CARP eSense Sampling Package

This library contains a sampling package for the carp_mobile_sensing framework to work with the eSense earable computing platform. This packages supports sampling of the following Measure types (note that the package defines its own namespace of dk.cachet.carp.esense):

• dk.cachet.carp.esense.button : eSense button pressed / released events
• dk.cachet.carp.esense.sensor : eSense sensor (accelerometer & gyroscope) events.

See the user documentation on the eSense device for how to use the device. See the esense_flutter Flutter plugin and its API documentation to understand how sensor data is generated and their data formats.

See the CARP Mobile Sensing wiki for further documentation, particularly on available measure types. See the CARP Mobile Sensing App for an example of how to build a mobile sensing app in Flutter.

For Flutter plugins for other CARP products, see CARP Mobile Sensing in Flutter.

If you are interested in writing your own sampling packages, see the description on how to extend CARP Mobile Sensing on the wiki.

Installing

To use this package, add the following to you pubspc.yaml file. Note that this package only works together with carp_mobile_sensing.

dependencies:
  flutter:
    sdk: flutter
  carp_core: ^latest
  carp_mobile_sensing: ^latest
  carp_esense_package: ^latest
  ...

The package uses bluetooth to fetch data from the eSense earplugs. Therefore permission to access bluetooth must be enabled on both Android and iOS, as follows. Then make sure to obtain permissions in your app to use bluetooth.

Android Integration

Add the following to your app's manifest.xml file located in android/app/src/main:

<uses-permission
    android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH"
    android:maxSdkVersion="30" />
<uses-permission
    android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN"
    android:maxSdkVersion="30" />
<uses-permission
    android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_SCAN" 
    android:usesPermissionFlags="neverForLocation" /> 
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_CONNECT"/>

iOS Integration

Requires iOS 10 or later. Hence, in your Podfile in the ios folder of your app, make sure that the platform is set to 10.0.

platform :ios, '10.0'

Add this permission in the Info.plist file located in ios/Runner:

<key>NSBluetoothAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
<string>Uses bluetooth to connect to the eSense device</string>
<key>UIBackgroundModes</key>
  <array>
 <string>bluetooth-central</string>
 <string>bluetooth-peripheral</string>
  <string>audio</string>
  <string>external-accessory</string>
  <string>fetch</string>
</array>

Using it

To use this package, import it into your app together with the carp_mobile_sensing package:

import 'package:carp_core/carp_core.dart';
import 'package:carp_mobile_sensing/carp_mobile_sensing.dart';
import 'package:carp_esense_package/esense.dart';

Before executing a study with an eSense measure, register this package in the SamplingPackageRegistry.

SamplingPackageRegistry().register(ESenseSamplingPackage());

Collection of eSense measurements can be added to a study protocol like this.

// Create a study protocol
StudyProtocol protocol = StudyProtocol(
  ownerId: '[e-mail]',
  name: 'eSense Sensing Example',
);

// define which devices are used for data collection - both phone and eSense
var phone = Smartphone();
var eSense = ESenseDevice(
  deviceName: 'eSense-0223',
  samplingRate: 10,
);

protocol
  ..addPrimaryDevice(phone)
  ..addConnectedDevice(eSense, phone);

// Add a background task that immediately starts collecting step counts,
// ambient light, screen activity, and battery level from the phone.
protocol.addTaskControl(
    ImmediateTrigger(),
    BackgroundTask(measures: [
      Measure(type: SensorSamplingPackage.STEP_COUNT),
      Measure(type: SensorSamplingPackage.AMBIENT_LIGHT),
      Measure(type: DeviceSamplingPackage.SCREEN_EVENT),
      Measure(type: DeviceSamplingPackage.BATTERY_STATE),
    ]),
    phone);

// Add a background task that immediately starts collecting eSense button and
// sensor events from the eSense device.
protocol.addTaskControl(
    ImmediateTrigger(),
    BackgroundTask(measures: [
      Measure(type: ESenseSamplingPackage.ESENSE_BUTTON),
      Measure(type: ESenseSamplingPackage.ESENSE_SENSOR),
    ]),
    eSense);

NOTE that the eSense device must be paired with the phone via BLE before CAMS can connect to it.

Libraries

esense

A library for collecting context information from the eSense device.