A note taking tool for the Android platform.  Letting you use your phone’s camera to take notes about measurements on whatever your capturing photos of.

The concept of SudoTape is this, I hate taking notes, using computers all day my writing sucks, it looks like I dragged a dead chicken across the page.  Well I built a new cottage last year and had to take measurements of the windows so I could buy new blinds/coverings for them.  I had to manually write down the measurements and I couldn’t read my terrible writing.  I thought, why can’t I take a picture of the window then draw on the picture on my phone and make markers of the length/width/height that way.

What my app lets you do is take a picture (or import one you have already on your phone) and draw markers on the picture for the measurements.  You can save that work as a project to go back and reference later or save the doctored image (the photograph but with the markers as part of the image) for review.

The main menu looks like this:

You’re given three options (if your device has a camera).

The first option when selected will launch the camera intent on your device, from here you will take a picture of the scene you’re interested in adding markers to.

The second option gives you the opportunity to select an image already on your device, either captured earlier, imported from another source, downloaded, etc.

The third option lets you select a previous SudoTape session for review or to continue editing.

If you press the menu button on the main menu screen you’re given another three choices:

Preferences lets you define application specific settings, About shows some information on the app and Exit should be self explanitory.

Lets review the preferences:

The application path is where SudoTape saves all its files, images that were re-saved with markers and project files.   Force SudoTape file selector is used when selecting to open and edit previous SudoTape projects.  If this option is deselected you can use any file manager intent to open SudoTape project files.  The benefit of using the SudoTape file manager will be discussed later.  Default Marker settings are settings for new markers that you create on your images.  You can edit those marker settings once they’re created but defining default markers can help speed up the process of getting markers that look good for your images.

Lets go back to the main menu….

If you choose to use a previously captured image (not captured from SudoTape) you’ll be given this screen (if you pick the Import Image button on the main menu):

SudoTape asks Android to provide you a list of ways you can select images.  Typically you can just use Gallery as it’s likely the quickest but whatever select image file intent you have will be fine.  Once you’ve selected your image using one of those apps your selected image will launch into SudoTape into the edit view:

You may notice some light colored text at the top left of the screen, this helps remind you what mode the edit view is in.  By default after selecting an image you’ll be in Edit:Orient mode.  Orient mode lets you drag the image around or pinch/zoom to zoom into the picture.  This way you can fine-tune what you actually want to measure in the scene.

Lets draw a marker, select the menu button on your device, you should see the popup menu:

Select the Draw button, you’ll see 2 or 3 options:

Draw = put new markers on the screen
Edit = edit/modify markers that you have already, you won’t see this option if you don’t already have any markers in the edit view
Orient = drag/pinch-zoom on the image itself.

Select Draw.

Now the fun stuff, finger down then drag to put the start-end of the marker, finger up to add the marker, when you let go of the drag a popup will show giving you some options for the marker itself.

If you reviewed the preferences these options should be familiar.  This is where you define the settings for the marker.   The Value tab of the options dialog lets you type in a meaningful measurement, in this case the width of the microwave oven.  I could type in 36 inches, or any value really.  Could be numeric, words, whatever.

The Style tab lets you define what the marker line looks like, if the line is solid or dashed and what the end points of the line look like.

The Attributes tab lets you define how the line looks, if the line is antialiased (smooth), how thick it is and what it’s color is set as.

If you hit OK the changes will be applied to your marker, if you hit cancel the marker you just drew is thrown away.

Click OK and apply your changes.

Lets edit that line again, I made it too long on one side, if you click your menu button again you can click draw->orient and zoom in tighter to the new marker so that we can adjust it to fit better against the microwave.  Once you’ve zoomed in again click menu->draw->edit existing marker.

When you’re in edit marker mode you have two activities.  You can drag points on markers around, or if you press hold at the end of the marker you are presented with the options dialog again where you can revise the markers value, style and attributes again.

This is what you’ll see if you press-hold in edit mode on the end point of a marker:

Delete simply deletes the entire marker, Edit brings up the options dialog again and Move lets you move the entire marker around without resizing it.

When you’re in the options dialog if you hit cancel when you’re editing any changes you make in the options dialog will be ignored but your original marker will remain intact.

Lets review the save options.  If you hit the menu button on your device and choose the Save option you’ll be given two choices.

Save image file saves the image with the markers as a modified image.  This is the easiest way to review the images with any image viewing program.  If you zoomed in very close and defined a marker some of the text may be difficult to read due to the resolution of the image saved.  This way does let you share your SudoTape projects with people who do not have SudoTape or to review later on a PC, etc.

Save SudoTape file saves the SudoTape project, keeping track of the image file used for marking and all the markers, so you can go back later and make adjustments or add more markers when you have more time.  When you click save you’ll be presented with a simple filename dialog (depending on which of the two save options you pick):

The filename is editable and the file is saved to the path that was specified in the preferences (Application Path).

If you hit back on your device you will be warned if you want to save your data (if you modified it or if it’s a new project).  If you are editing a new project you’ll also be given an option to delete the captured image file as well in case you’re just not happy with the image file too.

If you exit saving your project you’ll be back at the main menu screen again.

Lets view opening an existing project.

If you select the Edit Existing option on the main menu (and you are still using the Force SudoTape selector option from preferences) you’ll see a screen that looks like this:

This is the SudoTape file browser, the default path is that you specified in the preferences under Application Path.  Valid SudoTape files will have SudoTape icons, invalid or broken/corrupted files will be red with a red X in the icon.  If you press on any of the actual SudoTape files you should be presented with a set of options that look like:

Selecting Open opens the SudoTape project for editing, back into the edit view.. this option is missing if the file is damaged.  Info shows information on the file, what image file the app is looking for and how many markers were added to the project.  Delete simply deletes the SudoTape file.

That is the basics of how SudoTape works.  You don’t have to use SudoTape for stuff indoors, you can use it for anything really, from making notes on the size of the keyboard on your desk to the length of the Golden Gate bridge on your most recent vacation.

I used a bunch of code, tips, tricks and information from the following sources to build SudoTape:

android-color-picker for the color picker dialog:   http://code.google.com/p/android-color-picker/

android file browser from plusminus at anddev.org:    http://www.anddev.org/advanced-tutorials-f21/android-filebrowser-v-2-0-t101.html

android file browser is also based off work by Steven Osborn: http://steven.bitsetters.com/

quick action framework from Lorensius W. L. T:  http://www.londatiga.net/

Thanks to Jesse Virgil for coming up with a much better design for the main screen, work on most of the art and icons.  Review Jesse’s portfolio here. http://www.behance.net/jessevirgil

Please comment or contact me if you have problems or questions.