Quick Question Regarding Psoc And Android

[moocow1452]

Hey all,

FIRST Robotics alum, wondering about a build I wanted to do with a steering assist bike-trike for the blind, with an ultrasonic sensor in front, some reflector sensors on the bottom that can tell the difference between sidewalk pavement and dirt, and vibrate things on the handlebars, with the end effect of keeping the driver safe and on the right side of the sidewalk and to be able to get them to their destination.

Ideally, I'd like to interface all of that into an Android Phone, meshing the PWM sensors into the phone as a main computer, and also allowing it to read the inputs and affect the outputs of the sensors. Maybe do something with the talky navigation or a calibration with the compass so that if the driver eschews off path, but still is on concrete, they can get a heads up. I was at a bit at a loss of how to get the two systems to talk, and while they could work as independent systems, I was wondering if I could USB tether the phone onto a PSOC board, and get anything off of it in real time. Figured it couldn't be done, but wanted to make sure.

[cgront]

My first thought is that you want a blind person to ride a trike? Ignoring that thought, you have a PSOC, and pwm signals, you could try to connect via a one to one connection with wifi. now I dont know what they have for PSOC boards but I would imagine that you could find some sort of wifi module for it. and from there just make an app or something for the phone that could translate the data from the wifi connection.

[moocow1452]

Thanks for the input. To be fair to the idea, crazier stuff has been done in the name of science.

That being said, I know that this particular board had a mini-usb on it for programming and was wondering if I could use that to cheat inputs off it to an Android Phone over USB Debugging. If not then, ah well, thought experiment that's a whole lot more trouble than it's worth.

EDIT: There is a CyFi low power RF add-on chip, but it's about $150. A lot for a dry run in which I have no idea what I'm doing.

Edited April 25, 2011 by moocow1452

[digip]

I don't see why you couldn't do it, although you might need something like a small netbook to tether with the android and then the android SDK to speak to the android from the netbook. Otherwise you would need some sort of server client setup between the PSOC board and a way for them to talk, like over wifi or bluetooth, or even the USB. If you did use a netbook, you could bypass the need for the android and just get a USB GPS or such with a 3g card to pull data from the internet or a website for additional features such as planning your route. Worry about making it work for people with site first(such as elderly or handicap), then worry about advancing features to allow the blind to control it.

[moocow1452]

Yeah, I think I'm going to shelve this project until payday, and figure it out then. Thanks for the help though.

[Emeryth]

You could use a Bluetooth UART module attached to the PSOC board, you can find them for as little as $10 on ebay.

[moocow1452]

Thanks for your help, everyone. I rather not mess around in the Bluetooth world, as I'm already going through the trouble of learning a new language to ask for directions, but I think I have a work around, in that the PSoC can be programed to be used as a HID, so if I put it as a Keyboard and map the sensor on/offs to various keys, then I can plug in an Android, (or an iPhone technically) to read the keys and get directions off of that. Thanks again everyone, and I'll update you guys if anything happens with this project.

[justapeon]

A lot of people are using the arduino to hardware interfacing and communicating with android either serially or whatever.

[moocow1452]

Yeah, I might want to go Arduino, especially with the new Android ADK kicking around. </drool>

One more thing, what would any of you guys recommend for a force feedback output on handle bars that could hook into an Arduino board? I'm looking for a similar effect to a rumble pak, and rather not use an audio cue, as users would be listening for that, rather than cars and stuff. Any ideas?

Edit: Can I change the name of the thread, or add a solved tag to it or something?

Edited May 13, 2011 by moocow1452

[cgront]

Yeah, I might want to go Arduino, especially with the new Android ADK kicking around. </drool>

One more thing, what would any of you guys recommend for a force feedback output on handle bars that could hook into an Arduino board? I'm looking for a similar effect to a rumble pak, and rather not use an audio cue, as users would be listening for that, rather than cars and stuff. Any ideas?

Edit: Can I change the name of the thread, or add a solved tag to it or something?

for the rumble pack. I would say look into vibrating motors at your local electronics shop, even radioshack i believe sells them, and its just a motor you power, if i am not mistaken.

for the solved part, I dont know, i guess edit the first post and say solution found in thread. or something like that.