[Q] Implement your own remote accelerometer sensor - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm currently working on a project to extend the capabilities of Android HDMI sticks and Smart TV's, so they can use external sensors (accelerometer as a first trial case). The reasoning behind the project is that the bluetooth keyboards normally delivered with such HDMI Sticks or Smart TV's are really bad, probably because of the interference with your TV itself. Since most of us already have a smartphone or tablet at home, I thought why not lets use their sensors to control your TV.
I've got a first POC working nicely, using the accelerometerplay SDK sample, but all done in the Java part. So now I can use my tablet or smartphone to control the balls in the sample running on a Android HDMI Stick. Basicly what I did was split up the SDK sample in a controller and viewer part, where the controller is using the Android sensor framework to fetch accelero values off my smartphone and tranfer them over Wifi towards the viewer, which will calculate the ball's positions as original.
A disadvantage of this approach is that I had to change the code of the 'original' application that is normally using the accelero sensor, to pick up the sensor data send over wifi. I want to go one step further however and implement a truly remote accelero sensor, which is registered properly in Android's sensor framework. Hence I would be able to increase the (android market) capabilities of my Smart TV or HDMI stick drasticly.
Anyone has good reference documentation on how to implement your own sensor and register it truly in the Dalvik VM. I searched in NDK related documentation, but did not found the golden bullet so far. The following link is really the only thing I could find sofar: hxxp://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Android_Sensor_PortingGuide
Any advice truly appreciated ,
Bart

Related

[Q] Does the IR remote support "Activities"

Hi,
Does anyone know if the ir remote app supports macros(aka: Activities).
If you are aquainted with the Harmony remotes you know what I'm talking about.
E.g. Activity "Watch TV" would do:
1.Turn TV on
2.Turn Set Top Box on
3. Set correct TV input
4. etc. etc...
Another thing, and sorry if this has been answered already.. Can we also control PS3 with the remote app?
Hi,
I have a harmony remote too, but there's currently no option in the tablet remote software to set up events (switch on tv, switch on amp, turn tv channel to hd1, for example). It's a straight remote control app. Hopefully this might change in future updates?
The ps3 uses bluetooth, and this remote is infra-red, so this native app cant control it. Maybe through an iv-bluetooth decoder, but not straight from the box.
No. The remote software is the simplest remote function. It does not support activies.
I read somewhere though that you can have it learn the macro when you use the learning feature. It can learn the commands from your remote, and it was mentioned that macro can be learned as well. Will test it later on tonight....
Tyggy said:
I read somewhere though that you can have it learn the macro when you use the learning feature. It can learn the commands from your remote, and it was mentioned that macro can be learned as well. Will test it later on tonight....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any luck with this?
IR activities alternative
I found this workaround on the US Sony Forum.
forum.sel.sony.com/viewtopic.php?f=107&t=11159
Still need to check it out myself.
Sorry can not post URL (just yet)
Grtz
I was also disappointed that it didn't recognise my Panasonic Air Conditioner Ir remote.
In this day and age it's also amazing that it doesn't have a link to an online library of remotes people have already taught it...
Any devs out there... that's my wish list... oh yeah maybe a night vision app that uses the IR as a night light
The remote can learn any sort of remote cntroller. I've used the tablet to learn my York Air-con and my fan. It works for both of them.It takes time to learn the remote function. You have to try several times.
Its the best tablet so far.

