Scheduled Bells

Overview Description: Scheduled Bells is a time-triggered scheduled audio alert notification system that is made for a waste management (sorting) facility on the island of Krk in Croatia. Because of the hard and tough working conditions, workers are working in short shifts (max 50 minutes) and a system which will signalize the beginning and the end of the shift was needed. This system can also be used for other purposes such as a school bell system.

System consists of two main components: frontend and backend. Frontend is a web application, written in PHP, that is used for editing schedules. Backend is player runtime that actually plays audio files by defined schedules. Backend is realized as a PHP script that is executed every minute as a cron task. The script calls an external program that plays the audio sound file that is scheduled for that time, if any.

All data is stored in MySQL database. Database schema consists of several entities: programs, schedules and exceptions. Program is daily schedule, a list consisting of time of day and name of the audio sound file that is supposed to be played at that time. Schedule is weekly schedule that defines which program should be used for each day of the week. A date range is set for each schedule. Schedules can not overlap. Furthermore, overriding of schedule for a specific date is also possible by defining an exception for that date. This can be used for holidays, for example.

There is also an idea to play music during breaks i.e. between shifts.

This project is developed under mentorship of “Progresivne Tehnologije Jelovica d.o.o.” (http://www.jelovica.com.hr/).

Project website will be available within a few days.