Android & Bluetooth module.

Android phone is becoming more popular, most of the android phones equipped with Bluetooth. Just wonder how we can make use of the powerful android phone to interact with MCU like Atmel AVR, PIC or even Arduino. I think that more interesting projects can be done with the bluetooth connectivity to Android:)

After some studies, I found out that in Android 2.0, Google enhanced the Bluetooth API and come with an Bluetooth Chat sample for communicating devices with RFCOMM (SPP profile). So I did a try and it really works very well!



Let's try it out! The Bluetooth module that I used is a very tiny one with PCB antenna, it can control device over 10 meters at least, good enough for small project:) It is programmed to use as RFCOMM, so it can act as a wireless UART, good fit for all the MCU! With only 4 wires, 3.3v/Gnd/Tx/Rx, no programming needed, you can directly connect the module to your MCU UART.


Here is my demonstration video:


For the bluetooth sample code, you can find it in the Android SDK or here.

Wireless Internet Access via LED lamps.

Can you imagine while the LED is lighting up your desk and streaming video to your laptop at the same time? Scientist he Semi-conductor Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences designed a wireless internet communication system using only Blue LED lights on the ceilings. The maximum speed is around 2Mbps.

Auto-Balanced Robotic Bicycle.

A cool project of making an auto balanced robotic bicycle

Stereo Vision on BeagleBoard.

I tried to use the face tracker in openCV on the beagleboard few months ago, but what I really want to do is using stereo vision on the beagleboard, so I can build a robust robot. I am glad that someone tried before me, so I can learn from his experience:) Nick did some experiments on using stereo vision on beagleboard, check it out:




Nick's URL:
http://whatnicklife.blogspot.com/2010/05/beagle-has-2-eyes-opencv-stereo-on.html

Mind Controlled Robot.

We knew that the mind control is the future, and we don't have to wait, the Emotiv, the mind controller, is available on market! You can play games with this controller or even control a robot!

RFID Tutorial from Sparkfun.com

RFID is a cool technology, you can use it in many creative projects. Good Show, Sparkfun!

Robot can balance on a ball!

It is really awesome, may be we can see a single ball robot in the near future.