The Data Capture Environment and Mi-Forms Integration: Automated Form Filling with Mobile Devices

Mi-Co's philosophy of developing one, open code base provides a number of advantages to Mi-Forms users as they implement data capture processes and automatically fill Mi-Forms. Two key advantages are:

• Maximum Flexibility because the Mi-Forms system can be used in a number of hardware scenarios: with Tablet PCs, Logitech Digital Pens, Nokia Digital Pens, Pocket PCs, Signature Capture Pads or a combination of these.

• Maximum Integration with other technologies because Mi-Co realizes that while Mi-Forms is an important part of the mobile data capture picture, often it is not the only technology being used. For example, Mi-Forms early support of Bluetooth, is just one example of Mi-Co's desire to support and to integrate with a wide variety of hardware and software in the mobile data capture environment.

For a more in-depth discussion of Mi-Forms support for hardware like the Tablet PC and the Digital Pen to maximize an enterprise's flexibility please see Solutions / Supported Hardware .

To maximize the ability for users to integrate multiple technologies into their mobile data capture scenarios, Mi-Co has taken measures to ensure that Mi-Forms works and integrates with a number of technologies that allow for automated form filing such as barcode data, smart card information, RFID data and other technologies:

1. Barcodes

Background: The barcode was an early entry in presenting information in a visual format that was machine readable. Originally barcodes stored data in the widths and spacings of printed parallel lines, but now they also come in patterns of dots, concentric circles, and hidden in images. Barcodes are generally read by optical scanners (barcode readers).

Several Mi-Co customers use barcodes to read information that is then included into a Mi-Form application. Mi-Co enabled this ability by treating barcode information as a "data type" within a form so that automated form filing using barcode data would be transparent to the user. Therefore, customers either gathering information from 1D or 2D Bar Codes can scan the information needed and incorporate that data directly into the form. This allows the application to send the bar code information with the other data captured using the Mi-Forms datapath technologies to any back end process desired.

2. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)

Background: RFID devices first appeared in the 1980s is technology for the recognition of objects without having to make contact. A small computer chip is the heart of this technology. The chip has a miniature antenna and when the chip receives the radio signal from a reading device, it automatically transmits the stored data wirelessly. Transmission is based on radio frequencies.

Because of its ability to track moving objects, RFID has established itself in a wide range of markets such as livestock identification and vehicle identification systems. Since Mi-Co applications are mobile in nature, often Mi-Forms and RFID are being used together in an application. The data from an identification chip is transmitted to the reading device. This data can be sent directly into a form designed in Mi-Forms or included in a database or backend process being used by the Mi-Forms application. Automatically filing Mi-Forms with RFID data ensures high data quality involving the identification of specific objects and this information can be used effectively in business rules built into any Mi-Form data collection form.

3. GPS (Global Positioning System)

Background: GPS, called NAVSTAR GPS in military circles, is a method to determine geographical coordinates and time using signals from a network of satellites. The precision of the location information is quite high and is used in a number of enterprise and transportation applications.

Mi-Co began working with integrating GPS data with a Mi-Forms application in a presentation to the US Census Bureau. In this application, GPS information on the location of the individual conducting the survey was incorporated into the data file that Mi-Forms sent to the database. This provides detailed information on the actual location of an individual when the data is being captured. This information can be used for monitoring the process, for example, and increasing the quality of the data. For applications that involve the tracking of specific objects and their location over time, the combination of automated form filing using RFID data as well as GPS data provides a perfect combination in the workflow process.

4. Smart Cards

Background: Big in other parts of the world, smart card applications are gaining traction in the US. A typical smart card is a plastic card about the size of a standard credit card that contains an embedded microchip. This embedded microchip can store, retrieve or encrypt the data .

As noted in an article in Military Information Technology, On Line Edition on the military's use of the technology:

Observers believe that the card-particularly its chip-based "smart card" functionality-will not only change the way the military secures its physical and network assets, but could also reverberate throughout American society with an impact comparable to the earlier DoD project that eventually became the Internet .

With Mi-Co's list of government accounts, the need to integrated with smart card technology is apparent. Mi-Forms Release 5 provides integration with smart card technology at both the form level (as input into a specific form session) or at the database level.

Automated form filing using smart cards, (or CAC cards as they are known in the military) can be combined in a Mi-Forms application with data base queries to ensure that the smart card, or Army CAC card is being used as authorized to reduce abuse.

5. Digital Images

Images as a form of data have always been important to Mi-Forms applications. For example, incorporating pictures and images into a Mi-Forms data stream can enhance the business impact of virtually all inspection applications.

Because of the importance of images in mobile data capture, Mi-Forms integrates with image technology in two major ways:

• Forms and data within the Mi-Forms system can be output in a number of image types such as a PDF, PNG, JPG, TIFF, GIF, and BMP.
  
• A data field within a Mi-Forms application can be filled with any of the above data types as well. That image is then connected to a specific record in the file.

Summary

As mobile technology continues to evolve, Mi-Co's philosophy of maximum flexibility and maximum integration will continue to be a high priority. So whether the specific application you implement involves automatically filing Mi-Forms with DoD smart card data, ensuring data quality with barcode or RFID data, or incorporating the latest digital information available in the field, as the leading mobile data capture platform on the market, the Mi-Forms System will incorporate those technologies into the software's data capture capabilities.

Sources:

History of Bar Codes, 1998 by Warren Hagey

"Smart Card Security," from Military Information Technology, originally published on Oct 13, 2003 in Volume 7 Issue 8. and updated Oct 5, 2005 in the OnLine Edition

Smart Card