Final Year Project using IrDA/Bluetooth/WiFi

Q_Ball

hey all,

I'm doing my final year project and this is what i've chosen to do. Bear with me as its a bit long...

Using a PDA, I should develop a program that can control DVD players, CD players etc via IR. However i am also to develop a server-side program (on my laptop or desktop), using the PDA as the client. The server is to be connected to other IrDA/BT/WiFi devices so that i dont need to be in the room to change a cd or skip a chapter on a dvd.

My initial idea is instead of hardwiring IR recievers to every room in the "house" that i use bluetooth (or wifi) to send the request from the PDA to the server. The server then forwards on the request to the appropriate device through whatever means it can. For instance if my brother is watching a dvd in the "front room" and i have a hardwired IR reciever there (I'm figuring i'll have to hardwire IR recievers in each room that has a device as you dont get bluetooth DVD players...) and i'm on the bog and decide to cause a bit of trouble. I send a STOP signal to the DVD player from my PDA. I dont choose what type of transmission medium is used but because there are no IR recievers in the bathroom but providing i am <15m the PDA connects via BT (or WiFi) to the server and the server sends the message to the DVD player.

My problems are:

(*)Getting the standards for IR. I've been looking for the IrDA standards (http://www.irda.org) but i cant seem to find anything useful. IrCOMM and IrOBEX have come up as protocols that i can maybe use.

(*)setting the IR recievers to output a signal at the appropriate frequency(?)

(*)using Ir/BT/WiFi in programs in general.

(*)what programming language to use (i'm thinking Java because it can code fairly handy GUI's and is portable enuogh to use on pretty much any os) and which os to use. I'm thinking it'll be best to use a windows os (2000) as the PDA will more than likely run a windows based os but any suggestions again will be much appreciated.

If anyone has any ideas or links to resources then i'd greatly appreciate them.

All the best,

Darren

loz_the_boz

Probably of no help , but - i have a remote control gui on my XDA, ill find the download site - just for asthetic ideas for you )

It is programmable by storing the input from the standard remote control. ( hold the dvd remote to the ir input of the xda and press a key while poessing save on the xda remote gui ) so it captures the freq of each signal type.


the range on the xda and my missus ipaq very short and very very very directional, so to pass via wifi good idea, however would still need an ir output very close to devices to manage, and maybe one for each ! tv,video,dvd,skybox ,stereo etc....

Good luck anyway !

madramor

you projects should be as follows

1:
client gui to run on pda(j2me)
2:
server code (j2ee) to handle requests from client
3:
comms between client and server
4:
comms between server and devices

check out Smart Ticket http://java.sun.com/blueprints/code/index.html
for steps 1,2,3

it is not very good just having the system use IR(for client2server), as you want to be able
to set record on video when you are out of the house, so have the server
connected to the internet, and the client(pda) connects to the server over the internet if away from the house or over wi-fi/bluet if in the house, the server code should be the same , only the client is different to detect if,
bluet is available.