Android Reads My Brain!!! Developer Blog

Stages of the Project

2012-09-02T01:50:00.002-07:00

Iteration 1 - Thesis

That was the plan in early 2011. Little did I know.

Iteration 2 - Antithesis (Google Developer Day 2011)

Google Developer Day 2011 in Berlin ADK Showcase

That was what actually happended. Includes a lot of learning about Android, BCI, USB, Bluetooth, Arduino, tech companies and people.

Iteration 3 - Synthesis (Plan)

That's the current idea - see last post. Simplifying things, trying to run USB Host mode on one port and USB Accessory mode on the other. Kind of a re-entry of the initial design.

State of the Brainreading Union Address 2012

2012-09-01T15:41:00.000-07:00

Two things happened.

Google has released a new ADK (http://developer.android.com/tools/adk/adk2.html), called "2012 ADK", as well as published a refresh of the original ADK, now called "2011 ADK" (http://developer.android.com/tools/adk/adk.html)
Lenovo has updated the Thinkpad Tablet to API Level 15 (Android 4.0.3).

We might never find out why (Heisenberg) but the ADK now works on the Thinkpad tablet.

Which means, the two-tablet (Bluetooth) solution to landing a Mars lander with your brain I came up with last year for Google Developer Day in Berlin (http://www.flickr.com/photos/55810307@N06/sets/72157627490063633/) might eventually be replaced by a one-tablet solution.

Both parts - the BCI interface and the Arduino-controlled Mars Lander are already implemented with fragments (http://developer.android.com/guide/components/fragments.html). The interesting question is if it will possible to talk to the USB-A port of the tablet via USB Host while the micro USB port is talking to the ADK.

Let's see. Work on the project has resumed.

State of the Android ADK?

2012-05-09T13:59:00.003-07:00

I wonder what Google is up to regarding the ADK. There are still lots of people making amazing stuff, yet since Google does not move a finger since May 2011(?), maybe its time to switch to another library or method in connecting Arduinos to Androids.

Here is an overview at Arduino.cc
http://labs.arduino.cc/ADK/GettingStarted

The Android ADK however is still a (rather) hidden dowload, is not updated since 2011, has not moved into the main Android or Google distribution and mannufacturer support still is a game of luck. Try asking Lenovo for example, if an Android 3.1 tablet is supposed to support the ADK. (I did.)

The great manufacturer of my Android tablet device announced that they would update to Android 4.0.3 in May 2012. Now, maybe that gives a new boost to this project. Maybe Android Reads My Brain gets a new breath of life by then. Lets wait and see. I am patient, in a Zen-like way by now.

P.S. If you are part of a professional entity, please send e-mail using your business address if possible and try to describe your request in a way that passes a usual spam filter. Thanks.

Hello Again! Back from Coding.

2011-11-23T07:32:00.001-08:00

Having everything up and running smooth for Google Developer Day last Weekend in Berlin ( #gdd11 ) was top priority, therefore writing new entries was postponed for a while. There are various aspects and lessons learned working on this project, which will be added during the next days. In the meantime there are a few pictures on Flickr.

It Just Works

2011-09-22T02:32:00.000-07:00

It is nice to have an actual device to test and try things, especially when your Lion is bitten by the infamous 19099 bug. Mine is. So I was very happy to plug in my new Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet, configure the device for development, start some Honeycomb samples from Google, and run them on ...
Surprise. The tablet was not visible in the Eclipse Run and Debug dialogs.

With a little help this friend came out of the box in my adb.

I could see that it was connected to my Mac, but adb did not pick it up. Reboots etc. did not help. Google. Result: I am not the only one having that problem and it seems to concern other tablets too. So here is the treat:

Step 1. Connect the tablet to you Mac.

Sometimes we forget this step and looking for errors then becomes … interesting.

Step 2. Prepare the tablet

Go to your tablet settings

Check "Applications > Unknown Sources"
Check everything under "Applications > Development". Note: These settings are for development only and should be disabled for security (and battery) reasons when you use the device in the "real world" (or the "Matrix", if you prefer).
Check Accounts & sync > Allow sync with PC
Select USB Settings > "Charge Only" (I use this setting, "Transfer files" seems to work, too)

Step 3. Open a shell and run

adb devices

If you get an error message like "command not found" you should set up your Android development tools. If the output of the command is empty, however, then you have the same problem that I had. Read on...

This means that the Android Debug Bridge does not recognize the device. On a different OS, you could probably fix it by installing specific USB drivers, but on a Mac? After googling around a bit, I found the money quote in the Android documentation for setting up your device.

If you're developing on Mac OS X, it just works.

Yes it does. Except when it doesn't.

Thanks to user "Volker1" in the Lenovo forums for pointing out this solution to the problem:

Step 4. Get the USB Vendor ID for your tablet

You can get this from "About this Mac" in the detailed listing under Hardware > USB. You can also look up a number of known USB vendor IDs here. For Lenovo it is "0x17ef".

