Healthcare Case study
Diluo: Wi-Fi formula machine apps and cloud admin
iPhone and Android apps for Diluo, a Wi-Fi baby-formula brewing machine, with child profiles, diary and statistics, plus a Rails cloud admin and API behind them.
- Client
- Technogarden
- Service
- Mobile apps, Web apps, Integrations
- Years
- 2013–2014
- Stack
- iOS, Android, Ruby on Rails, Java and 6 more
- Platforms
- iOS, Android, Web
Overview
Diluo is a Wi-Fi connected machine that brews baby formula and porridge, developed by Technogarden. We built the software around it from 2013 to 2014: iPhone and Android apps that set up and start the machine and keep a child's profile, diary and growth statistics, and a cloud web admin and API behind them for machines, parents, children, vendors and products. The apps were designed in Swedish, English and Norwegian.
The challenge
A connected device only works if the machine, two phone apps and a cloud service agree with each other. Parents set the machine up on their home Wi-Fi and start brews from the phone, the child's records have to behave the same on iPhone and Android, and machines, vendors and products need a web admin of their own.
What we built
- Database schema and Ruby on Rails back end linking machines, parent profiles and child profiles
- Web admin with login and a dashboard: view, edit and delete machines, parent profiles and child profiles, and manage vendors and products
- APIs for machine registration, parent and child profiles, picture uploads, child statistics and brew types
- iPhone and Android apps: machine set-up and brewing, communication with the machine and with the cloud, and sign-in, sign-out and password recovery
- Child diary and milestones in both apps, with statistics graphs and the diary exported as a PDF that can be emailed
- Vaccine and milestone data in several languages, push notifications and Facebook sharing
- Screen design and sliced artwork for both apps, plus a Wi-Fi set-up flow and firmware update screens
- Testing of the iPhone app, the Android app and the cloud web admin, with extensive bug fixing and API performance work
How a system like this fits together
Reference architecture: connected formula machine with phone apps and cloud admin
Simplified reference architecture, not a client schematic.
- A parent sets up the machine from the iPhone or Android app and starts a brew; the apps talk to the machine directly.
- The apps call the Rails API over REST for child profiles, diary entries, milestones, statistics and pictures.
- The API and the staff web admin both read and write the database: machines, parent and child profiles, vaccines, milestones and diary.
- The API sends push notifications to the phones through the platform push services.
- Parents share from the apps to Facebook.
Technology used
| Layer | Choice | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud back end | Ruby on Rails | web admin and the API for the apps |
| Android app | Java, SQLite | the same features on Android |
| Social and push | Facebook SDK, push notifications | sharing and alerts to parents |
| Design | Photoshop and Illustrator artwork | screens and sliced assets for both apps |
| iPhone app | Objective-C, CoreData | set-up, brewing, profiles, diary and statistics |
What happened next
- Delivered
The work described above was delivered to the client.
- Operational facts
- Our work on this project spanned 2013–2014.
Screens
Could this be your project?
- You are planning an iOS or Android app, or have one that needs a stronger back end behind it. Mobile app development
- You need a web application with user accounts, admin tools and reporting. Website and web app development
- You work in healthcare and want a team that has built for it before. Healthcare work
Questions about this project
How long did this project take?
Our work on it ran from 2013 to 2014.
What technology was used?
iOS, Android, Ruby on Rails, Java, CoreData, SQLite, REST APIs, Facebook SDK, Push notifications, Objective-C.
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