Project Statement

The current situation is that the John Deere API allows the individual to have access to some maintenance machine information of their tractors. This is done by connecting to John Deere’s servers in order to view the information. The problem that arises from this implementation is that the farmer may not be able to connect to a network while working in the field. To bridge this gap our group proposes an iphone app that allows the farmer to directly connect to their machine through wireless. The application would then allow the user to gain key knowledge of their machine by providing them with alerts, service information, and great visuals. This application will sustain a similar theme to other John Deere apps such that it makes the experience for the user more familiar and easier to use. Giving the farmer vehicle information on the mobile device with the machine health information overlaid right on top of their vehicle, makes their job quicker and simpler so they can get back to work as fast as possible. The application will have two different types of users: farmers and dealers.

What Value Does the Project Offers

Our project is designed for the owners of John Deere tractors in order to give them an easy resource to gain information and know the status of their vehicle. In a sense our project is designed to be a one stop shop for the farmer so that they have access to all of their vehicle's health information in one place. Through the use of image recognition and augmented reality software our application provides the user with an quick, interactive way of displaying the vehicle’s information by just having the user simply take a picture of their vehicle. The design of this application will provide developers with information of the tractor through the use of log files. These log files will be logged to the MyJohnDeere API and be available to developers. Vehicle dealers are intended to benefit from having a convenient method to look up, sort, get alerts, and quickly display information about vehicles they have registered

Is this Project Feasible

Given our resources and schedule this project is definitely feasible. Last year’s project team completed a lot of the major functionality and provided us with a great base. Much of the required data is available through John Deere’s developer API and the constant connection with their tractors. Our team will not have to make any changes in hardware and will be focussed mainly on communication, user interface, and a robust augmented reality component. Mobile applications are extremely powerful and common, which means the support for developers is great.More specifically the resources for Apple iOS development are large and will become extremely beneficial.