Step 5. Edit the file .android/adb_usb.ini

This file is in you HOME directory, so if you use vi, do vi ~/.android/adb_usb.ini

Add a line just with the ID from step 4, so in my case after editing the file looks like this:

# ANDROID 3RD PARTY USB VENDOR ID LIST -- DO NOT EDIT.

# USE 'android update adb' TO GENERATE.

# 1 USB VENDOR ID PER LINE.

0x17ef

Note the capital "DO NOT EDIT" and the second line: "USE 'android update adb' TO GENERATE." I tried and this DID NOT WORK. So I DID EDIT. Shouting doesn't help here either.

Step 6. Then do in a shell

adb kill-server

adb start-server

adb devices

Now should see your tablet and can deploy your code from Eclipse too. And it just works.

Starting from Scratch?

2011-09-14T01:04:00.000-07:00

I recently visited a workshop that covered a certain library for Android development. To the surprise of anybody, the vast majority of the participants were highly interested in Android but hat neither written a line of Android code before nor had they any of the development tools installed.

The instructor had foreseen that some people would need to install things and had anticipated the setup would take about 30 minutes. This estimate turned out to be overly optimistic, to say the least. Wifi problems, non-optimal internet connection, wildly diverging os configurations, participants' questions and the catatonic shock of some being exposed to the eclipse IDE for the first time - all this took some time. After 1,5 hours of the 2 hour workshop people were still struggling with their installations.

In this spirit let's assume you start at zero, zilch, nothing. And you want to rock the world with your Android ADK development.

First you will need some hardware:

A. A computer running a fairly recent version of Mac OSX, Linux or Windows

B. A compatible Android device - usually a smartphone with Android 2.3.4 or higher or a tablet with Android 3.1 or higher.

This needs some word of caution. Many devices will work in USB accessory mode, but others will not. There are no guarantees; it depends on the hardware and firmware of the device. The Nexus One, Nexus S and Mortorola Xoom tablet have been confirmed to work, but its your responsibility to make sure your device supports the USB mode. The Android emulator will not

work with the ADK. You can install and run your apps but they won't talk to the board.

C. An Android Open Accessory (ADK) compatible development board. Some are listed here.

D. Some cables to connect A, B and C.

Then have some coffee and patience and:

1. Check your system requirements

http://developer.android.com/sdk/requirements.html

2. Set up your system for Android development

http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing.html

3. Prepare your device for development

http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/device.html

Test 1: Follow the "Hello, World" tutorial and run it on your device

http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/hello-world.html

If this works, fine. This makes you an Android developer.

5. Install the Arduino software and additional libraries

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/usb/adk.html

up to the sentence "You should now have three new directories in the Arduino libraries directory: AndroidAccessory, USB_Host_Shield, andCapSense."

Additional to the instructions, I copied the firmware > demokit folder from the ADK to my Arduino directory.

Test 2: Connect your ADK board and upload the "Examples > Basic > Blink" example

Does it blink? Now you are in for serious Arduino development. If you want to digress, try some Arduino examples from http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/HomePage

7. Transfer the ADK firmware to the board and continue on

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/usb/adk.html

Test 3: Run the DemoKit Android application on your Android andcontinue on

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/usb/adk.html

If you can control the ADK board from you Android: Congratulations. You just got ready to start developing with the ADK.

Honestly, I would plan a full afternoon for this. It is necessary to make sure that each step works before moving on. If somebody should pay for this kind of stuff, I would even recommend doing a one day workshop explaining these very fundamental topics and the tools a bit. "Fundamental" derives from "fundament". I think self-help sites, especially stack overflow (http://stackoverflow.com/), have their value but I guess more than a third of the Android-related questions there are simply superfluous - the topics wouldn't be unclear if people would take their time studying the fundamentals a bit.

Back to Android Reads my Brain.

Android devices reported to be ADK-compatible

2011-09-08T05:50:00.000-07:00

A lot of people are asking which Android devices are reported to work with the ADK. Here are some of them. I will try to keep this post up to date.

Smartphones

Google Nexus One wirh Android 2.3.4
Google Nexus S with Android 2.3.4

Tablets

Motorola Xoom with Android 3.1 or later
Acer Iconia A100 with Android 3.2
ASUS Eee Pad Transfomer TF101 with Android 3.2
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with Android 3.1 (this one has icons with rounded corners)

Sources

ADK Challenge communication
Dan from http://www.whizzosoftware.com/ provided a comprehensive list of devices. Thanks.

In general
You device must have Android 2.3.4 or Android 3.1. or a custom mod that supports this feature.

Please bear in mind, that this might not be accurate and comes with no implication of warranty. There are lots of model variants and revisions, customized firmwares etc. around so it is still your responsibility to check compatibility before you shell out your hard-earned Dollars, Euros or Yen.

