Monitoring Systems for MIE Kiosks





Monitoring Systems for MIE Kiosks

Monitoring Systems for MIE kiosks consists of two parts:
a. Remote Monitoring System installed at a MIE kiosk computer to monitor and gather data
b. Central Monitoring System installed at a central computer to view and analyze data

RMS for MIE Kiosks

The Remote Monitoring System (RMS) for Minimally Invasive Education (MIE) Kiosks is a set of hardware and software installed at MIE kiosk computers to gather information pertaining to health and usage of the kiosk computer and safeguard the operating system.

There are two flavors of the system depending on how data is transferred to a central computer:

Client-server based - Uploads data using standard HTTP protocol
E-mail based - Uploads data via e-mail
The RMS consists of the following set of utilities:

1. Data Capture Utilities

The Data Capture utility captures the following data periodically:

a. Applog (Application log) - a daily list of all active applications at the kiosk machine and for how long an application remained active
b. FootPrints (Internet log) - a daily list of all the web sites visited at the kiosk machine and for how long a web site remained active
c. Screen grab - a grab of the screen - sent 1-3 times a day depending on how the software is configured
d. Camera grab - a grab from the web camera connected to the kiosk machine - sent 1-3 times a day depending on how the software is configured
e. Machine log - a daily log of machine uptime and connectivity status
f. Antihang log - a daily log of how many times the machine had to be rebooted by the Antihang utility due to detection of a window hang
g. Environment log - a daily log of the temperature and humidity status in the kiosk.
Note: The term "active" means that application window/website is in focus.


2. Log Upload Utility (E-mail-based)
The above-mentioned data is uploaded to a central monitoring station using the Log Upload Utility. The utility sends the data captured by RMS through e-mails as attachments.

3. Log Upload Utility (Client-server based)
This utility uploads data every ten minutes to a central server using standard HTTP protocol.

4. Log Deletion Utility
The RMS data is periodically deleted by the Log Deletion Utility. The system stores data for last 90 days. Any log file older than 90 days is deleted by the system.

5. SafeDesktop Utility
As a MIE kiosk computer is used by unsupervised children, the operating system needs to be protected. The SafeDesktop utility safeguards the operating system by putting the following features of Windows XP (Home Edition) behind an admin-defined password to prevent unintentional using of these features:
a. Logoff
b. Shutdown
c. Restart
d. Locking the workstation from the Windows Security dialog box.
e. Killing applications from Task Manager
f. Internet Explorer settings

MIE Kiosk Environment Monitoring System
EnvMON is a microcontroller-based system, designed specifically to track the two key environmental parameters in a MIE kiosk. The environmental parameters are:
· Temperature (one probe)
· Humidity (one probe)

Systems are available for monitoring peripherals such as keyboard, mouse, etc.
CMS for MIE Kiosks

The Central Monitoring System (CMS) for MIE Kiosks lies on a central computer. This also comes in two flavors:
· Client-Server based
· Email-based

The CMS for E-mail based systems periodically downloads new emails and extracts valid attachments from emails and deletes emails that have been successfully downloaded from the designated mailbox so that the mailbox does not overflow. CMS also checks for the certain exceptions such as no data has been received from a kiosk and sends an email to a central administrator in case they occur. CMS analyzes and presents data in various views, a sample is shown below
:

 CMS for client-server based systems allows a kiosk administrator to connect to a kiosk computer and perform tasks such as:
· Fetch remote monitoring data
· Modify certain software
· Send text/voice messages to the kiosk users

For more details contact: Meera Datta