Emily Leventhal CS190 Project Requirements Proposal Project Name Image-based/animation chat program Problem Statement With chatting on the internet becoming more and more popular, people desire more than text-based conversations on their computers. Instant messaging and ICQ the two most popular chat programs available just let the users converse in text. The proposed program will allow the user to have images to go along with the conversation. People like to visualize what they are discussing and to animate as they are having a conversation. It is difficult to add ones own emphasis on subjects when just conveying something in words. In person you can use the tonaiity of your voice, the gestures of your hands and your facial expressions. In the past programs like comic chat have tried to create a more friendly enviorment for conversing, but they only minimally deal with the visual. This program will create a image based chat program that can easily convey the users expressions. Overview This project will aim to create a program that will create a animation/images based on a conversation between two people. This is a combination chat, magnetic poetry, image creation and animation program. When the conversation is over the end result will be an animation that can be played back. Since it will be too difficult to try to interpert full sentances the user can put words together in a fashion similar to magnetic poetry to create what they want to convey. The user will have two choices. To allow the computer to create the image for them based on the words they have put together, or to actually put the images together themselves. The program will take images from the database, but the user has the ability to create new images for words. The program will intially create a scene based on what the user decides to place into it as the user makes adjustments they will actually be creating new frames in an animation. This can be done individually or they can be doing this in more of a chat like way, by working with another person over the internet. When working with another person you can be working on the same or on different frames. When the user is finished using the program they will have created a short-animation that can be saved. The program will have the ability to reload old animations so that the user can add onto something created in the past. Target Users People who like to chat using the computer, specifically people who are visual and creative. Though I see this program being most useful for young children, where they can actually interactivly create a story. +++Project Requirements+++ Functional requirements *Graphics Image Editor -+Priority-high -a simple 2-d image editor that can read and write images. -has basic image editing functionality to allow the user to create images *Networked Chatting -+Priority-high -basic ability to be able to chat between two people -feature - to work not just over the network in the cs dept. *Image Creation -+Priority-high -ability for the program based on words and basic knowledge of how to create images - will create a scene *ability to interperate words and create and image based on them -+Priority-high * user manipulation of image -+Priority-high *abilty to create an animation -+Priority-high *a simple user-interface -+Priority-very high *to load and save animations -+Priority-medium-high *to work on the animation with another person over the internet -+Priority-high *for users to be able to work on different frames, and lock the frame they are working on so that the other user can not work on it. -+Priority -medium-high *image database -ability for user to create their own images -+Priority - high Testing: This program is interactive and fun, the users should enjoy themselves when using it. One of the ways to test the program would be to see if the user is actually enjoying using it. I think it could be tested in comparision to something like im or icq, but it is a different type of program so the user would choose to use it instead of text-based chatting not on a permenant basis but for certain reasons. Possible Tests: *Does it meet the requirements - allows the user to work with another user on creating an animation based on a converstation they are having? *Does the user enjoy using it? Can they see themselves using it in the future? *Does the user feel like a visual representation of what they are conversing is useful? *Was the program easy to use? *Did they feel the interface was easy to understand? *Were they overwhelmed by anything? *Test the program on children, is it easy enough for them to use? Does the computer actually let them be creative?