Manufacturers: please indicate ADK-compatibility in your specs. Make some tinkerers happy. Thanks.

Un-Bo-Xing!

2011-09-07T01:55:00.000-07:00

Something precious, something small has just arrived from a far and exotic location. The board is actually nice to look at - of engineering meets art type.

The set includes two servos, the Arduino board with the demo shield, a micro-USB cable, a quick-start guide and a power plug that I will use during my next vacation in the USA. Plus four rubber feet!

The QR-codes on the back of the board/shield bring you to the ADK page.

Something needs to be done about the power plug. For the ADK USB host shield to work, the Arduino needs a separate power source because it must power the USB. This is because in accessory mode, the accessory board is the host.

Newfound friends.

This is About Choice.

2011-09-06T07:45:00.000-07:00

Working with the USB APIs with Android essentially requires three choices:

Mode: Do you want to use USB accessory mode or USB host mode? See http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/usb/index.html.

Platform: Do you want to target Android 3.1 (API level 12) and higher or Android 2.3.4 (API level 10)?

API: Do you want to include the Google add-on library (see http://code.google.com/android/add-ons/google-apis/index.html) or work with the framework API?

These choices are certainly intertwined in a demonical fashion. What follows is the abridged lowdown (you can read the whole story here http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/usb/index.html).

A word of caution. This area is still a bit maker/hacker/nerd territory. In neither case you can be absolutely certain that USB is supported on an Android device/platform - this ultimately depends on the device manufacturer, the current firmware or particular mod the device is on. So its better to check - especially for 2.3.4. The device specs usually do not have that information yet and the internets are full of "works/doesn't work" reports. The Nexus One, Nexus S and (the US version (?) of the) Motorola Xoom are "officially ok'ed" for the ADK challenge.

So here are the rules:

Mode

If you want to use USB host mode you must target 3.1 or later.

If you want to use USB accessory mode you can choose to target 3.1 or 2.3.4.

Platform

If you target 3.1 or later you can use host mode or accessory mode. For accessory mode you can choose to use the add-on library (for compatibility with 2.3.4) or the framework API. For host mode there is only the framework API.

If you target 2.3.4 you must use the add-on library and it is accessory mode only.

API

If you use accessory mode with the add-on library, you import the package:

com.android.future.usb

Then you obtain the UsbManager object like this:

UsbManager manager = UsbManager.getInstance(this);

If you have declared an Intent filter (see http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/usb/accessory.html) for the attachment/detachment of devices you obtain the UsbAccessory object like this:

UsbAccessory accessory = UsbManager.getAccessory(intent);

In the Manifest you need to declare
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.usb.accessory"/>

within <manifest> and

<uses-library android:name="com.android.future.usb.accessory"/>

within <application>.

If you work with the framework API however, you import from

android.hardware.usb

and get a reference to these objects as follows:

UsbManager manager = (UsbManager) getSystemService(Context.USB_SERVICE);

UsbAccessory accessory = (UsbAccessory) intent.getParcelableExtra(UsbManager.EXTRA_ACCESSORY);

In the Manifest declare

<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.usb.accessory"/>

and <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="12"/> within the <manifest> tag.

The other methods, declarations, intent filters and bruhaha seem to work in the same manner across both options. My intent (pun!) here was to highlight the differences. Also, as we are mainly concerned with accessory mode, I left out host mode here.

Read:

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/usb/index.html

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/usb/package-summary.html

for the full picture.

For the ADK challenge I am using accessory mode with the framework API on a 3.1 device.

Hardware List

2011-08-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is the hardware for the project.

OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator (NIA) It is actually a sensor, not an actuator, but who cares. Wait a sec. It it was an actuator it would not read my brain but write it. Thinking about it I am not shure if I should wear that thing any longer. Want to test this project, anybody?
Android Open Accessory Development Kit. ~~Which one I don't know yet. Will update this post.~~ Looks like I will be using this.
Belkin USB Hub. Need two devices on the USB.
~~Google Nexus S Android Smartphone w/ Android 2.3.4~~ Some Android 3.1 tablet. Lenovo Thinkpad seems a good fit for this project.
Laptop for coding. Soldering iron. Stuff.

That should be it.

This is Rumor Control. Here are the facts!

2011-08-01T16:14:00.000-07:00

A company called Google - presumably in the search business - has told me they would provide a development kit so you can see the project live in Berlin on Nov. 19. Their motto: "Dont be evil." Hm. Let's see. Stay tuned.

Android Reads My Brain!!!

2011-08-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

Android, a Brain Computer Interface and a soldering rod. And suddenly we'll have Skynet or something. In anticipated retrospective it is important to record everything so future time-travellers have some stuff to look at before blowing things up. Thus it was decided to meticulously cover the development of Android Reads My Brain!!! in this blog.

You can read about the humble project proposal here (pdf).