A smartphone + development board fusion as a cost-effective
prototyping personal computing solution
prototyping personal computing solution
Background
•A huge number of students can still not afford a personal computer and it is an important learning tool.
•Makers need to buy prototyping boards and sensors just to get an idea to an initial prototype.
•Smartphones we use today are more than capable of being used as prototyping boards, and with the increasing number of sensors they carry, they can become an inexpensive alternative to the same.
Similar and Competing Concepts
Motorola Moto Z
•Offers additional functionality to a smartphone using magnetically attached accessories – Moto Mods, that communicate with the phone using a set of dedicated pins on the back.
•Difficult to develop and not meant for prototyping
•Price of the hardware is high ~₹35000
JanOS
•Turns an existing smartphone that has reached its end of life into a prototyping board.
•Limited support to a very few smartphones
•Difficult to add hardware features and add external connections, relies on already present volume and lock keys.
RaspberryPi
•Low cost single board computer for all needs, typically used as a PC or as a prototyping board
•Robust software and Hardware support
•Open source
•Cannot be used as a typical phone, focuses on prototyping.
Suggested Changes to Current Smartphone Design to Achieve this:
Hardware
•Support for extra pins on the SoC
•Addition of simple hardware interfaces such as SPI and I2C
•Mandatory USB 3.1 or higher using USB-C for MHL display support
•Protection circuits to be added so that typical user errors don’t make the phone unusable
•Development of supporting dock to access all above features.
Software
•Easy control of open pins
•USB host to handle multiple devices at a time
•Software changes to prevent damage to the device from typical user errors
•Software interface to allow safe access to extra pins without affecting system integrity.
•Desktop environment built into the OS for full desktop like experience with external display.