Design & Development of My SmartPhone Kit:

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1 Design & Development of My SmartPhone Kit: A Practical Approach for Technical Education Jasleen Kaur Dept. of Computer Science Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women Delhi, India jasleenkochar89@gmail.com Abstract This paper relates to a system and method providing a unified platform for real time programming, designing and customizing SmartPhone hardware and software (OS) component for the purpose of experimenting, developing and learning various concept of mobile computing environment. The platform includes a processing unit for controlling and managing the operating of one or more interface controller comprise memory interface, communication interface, input/output interface, sensor interface, application programming interface for application programming and operating system customization. My SmartPhone Kit is developed to scale mobile education with hands-on working in various research and education domains. Keywords Smart Device; Mobile Architecture & programming; mobile education; Smart Phone Kit;Technical education; I. INTRODUCTION The development of educational Kit is leaning in the evolution of how to prepare students and an alternative to the technical education system, based on practical approach. There are still many colleges & universities that either don t provide mobile education & mobile technologies in their curriculum or are in the beginning phase of subjects related to this field or provide only theory approach & not providing practical approach. Some colleges only offered simulation based programming & fails to incorporate real time architecture programming. Companies like Apple, Texas Instruments, Cypress, Google, Intel, Sony, Xilinx, National Instruments, AMD, and Diligent etc. are making substantial investments in the development and creation of new educational devices. An important issue of the expansion of such Kits is the cost-flexibility ratio. We designed and developed a low-cost solution of this problem. The add-on My SmartPhone kit, designed and developed at IGDTUW, Delhi with the use of project Mobile Education Kit 3(MEK3) funded by Microsoft University Relations, Finland. My SmartPhone Kit provides an open environment for design and development of Smart devices. The Kit can be used to practically teach several subjects of engineering with the aid SRN Reddy Dept. of Computer Science Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women Delhi, India srnreddy@igdtuw.ac.in exercises and hands-on with the real environment by exploring all the layers of SmartPhone to understand various software and Electronics and hardware engineering subjects. It includes 3 dimensions of freedom: Hardware, Operating System and Software Control of the Kit. As a Student or Researcher one can have access to all 3 dimensions one can study, customize and develop. The Kit was designed and built based on Broadcom BCM2836 SoC used in Raspberry pi. The kit offers to large number of users that are studying Mobile Computing, Mobile Architecture & programming, System on Chip, Embedded Systems etc. II. RELATED WORK AND RESEARCH GAPS Table 1 shows the review and comparison of some exiting trainer kits and educational products for the use in schools and colleges. Research gaps are outlined based upon the review of existing kits. Some of the research gaps are: High Cost of the kit, Big Size, explanation of only one module of the kit rather than explanation of all the components of the smart phone. III. WHY BROADCOM BCM2836? My SmartPhone Kit is based on the Broadcom BCM 2836 SoC based Raspberry Pi. It offers a unique blend between adaptability in design and relatively low cost of implementation. Raspberry Pi is selected for future work due to BCM 2836 ARM11 capabilities. BCM 2836 ARM11 has been used to develop Kindle & iphone version 3. Hence its capabilities are perfect for the need of building smart Hand-held mobile device. The Broadcom SoC used in the Raspberry Pi is equivalent to a chip used in an old SmartPhone (Android or iphone). While operating at 700 MHz by default, the Raspberry Pi provides a real world performance roughly equivalent to GFLOPS. On the CPU level the performance is similar to a 300 MHz Pentium II of The GPU provides 1 Gpixel/s or 1.5 Gtexel/s of graphics processing or 24 GFLOPS of general purpose computing performance. The graphics capabilities of the Raspberry Pi are roughly equivalent to the level of performance of the Xbox of 1

