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Smartphones have become a useful tool in agriculture because their mobility matches the nature of farming, the cost of the device is highly accessible, and their computing power allows a variety of practical applications to be created. Moreover, smartphones are nowadays equipped with various types of physical sensors which make them a promising tool to assist diverse farming tasks. This paper systematically reviews smartphone applications mentioned in research literature that utilize smartphone built-in sensors to provide agricultural solutions. The initial 1,500 articles identified through database search were screened based on exclusion criteria and then reviewed thoroughly in full text, resulting in 22 articles included in this review. The applications are categorized according to their agricultural functions. Those articles reviewed describe 12 farming applications, 6 farm management applications, 3 information system applications, and 4 extension service applications. GPS and cameras are the most popular sensors used in the reviewed papers. This shows an opportunity for future applications to utilize other sensors such as accelerometer to provide advanced agricultural solutions.

BackgroundBreastfeeding is proven to have lasting health benefits for both mothers and infants; however, 6-month exclusive breastfeeding rate remains below 20% in Thailand. Although the number of research literature and commercial apps for breastfeeding women is significantly growing, they are country-specific and restricted to English-speaking users. There exists a major knowledge gap on how mobile health apps could support breastfeeding in Thailand. To address these gaps, MoomMae has been developed with the intention to support Thai women in breastfeeding outside of their homes and in keeping their feeding records.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to evaluate the usability and usefulness of MoomMae, a mobile phone app designed to support breastfeeding women.MethodsOur study was reviewed and approved by Thailand’s National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) ethics committee. A total of 21 breastfeeding women with at least one Android phone or tablet were recruited via convenience and snowball sampling. The study process for each participant was as follows: the participant was requested to attend a preuse interview and given the app to use for 4 weeks. Following this period, a postuse interview was conducted to examine the usability and usefulness of the app. Both sessions were held individually and audiorecorded for qualitative analysis.ResultsThe mean scores of usability and usefulness from the postuse survey were 4.33 (SD 0.87; range 1-5) and 4.60 (SD 0.74; range 2-5). Our qualitative analysis revealed a total of 137 feedbacks: 71 related to usability and 66 associated with usefulness. A further sentimental analysis showed that comments on usability were generally negative (59 negative, 11 positive, and 1 neutral), and comments on usefulness were relatively positive (56 positive, 9 negative, and 1 neutral). We discovered 26 unique design issues and proposed recommendations for future improvement.ConclusionsOur usability and usefulness assessment of MoomMae demonstrated that MoomMae has a great potential to be a useful self-management tool for breastfeeding mothers in Thailand. The qualitative analysis suggested that the app is supportive of breastfeeding on demand, but the flow and inputs of the app should be redesigned to be more intuitive. For future implementations, the most desirable feature is a pump-reminding notification system.

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