Electronics-Lab.com Blog

Jacob Beningo writes:

Signal generators are a handy thing to have around the lab. They are perfect for testing inputs on a new hardware design and verifying the behavior of a circuit before connecting all the pieces together. In recent years these lab tools have not only decreased in size but also in cost. The result has been a plethora of portable versions that now exist on the market.

For an engineer-on-the-go, this is very convenient but often times having to bring one more piece of equipment always seems to put the tool bag over the 50 pound limit. This is one reason why it is becoming popular to design lab equipment that can be plugged into a smart phone. Rather than carry around another device with a computer in it, utilizing the computing power and capabilities of the phone allows the device to be smaller, cheaper and weigh less!

Turn a smart phone into a signal generator - [Link]

Pittsford, NY:  imPulse(tm) is a personal, iPhone-compatible, handheld ECG Touch Monitor that will be introduced at this year’s Electronica Show in Munich, Germany, designed using unique EPIC touch sensors.  Created by the sensorʼs manufacturer Plessey Semiconductors,  imPulse(tm) is aimed at the home health market, and will allow the routine, quick and accurate recording of ECG signals outside of the medical environment – without the need for conductive gel or skin preparation. Read the rest of this entry »

www.lucadentella.it writes:

The BTSwitch project was developed to switch electric devices (lamps…) using an Android smartphone.

In the following video, you can watch the device working, while in the next pages you can find some technical details… enjoy your reading!

BTSwitch – Switch electric devices using an Android Smartphone - [Link]

With their high-resolution touchscreens, ample computing power, WLAN support and telephone functions, Android smartphones and tablets are ideal for use as control centres in your own projects. However, up to now it has been rather difficult to connect them to external circuitry. Elektor’s AndroPod interface board, which adds a serial TTL port and an RS485 port to the picture, changes this situation. In this webinar Bernhard Wörndl-Aichriedler shows how easy it is to connect your own circuitry to an Android smartphone using the AndroPod interface.

AndroPod – Bridging Android and your electronics projects - [Link]

Stephen Wu – Justin Churchill write:

Our project implements a touchpad input system which takes user input and converts it to a printed character. Currently, the device only recognizes the 26 letters of the alphabet, but our training system could be easily generalized to include any figure of completely arbitrary shape, including alphanumerics, punctuation, and other symbols. A stylus is used to draw the figure/character on the touchpad, and the result is shown on an LCD display. Pushbutton controls allow the user to format the text on the display.

We chose this project because touchscreens and touchpads are prevalent today in many new technologies, especially with the recent popularity of smartphones and tablet PCs. We wanted to explore the capabilities of such a system and were further intrigued by our research into different letter-recognition methods. Finally, we have had previous course experience in signal processing, computer vision, and artificial intelligence; we feel that this project was an excellent way to synthesize all of this knowledge.

Touchpad   Touchpad Recognition - [Link]

Mobisante is a privately held pioneer in Mobile Health, developing point-of-care diagnostic solutions based on smartphone and web-based cloud services. We have created the world’s first smartphone-based ultrasound imaging system MobiUS™. This award winning system, cleared by the Food & Drug Administration, brings ultrasound imaging within reach of health care professionals everywhere. MobiUS fuses the power and wireless connectivity of a smartphone with the Internet into a game-changing diagnostic solution that is personal and accessible, helping health care professionals practice better medicine and reduce costs.

Mobisante Mobile and Accessible Digital Imaging - [Link]

The SmartPulse™ family of DECT-based wireless sensors and base station devices from Dialog Semiconductor facilitate the creation of wireless sensor networks for home automation, security, health care and energy monitoring applications. DECT is an established technology that provides whole-house coverage, and SmartPulse with DECT ULE builds on this legacy. Its simple star networks can be used for a variety of home automation applications.

Systems running SmartPulse sensors can self-configure with a home’s DECT / DECT ULE hub or internet gateway, allowing connected systems to be managed over the web using a smartphone, laptop or tablet PC. Additionally, the sleep mode of DECT ULE enables a wide range of new wireless consumer products that run for up to 10 years on a single AAA battery pack. [via]

Wireless home automation devices build on DECT technology - [Link]

Surrey experts in space technology have today launched a Facebook competition challenging the British public to develop innovative applications that will run on its smartphone-powered satellite due for launch into space next year.

STRaND-1 (Surrey Training, Research and Nanosatellite Demonstrator) weighs just 4kg and is a collaborative effort between engineers at Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) and University of Surrey researchers. It is being built in their free time to test innovative ideas for lower cost space missions.

In the spirit of the mission, the four most creative, novel and fun ’App’ ideas will be selected to fly on the Android phone inside STRaND-1. Winners will be invited to STRaND’s Mission Control to observe their app on the nanosatellite as it orbits Earth. [via]

Satellite innovators launch smartphone Space App competition - [Link]

dangerousprototypes.com writes: [via]

Cellphones have been getting lighter and smaller with each new release. If researchers at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada have their way, the next gen phones will be paper thin. They recently unveiled the prototype of their “paperphone”, a smartphone prototype using a 3.7″ electrophoretic E Ink display which was built with E Ink’s Broadsheet AM300 prototyping kit. The hardware includes a Gumstix processor and Arduino microcontroller. In this prototype, all sensor recognition takes place in a connected laptop running Cycling 74′s Max 5 programming environment.

For more info visit the Human Media Lab.

The researchers plan to release more information at the next week at the Computer Human Interface conference in Vancouver.

Canadian lab prototypes “PaperPhone” – [Link]

Smartphone garage door opener: [via]

The tuxgraphics garage door opener is not limited to just one type of smartphone. It does not require the installation of an app. It works with any phone that has a web browser built-in. This garage door opener can be used from an iPhone, from an Android phone or any data capable phone. It does not even have to be a smartphone.

Smartphone garage door opener – [Link]