[Q] Android as a desktop operating system

I was thinking of the coolness factor of just having one device, a phone, to which you could connect an external display and have an extended desktop. I am not finding any reference to this on Android (only the MS Surface). From what I have been reading, and remember/understand (may be confused), Jelly Bean brought the ability for windowing apps. However, the apps have to be coded for the capability, unless you root your phone and installed an app that provided windowing for all apps. Also, I have not heard of the possibility of having an extended desktop in Android.
I would like to ask WHY? Why not have windowing and the ability for an extended desktop, on an external display? A bluetooth keyboard and mouse just follows. Does google have to play nice with the manufacturers that stand to loose from people only needing one device? Is there a reason I'm not thinking of? Most phones are fast enough for this these days.
At the turn of the century, I was running GPS software Deluo Routis on a Sony Vaio 505 Pentium 200Mhz laptop running Win98. The 2-D graphics were smooth even while playing mp3's through the car speakers. The mapping software showed the map clearly, and effectively gave me navigation. People have lost sight of how much you can do if you give up the bloat and bling.
Also, I am pretty confused with the merging of Android and Chrome. I never liked Java to begin with; my experience with it is in MS Windows, and it runs slow as molasses. I believe my phone would run much faster if they had not chosen Java. I understand this to be because you have an operating system running on top of another operating system. It just makes more sense to me to have less layers and run apps natively, for better performance. I thought maybe they chose Java for its level of security. Is the screening process for Google Play not foolproof enough?
I like the philosophy of Google better than Microsoft**, so if one of them is going to win, I hope it's Google. I'm hoping Google won't end up with a convoluted Android/Chrome operating system because Lawyers forced them to (the idea I get based on the latest news). I don't understand: do they want to keep their OS architecture simple, but are being forced to make the OS complex for different reasons?
**Apple doesn't even want to compete. They have never wanted to dominate, just make huge profits. Unless they break up the marriage of hardware and software, they won't win. Then again, if Samsung keeps dominating, there may not be much hardware diversity?
Oh, and my main question was: "Why not have windowing and the ability for an extended desktop?". Wouldn't that be a big deciding factor for anyone that wanted to simplify and just have one device?
Anybody? Tell me I'm crazy at least. There has to be a strategic reason, that Google does not introduce full windowing and extended desktop support.
Its coming eventually. though you could do it right now. Motorola tried something like this with their atrix lapdocks.
Sent from my Samsung i437p using Tapatalk and CM 10.2
E_Phather said:
Its coming eventually. though you could do it right now. Motorola tried something like this with their atrix lapdocks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you do it right now with any android device having a video port?
Well lets look at how we could achieve this with todays technology.
Input:
Bluetooth Mouse & keyboard.
Output:
Wireless display with support for older displays using something like Chromecast.
Graphical User Interface:
A secondary Launcher/Application (Which could potentially see companies like MS & Canonical developing their own UI's and Charging for them if required).
Home & Office use with one device:
Home would be the default UI, but when your device has used NFC to log into the office it would automatically enable your Office profile/UI for a certain length of time (requiring you to log back in after a set time or manual log out via another NFC tap).
This would be very useful as it would enable you to take your "desktop" environment anywhere with you and connect to any HDTV with Wireless display/Chromecast support.
Applications:
So if like me you are finding your phone to become ever more a better solution to your digital needs and you only require your desktop for apps which work better with larger displays (Videos & certain games) you will find this very useful.
Games:
Now games could become ever more better as they could be controlled using standardised control inputs (game controllers could use standardised input methods allowing you to select any compatible controller to best suit your needs) or even a driving game could allow you to see the game on a HDTV yet be controlled with the accelerometer for steering and the right of the devices touch display would be the accelerator and the left of the display would be the brakes for example.
More Business Solutions:
If you could wirelessly connect to the office display then show a powerpoint style presentation that would be great because the very device which stores the file would also be your controller to move to the next/pevious slides.
Media:
Music could possibly be stored in the cloud so when your on the move you can listen to your music as many of us do now, but when connected to a large display it could utilise the large display and speakers to show a music video too!.
Photos could be viewed on the large screen and the next one to be displayed could be select on the device (allowing the use to avoid showing anyone pictures which they don't want other to see - ie: pitcures of you and your friends whilst your parents/grandparents are in the room...).
The TV Guide:
The TV Guide would become a very interactive thing which allows you to see what is available on other TV channels without other people in the room being limited to viewing the content they are trying to watch in a small box in the corner of the display...
These are just some ideas of what is possible, but I know that you could do so much more with this and with 64-bit technology coming to many mobile devices soon that will make it so much easier for devices to process all of this data at once without any serious lag!.