2 2001. The Raspberry Pi chip, operating at 700 MHz by default, will not become hot enough to need a heat sink or special cooling. The SoC is stacked underneath the RAM chip, so only its edge is visible. BCM 2836 is capable of interfacing camera, HDMI Output and supporting multimedia but lacks in display, touch Keypad, communication Modules and Memory Space. These shortcomings will be overcome by connecting external modules. A new addition in smart phone capabilities is tried to introduce by providing HDMI output that can be connected to user's HDMI enables TV's to experience multimedia on their SmartPhone at bigger screen. User may use his/her smart device for larger experience. Some of the Raspberry Pi features that push us to select this SoC for the design and development of the kit: Processor: Raspberry pi has ARM11 processor which is a 32 bit processor and having speed 700MHz.This processor has ARMv6 architecture. Broadcom SoC: It has Broadcom SoC (System on Chip) that is BCM2835. TABLE I. Review and Comparison of Existing Kits Input/ Output Pins: There are 40 input/output pin in model B+. The previous models have 26 input/output pins. The expansion header is 2.54 mm (2x20 strip).there are 27 GPIO (General purpose Input Output) with +3.3V, +5V and GND pins. USB Ports: Model B+ has four 2.0mm connector USB ports. The previous models have only two USB ports. The Model B+ eliminates the use of a USB Hub. Ethernet Port: Model B and B+ have 10/100 BaseT Ethernet socket but previous version do not have. Audio Jack: Raspberry pi has 3.5mm audio jack. Camera Connector: Raspberry pi has MIPI 15-pin camera serial interface (CSI-2) HDMI port: All the raspberry pi model have HDMI(rev 1.3 & 1.4) composite RCA(PAL & NTSC) Power: It s a micro USB socket (5V, 2A). Display Connector: It s a Display Serial Interface (DSI) 15 way flat flex cable connector with two data line and a clock lane. SD Card Slot: It s a micro SD card slot. The minimum capacity of a card should be 4 GB. Sr No. Particulars Specifications Features Understanding Mobile Phone - Scientech 2132 Understanding Global Positing System (GPS) - Scientech 2276 Mobile Phone Trainer & Lab Kit Cellular Mobile Trainer Kit Cellular System : EGSM/GSM 900 Rx frequency band : EGSM MHz GSM MHz Display : pixels Power Consumption : 3.6 VA (approximately) Power Supply : 110V - 260V AC, 50/60Hz Channel : 12 Receiver Frequency : MHz Time Accuracy : Synchronized to GPS time Update rate : 1/sec. Current (Avg.) : 180 ma Serial Communication : 4800 Baud (default) Power Consumption : 2 VA approximately Cellular System : EGSM/GSM 900 Rx Frequency Band : EGSM 925, 960MHz: GSM 900, 935, 960MHz Tx Frequency Band : EGSM 880, 890MHz: GSM 900, 890, 915MHz Output Power : +5V, +33dBm/32mW, Keypad, SIM, Charging Circuit, Clock, User interface such as Buzzer, Vibrator, LEDs. GSM Hardware platform with GSM module and Embedded system board 1 AC Adapter 1, RS232C Cable for debugging Real time mobile operation Frequency measurement and band verification Provides study of all sections in mobile phone 2G technology & GMSK signals GSM data rate Battery identification and charging study 12 channel GPS & carrier Fast requisition time of 0.1 second On board real time RTCM SC-104 differential 1PPS (one pulse per second) signal USB for PC Communication GPS Software for analysis Battery operation,zigbee interface (optional) Full duplex mobile communication Basic theory and working fundamentals of a 2G hand set based on the NOKIA 3310/3315. This trainer kit designed with a view to provide based on NOKIA 3310/3315. Real time Mobile Operation, Frequency measurement, band verification TX/RX Frequency measurements 2G technology, GMSK & Battery signals Understanding of GSM technology capability Study of SIM card interface and SIM data control Development Windows CE based user 2

3 Sr No. Particulars Specifications Features application Debugging with serial port IV. DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF MY SMARTPHONE KIT My SmartPhone Kit was designed as an education Kit which exploits the advantages of Raspberry Pi in education systems. The central element of the My SmartPhone Kit is the chip BCM2836 from Broadcom family. Architecture block diagram of My SmartPhone Kit as shown in Fig 1 includes a processing unit, a memory database and interface unit of processing unit which couples the processor with and/or to various communication interface such as I/O interface, memory interface, sensor interface, communication interface and application/os interface. The processing Unit is a computing platform to perform all the customized operations and communicates with various interfaces. The I/O interface allows connection to speaker, microphone, buzzer, camera, touch screen, display, user interface, keyboard and other input/output devices. The memory interface provides connection with one or more high speed memory RAM required to be used in the customized SmartPhone platform such as SD Card/Flash, SDRAM etc. The Sensor Interface provides communication to application specific sensor such as environment sensors, health sensors, safety sensors etc. The communication interface provides connection to one or more network communication technology such as Bluetooth, WiFi, UART, ZigBee, GSM, SPI, I2C etc. The present My SmartPhone Kit runs on the highly customizable Linux based operating system (MyOS) allowing integration of multiple hardware component and software component into a single platform. Computing Platform: Raspberry pi is used as a computing platform. It uses Broadcom BCM2836 SoC and operates at 700 MHz Sensors: Current version of My SmartPhone Kit is integrated with three sensors such as temperature and humidity sensor (DHT11), accelerometer (ADXL345), Light sensor (DSl2561). More number of different sensors can be integrated with My SmartPhone Kit. Touch Screen: It features a 2.8 display with 320x240, 16-bit color pixels and a resistive touch overlay. Camera Module: It is a 5 MP fixed focus camera that supports 1080p30, 720p60 and VGA90 video modes as well as still captures. GSM: GSM Sim900A is used for wireless communication. Bluetooth: Bluetooth HC-05 module with Serial Port Profile, which can be configured as either master or slave is used for wireless communication. GPS: It provides real time position information. Software components used in My SmartPhone Kit are: MyOS: Application specific customized and configurable Linux operating system is used to meet the user requirements. Application Programs: Set of application programs and projects are created to experiment the concepts of various subjects such as mobile computing, mobile architecture & programming, embedded systems etc. Hardware components used in My SmartPhone Kit are: 3

