EMAS has released the first version of its very own app to provide easy and portable access to the data in its periodic table and x-ray energy charts. The app is currently only available for devices that support the Android version 4.1 or above and can be found on the Google Play Store (https://play.google.com). Search for EMAS Periodic Table App and scroll down until you see this icon (unfortunately the Google search engine is more interested in showing you already popular apps rather than first showing you the app that fully matches the search string so you may need to scroll down a few pages):
Alternatively you can download it directly from the EMAS website:
EMAS Periodic Table App for Android Version 4.0
Unzip the file and you will get an .apk file which can be installed on an Android system.
It can be installed and run directly on Android phones, but can also be run on a pc through the Bluestacks emulator program (https://www.bluestacks.com/). Follow the instructions to download, install and run Bluestacks. Sign into the Google Play Store and find the EMAS Periodic Table App. Click the ‘Install’ button and follow the instructions.
Opening the app shows a simple periodic table:
Clicking on one of the element tiles shows a long list of data. Here’s some of the data for iron:
The drop-down arrow in the top right of the home screen allows you to select either JEOL or Cameca and then a diffracting crystal/spectrometer combination. The homescreen then highlights the elements whose K, L or M first order a or b lines are within the range of that configuration:
The three-horizontal-lined menu icon in the upper left of the home screen gives access to the EMAS x-ray energy charts. At the moment these are only available as static images:
This first version of the app was developed by a team of students at the University of Bristol as part of their course-work. We’re very grateful for the amount of work they managed to achieve in only a few weeks, which was much more than we expected. However, this is only part of the scope of functions that we’d like to eventually achieve. For example, we want you to be able to put in a spectrometer position (either in kV, or wavelength, or in Cameca or JEOL spectrometer units) and return a list of possible element lines. We’d also like to be able to offer the app to iOS users.
If anyone is interested in helping us develop this app further we’d love to hear from you. Just contact any of the EMAS board members (contact details on the EMAS website, www.microbeamanalysis.eu). In the meantime please use the app and let us know what future functionality you’d like to see.
