RE: hardware and software design from the ground up
- From: "David Engebretson" <davide@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008 10:15:56 -0700
I've got a degree in Electronics Engineering with a focus in embedded
systems design. A radio, as you've described is an embedded system.
The thing I've found prohibitive in embedded system design is cost. Mainly
manufacturing costs, but also the cost of research and development. If cost
is of no consequence to you then you might want to hire a mechanical and
electronic design firm to create your hardware for you. Otherwise, I've got
a couple of ideas for you:
1. There are radios on the market that have USB connections. People have
written software to control these radios with their computers. This is
probably the lowest cost option.
2. You can buy development boards that have easy to connect (caveat: they
aren't that easy to connect if you are visually impaired and without sighted
assistance) modules/circuits that fill the requirements of your project.
You can then use a software development environment to write software for
the hardware platform. Often the nitty gritty hardware details are written
in assembly. You can wrap those functions using C and C++, depending on the
environment you get and the capability of the hardware platform.
I did option number two for my senior project as an undergraduate. I used a
Motorola HC12 development board, plugged in sound chips and wrote drivers to
control it, had a nice power system development board so I could run my
device off of battery power, a large print vacuum fluorescent display (I had
a little bit of working vision back then), and a nice keypad with something
I called Blind Friendly Controls (BFC). I didn't know anything about
accessibility products other than ZoomText back then, but found out (when
introduced to JAWS) that their keyboard help functionality was exactly what
I did with my BFC creation.
Anyhow, option 2 is pretty fun for development but not really practical for
manufacturing - more for proto-typing.
You might even be able to find a development board for a radio. Check out
http://www.digikey.com for a cool professional electronics store with lots
of development kits.
Cheers,
David
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