I would love to see a group of developers on XDA team up on an open desktop (secondary) launcher to run alongside the users primary (phone) launcher. if there was a project like this with an open framework to develop apps for I'd be happy to start developing apps for that or separate UI's to run alongside my current (Phone/Android) apps UI's.
Edit:
Also remember that this could be utilised in other ways too eg:: connecting your device to your car and your device could deliver your navigation & music to your vehicles display whilst getting important traffic/weather news using your devices network connection!.
Isn't this exactly what the Ubuntu phone intends to do or have I got the wrong idea?
-----------------------------------------------------
Sign up for COPY with this link, and we'll both get 5 GB of free cloud storage in addition to the usual 15 GB: https://copy.com?r=m3arsR
Free GiffGaff SIM with £5 credit: http://redir.info.giffgaff.com/r/?id=h4d8d850,c0e1337,c0e139c&p1=d3xp2pc
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Yes, but with Android already having a large ecosystem it would make a lot of sense to build upon that.
Chromecast is not "open" to third party apps. http://www.minyanville.com/sectors/...eeds-to-Tread-Lightly-With/8/28/2013/id/51502
Do they have a displayport version of Chromecast? *cough*
quote from: http://www.tested.com/tech/set-top-boxes/457036-testing-google-chromecast/
"Chromecast is also not a particularly good desktop mirroring option, either. It actually can't do full desktop mirroring, and instead works solely with the Chrome browser. In beta right now is Chrome tab streaming, which sends to Chromecast everything that can be rendered in a single Chrome tab, including web pages, flash embeds, and even full-screen MKV video files if you have VLC installed. I like that Chrome tab streaming works independently of what's showing on your laptop or desktop's screen--like with YouTube and Netflix, you can multi-task and switch to other tabs or windows while one tab is being streamed. The only thing that matters is the window size and screen resolution. Chromecast will automatically scale the aspect ratio of your window to fill up your TV screen, adding black bars on the sides to avoid stretching. A full-screen resolution of 1440x900 looked good on a large 1080p TV, but streaming from a 2560x1600 monitor at full-screen made the text unreadable on my 70" TV."
Wow... I thought only displayport was capable of 2560x1600 (edit: hdmi v1.3 brought this). Even if I hook it up to my 2560x1600 monitor, it won't really display anything but entertainment. Chromecast doesn't seem to be a way to have a monitor, to use your Android phone as a PC replacement.
AllCast !!!
http://www.geek.com/android/chromecast-reject-becomes-allcast-public-beta-now-available-1578674/
However, I still need to add some kind of wifi enabled device to my 30" lcd monitor (like with chromecast). Really, I don't mind a cable connection from my phone to my monitor, if that was an option. If Google continues to be closed like this, then I would go for Ubuntu phone.
Displayport:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyDP#SlimPort
Any phones have this besides the Google Nexus 4? Actually, I'm not getting a new phone until I know what the hell will happen with Android / Chrome OS
Quote from: http://www.tested.com/tech/android/457205-mhl-vs-slimport/
"SlimPort's support for the DisplayPort standard--specifically Mobility DisplayPort--means it can output video at the same 4K resolution as MHL, though not via HDMI (yet, anyway). And here SlimPort hasn't really made good on its potential, yet; though it's based on the flexible DisplayPort standard, the only SlimPort adapters currently available are for VGA and HDMI connectors. The upshot is that you won't be plugging a Nexus 7 into a 1440p DisplayPort computer monitor anytime soon." http://www.slimportconnect.com/
Chromecast May Get Screen Mirroring With Android 4.4.1
Evidence in Android 4.4.1 indicates that screen mirroring is coming to Chromecast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/chromecast-google-screen-mirroring-kitkat-android,25345.html
It could start with mirroring a primary display, but gradually result in mirroring something that a GPU has rendered for a secondary display.
A dock from Samsung Galaxy phones. Has USB ports, HDMI, and audio.
http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones-accessories/EDD-S20JWEGSTA
mraeryceos said:
A dock from Samsung Galaxy phones. Has USB ports, HDMI, and audio.
http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones-accessories/EDD-S20JWEGSTA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that myself with my previous Galaxy S4 (i9500), It was a great dock and when I connected my wireless KB & Mouse USB dongle & connected the HDMI to my PC monitor it was a good experience when doing things like playing GTA3 on the bigger screen (it was better than the windows version in some ways).
But the device just needed a separate home screen UI to be output to the PC screen to look perfect and to work better with the KB & Mouse input type.
It shouldn't be too difficult to make a UI that simply changes the size of some buttons to a smaller size, enabling more widgets to fit on the home screen and if they could simply force the apps to run in either windowed or full screen that would enable better multi-tasking, then the browsers would just need a small update to detect if the device is running in Desktop Mode if so, then simply zoom out of the page a little to emulate the desktop browser experience.
Just a few ideas... If Google's Android team are reading this, I would recommend that you get that dock to experiment with for future Android builds.
Especially now that OS' like Ubuntu Phone are looking at going down this road of the one device fits all computational needs.
Rather than creating a new thread I thought that it would appropriate to bring this topic back up after the recent announcements that several OEM's have made, that they will be releasing desktops with Android as their Primary/Secondary OS.
I hope that this pushes Google into creating a dedicated desktop UI in the future.

