Today Scienceman takes a close look at an interesting new player in the battle to technologically integrate our classrooms. ImagiWorks provides us with ImagiLab, a sensor-based handheld computing system based on the Palm platform.

As you can see in the photo above, the system is really 3 parts; a Palm computer, a sensor interface that links to the bottom of the Palm and a sensor, which collects the actual data (temperature probe is shown).

Relaying prices on this system is a little difficult, since there are are a myriad of purchase possibilties - if your school already owns Palm computers, then all you need is the ImagiProbe software, the interfaces and the sensors. ImagiWorks has some very convenient packages available - I strongly recommend you send email to the very helpful Jeff Arrigotti, he's Director of Sales at ImagiWorks and can probably get all the latest pricing information to you in a jiffy. ImagiWorks also has an ordering phone number and an online ordering page in the works.

Just to give you ballpark area of price though, let us consider purchasing a single complete unit that will allow you to do science data collection. For about $689US, you get the following,

• ImagiProbe Software for the Palm platform
• Sensor interface for connecting to the Palm
• A Palm computer!
• General Science Sensor set... includes temperature, light and voltage sensors
• Carrying Case (it's nice!)
• Booklet of activities and other assorted manuals

As for function, I'd have to say I'm pretty pleased with the whole package. Even though I had never before used a Palm computer, I had the unit figured out and was collecting data in less than ten minutes. This is probably the system's strongest asset - it's easy to use and is not intimidating in the least, which is often a problem for scientific hardware and software for the classroom.

This system is very approachable - it looks and feels strong too, nothing flimsy. Its lightweight and small form makes it ideal for field trips! It was interesting to see that the sensors are actually from Vernier. The software also allows you to configure new sensors. This is great news for teachers who already own a complement of sensors. Be careful though... the ImagiLab interface includes an adapter to connect to DIN-5 plugs - I discovered that my DIN-8 Pasco temperature probe wouldn't work. You likely could get around this using a different adapter. ImagiWorks sells different probes too... for instance, you can buy a water qualilty pack that includes pH and dissolved oxygen sensors.

So how does it work? Well, it was very easy for the ScienceMan to get started because the ImagiProbe software was already loaded onto the Palm evaluation unit - but I couldn't resist trying to load something myself though... it's as easy as pie! Anyway, you start by pressing the ImagiProbe icon on the Palm screen - from there you have the choice of entering "new trials", choosing "investigations" you have already configured, or making a "new investigation".

I started fresh by creating a new investigation and a new trial... you can name the investigations and trials if you like. I decided to use the light sensor and called my trial, "sciman test";

I'm getting a little ahead of myself - what you see above is my choices for the trial. I'm using a light sensor, nothing in port 2 (yes, you can hook up two sensors at once!) and a sample rate of 10Hz. You can even choose to have the software collect data a pre-determined intervals and times, but I chose to manually trigger the collection.

Above is the trial setup screen - simply touch the screen to make your selections... it's too easy! The bottom of the screen has the choice "Preview" - this will initiate the device to start collecting data to give you an idea of what it'll look like. All you have to do then is select "collect" and your data will begin recording. Here's what my light intensity data looked like;

You can re-collect data if you wish, or you can save the data. A very neat feature that makes the graph a whole lot more useful is the ability to touch the screen anywhere on the graph and get precise readings for the x and y values (as seen below);

That's ImagiLab in a nutshell... easy, relatively affordable and works perfectly. If you like, you can base your science labs on the data collected by the Palm and it would likely serve you very well. Especially for elementary and junior high where an easy to use system is a must and there are no great needs for data manipulation. However, if you want to do more with the data you collect, that's where you run into a few problems.

I thought I would go that "one step further" and try to get the data onto my desktop Mac for further analysis. The first step in this procedure is to "HotSync" the Palm computer so that the data on the Palm can be transferred to the desktop - you'll obviously have to install the Palm Desktop software to be able to do this (it's included with the Palm). HotSyncing works easily... although I became very frustrated at the software's refusal to acknowledge a "New User" - it stubbornly put the data into a folder determined by a previous user, no matter what the poor old ScienceMan did. If there's a solution to this, it certainly isn't an intuitive one.

Anyway, enough criticism of the Palm Desktop software... let's look at the data. The ImagiProbe software copies the data into a predetermined folder as both an html file and a text file. Click here for a look at the html file of my light intensity data. This serves the purpose of being able to view the raw data... but you've still got work to do if you want to view the data differently - for instance, you may want it in the form of an AppleWorks graph to include in a lab report. In order to accomplish this, I opened the text file, copied the data and then pasted it into an AppleWorks spreadsheet. Then I made a line graph;

While a techno-savvy educator will likely have no problem copying and pasting data until you get it in the form you want... your typical science teacher is not going to want to go through the hassle. What I would really like to see is ImagiWorks develop a desktop component for ImagiLab that will allow an educator to easily create colorful graphs with the data they've collected and maybe enable them to do some simple manipulations with the data - a slope tool, perhaps?

What would really be terrific is if the teacher could see the data collection come up on the desktop screen in real time. If you are in the classroom, why should we have to wait and "HotSync", transfer, then copy and paste before we can see a desktop version of the data? I'm no engineer, but if the Palm can relay data to the desktop while "HotSyncing", why can't it do it while data is being collected?

In conclusion, ScienceMan must give a "thumbs-up" to the ImagiLab. This is an easy to use package that will give students immediate and clear data feedback. I think students will enjoy using it too.

Improvements?...I'd like to see a supporting desktop piece of software so that students can see and manipulate their data better. You should also consider something more fully featured if you are doing more complex data collection, such as in high school chemistry and physics. As long as you have more powerful interface equipment to serve your more demanding science tasks, why not buy an ImagiLab for those quick, simple field trips? You'll be glad you did.