Project Title

Accelerometer based Wireless navigator

Objective of this Project

The main objective of this project is to explore an alternative design for the measurement of the movement of a joystick. This project demonstrates the use of a accelerometer as a computer joystick.

The control of this design will utilize accelerometers with both digital and analog output to determine motion. Radio frequency technology will be used to implement the wireless communication. Since the standard joystick, mouse and optical mouse are rely on flat surfaces, another goal will be to design the controller such that no surface is needed for its operation. The device will read data from the dual-axis accelerometer and the input buttons. The voltages seen at the outputs of the accelerometer will be converted to a signal to be sent to the base unit via an Cypress WirelessUSB transmitter and receiver. From this point the signal will go to the microcontroller, which will then convert the signal to instructions that the PC can process using standard mouse drivers.

In this project, we implemented it in Open Source Linux platform.

What is Accelerometer

An accelerometer is a device for measuring acceleration and gravity induced reaction forces. Single- and multi-axis models are available to detect magnitude and direction of the acceleration as a vector quantity Accelerometers can be used to sense inclination, vibration, and shock. Refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerometer to know more about it.

Applications

Accelerometers can be used to measure vibration on cars, machines, buildings, process control systems and safety installations. They can also be used to measure seismic activity, inclination, machine vibration, dynamic distance and speed with or without the influence of gravity. Applications for accelerometers that measure gravity, wherein an accelerometer is specifically configured for use in gravimetry, are called gravimeters.

Target applications

Games station

Presenter tool

Wireless Mouse

Virtual applications

Medical applications

Hardware specification

Cypress CYWM6935 Transceiver

ATMEGA 16 microcontroller

MAX 233 for serial communication

ST LIS3L02 3-axis accelerometer

TC 1262 3.3 volt regulator

BOM [Bill Of Materials]

Transmitter & Receiver components

Software specification

Any open source Linux. Preferably Fedora 7 or higher.

AVR-GCC compiler

Status of this project

Software Design Level

Reference

http://larsenglund.blogspot.com/2007/04/simple-avr-wireless-communication-using.html

http://coepetc.blogspot.com/

http://www.geocities.com/xlr8rmouse/report_files/frame.htm

Project contributors

Prakash A S [ asprakash83_at_gmail.com ]

Abhinav Shrivastava [ abhi2610_at_gmail.com ]

Ammar Ahmad [ ammarahmad.122_at_gmail.com ]

Garima Asthana [ garimadesires_at_gmail.com ]

Rahul Sharma [ rahul.30january_at_gmail.com ]

Robin Pahwa [ robinpahwa_at_gmail.com ]

Project guide

Prakash A S

Contact

asprakash_at_au-kbc.org

Community group

[Open Source Embedded systems community group http://groups.google.co.in/group/open-embedded]