Developing a launcher/kiosk app for video playback

This is sort of a research thread and I hope someone here is willing to weigh in with their knowledge.
I'm a Ruby / Java / Python / JS / PHP developer, who did a little bit of Android game development during my studies back in 2012. I assume things have changed since then.
I'm working on a commercial project where we need a network controllable video player for LED TV's and/or video projectors. Currently, we are using a Raspberry Pi 3-based design with the OMX Player, but this board is somewhat weak and the player is cumbersome to interact with and has limitations. Especially when it comes to rendering multiple layers with transparency. I would like to work on a platform where I have a rich multimedia API for rendering sound and video with an object-oriented API.
I have obtained myself an Asus Tinker, which has an official Android distribution. This runs rather smooth and from what I can tell, the API's for Android appear rich and flexible. So my questions are:
1) Is it possible to develop a launcher / kiosk app, that will allow me to boot into a "blank" screen and allow the app to place video surfaces, image surfaces and text layers? I should also be able to interact with the sound card and playback PCM audio. I would like an API that supports audio mixing, amplification, etc... There is no direct user input on the device, so I will need a solution that does not present any status bars, google account wizards, wifi wizards, update prompts, notifications or anything. In fact, when the Tinker is powered on, there should ideally not be anything indicating that it's Android.
I guess what I'm asking for is kind of a console video game engine / SDK, minus game controller support.
2) What kind of libraries or API's would I need to dive into and understand? Where should I start?
3) How complex is it? What is the scope of it? How much development time? Days? Weeks? Months? Years? Would I need more developers with specific skills?
4) Is there any developer here who's interested in participating in such a project as a paid freelance developer?
5) Is there any alternative software/OS platforms I should look into? I want to be able to boot into a custom passive user interface that is remotely controlled over REST by another device. I would like to avoid dealing with low level implementation of video decoding and rendering, but at the same time I would prefer to have control over screen resolution, refresh rate, color depth and I would like to run a ssh server on the client, so it can be serviced. Ideally, the platform should be able to both stream from the internet, but also accept commands to download to local storage and play from there.
6) Is there any alternative hardware platform I should look into?
7) Anything else I should consider? Problems that I'll need to address / prepare for?

Android TV to power kiosk type of device?

I'm trying to build a device that's going to be a large, unattended screen that will have an app that will be the main app running on this screen. I want the hardware to be small and inexpensive. What I think I need is a essentially a headless android tablet that I could use my own monitor with. I was thinking of developing this as an Android TV app and using an Android TV box or stick as the hardware. This won't have a touch screen, keyboard, or mouse. It will be all self running, or possible controlled by a mobile app or voice control. These are my requirements:
- Boots up right into the main app, but able to launch other TV apps from the main app.
- Able to interface with an add-on camera like the front facing camera on an Android device, which would be controlled by my app to record or just show video to the screen.
- Able to interface with different sensors such as ambient light sensor, motion sensor, IR, ect. (How would I do this? Over USB with an external microcontroller that connects to the sensors?)
I'm trying to find the best platform to develop this on. I know how to do it with a Windows machine, but don't have a ton of experience with Android. Would Android TV be a good platform or are there better options?

Touchscreen support in Android TV.

Hello!
I am wondering does someone here tried to use any touchscreen foil/screen to control his Android TV device. I read from official android docs that TV devices should be controlled via remote not touchscreen, however I feel touch control can ba as intuitive as remote for TVs or any other displays with Android TV interface.
There is instruction with kernel modules how to achieve that, but with older Android versions: https://www.dognmonkey.com/techs/how-to-add-touch-screen-to-android-tv-box.html
Does someone know anything how to grasp this topic? Any hints will be appreciated.
klickerstar said:
Hello!
I am wondering does someone here tried to use any touchscreen foil/screen to control his Android TV device. I read from official android docs that TV devices should be controlled via remote not touchscreen, however I feel touch control can ba as intuitive as remote for TVs or any other displays with Android TV interface.
There is instruction with kernel modules how to achieve that, but with older Android versions: https://www.dognmonkey.com/techs/how-to-add-touch-screen-to-android-tv-box.html
Does someone know anything how to grasp this topic? Any hints will be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that is an intresting idea, and seems perfectley possible, not sure how android tv UI will respod to touch as seems to have issues with mouse pointer (which is a virtual touch) in some instances like the initial set up screen ui

Categories

Resources