mp3 (pause) V01_c0700.mp3 (pause) V01_t16.mp3 V01_w003.mp3

“Good morning (pause) It’s 7 o’clock (pause) The weather outside is 16 degrees, with clear skies.”

This will be streamed from a selection of bitrates, from 96kb to 320kbit
The stream will use audio compression to minimise bandwidth.

Requirements

- Alarm information (date, time, weather) is also displayed on panels on the iphone.
- The server’s audio library must be scalable – we intend to add additional voices and functionality
- Check the time in the system

With the introduction of OS4, I would like to investigate the ability to:
- Interface with and draw from current alarms the users have set in the iphone OS alarm clock
- Operate the application as a background process – Activating just before the set alarm goes off to update weather and stream audio.
- Move the application to the user’s screen when the alarm activates.
- Use the GPS to identify location information for the weather.

Alarm settings
- Changing alarm time
- Saving alarms
- Making a new alarm
- Editing an alarm
- Changing the voice of an alarm

Weather settings
- Settings for temperature display in degrees Fahrenheit and degrees Celsius
- A screen for users to select their location
- GPS support to locate user location
- Displaying different graphics and images depending on the weather
- Automated check for the day’s forecast and current temperature

Audio settings
- Choosing the correct audio strings to stream from the server
- Audio compression for optimal streaming
- The ability to add new voices at a later date

What will be supplied
- We will be supplying all artwork, which will be in the format requested by the programmers.
- All UI flow documentation will be supplied for development
- Server space will be provided, or organised with partner
- All Weather accounts and data will be supplied for development
- All audio will be supplied. A draft will be supplied before development. Final Audio will be supplied closer to final build
- 2 sets of recorded audio will be supplied (one male and one female)
Please see attachment MorningReport_spec.doc, and give yourself more idea of this app.
Tell me how long it will you to finish when bidding.