4 Fig. 1. Architecture Block Diagram of My SmartPhone Kit V. IMPLEMENTATION & RESULTS My Smart Phone kit is a complete package that includes different hardware and software components for better dissemination of knowledge. As shown in Fig 2, current version of My SmartPhone Kit prototype includes hardware interface that include Raspberry Pi2 base control device interfaced with Communication modules that includes GSM, GPS & Bluetooth, Sensors that includes Light, Accelerometer, Temperature & Humidity, Camera and TFT-Touch interfaces. As shown in Fig 3, customize MyOS consist of experimental setup GUI for easy user interaction that facilitates user with all the functionalities course wise with set of example codes and to check the proper functioning of the kit. Kit is used for practically teaching different subjects of engineering. Some experiments related to these subjects are: Interfacing of Accelerometer (ADXL345). Python Programming: Basic Python Programs Database Programming: Basic Database Programs Linux Programming: Basic Linux Programs C Programming: Basic C Programs Embedded Systems: Interfacing of Camera, Interfacing of Audio Device, Interfacing of LED, Interfacing of LCD, Interfacing of Buzzer, Interfacing of ADC. Socket Programming: Creating Local Connection, Creating Remote Connection. Mobile Communication: Interfacing of Bluetoothsending and receiving of data through Bluetooth, Interfacing of Wi-Fi- accessing Internet through Wi-Fi, Interfacing of GPS- getting current location, Interfacing of GSM- Sending message & Calling Sensor Network: Interfacing of Temp & humidity Sensor (DHT11), Interfacing of Light Sensor (TSL2561), Fig. 2. My SmartPhone Kit Prototype 4

Fig. 3. GUI for User Interaction VI. CONCLUSION My SmartPhone is designed to be used for M.Tech, B.Tech, MCA, BCA, MSc, and Diploma courses of CSE/IT/ECE/EEE etc.

5 Fig. 3. GUI for User Interaction VI. CONCLUSION My SmartPhone is designed to be used for M.Tech, B.Tech, MCA, BCA, MSc, and Diploma courses of CSE/IT/ECE/EEE etc. as an experimental environment for various courses such as Mobile Computing, Embedded System, Wireless Communications, Internet of Things, and Programming Languages like Python, C, and Shell Script etc. Presently the Kit can be used as a Linux PC to experiment the theoretical concepts practically in real environment. It provides the freedom for Hardware interfaces, building the customizable OS and integrating the applications with the H/W and OS as a complete system solution. It is suitable for Faculty who are teaching Embedded Systems, Communication Systems, and Mobile Computing, IOT etc. VII. FUTURE WORK My SmartPhone Kit in future will be extended to use as an Android PC and Windows PC to experiment the theoretical concepts practically in a real environment. REFERENCES [1] Kiriakos Patriarcheas and Michalis Xenos, Educational techniques comparative study by using combined environment via computer and mobile devices in asynchronous discussion forum, International Conference on Mobile Business, 2010, pp [2] Selene Contreras, Designing a low cost educational handheld device for children, IEEE International Caracas Conference on Devices, Circuits and Systems, 2002, pp [3] Scientechworld.com, Understanding Dual SIM Mobile Phone, [Online]. Available: [Accessed: 13- May- 2016]. [4] Kazi Arif Anwar, Towards a Role Framework for Mobile Devices in Educational Contexts, IEEE Toronto International Conference on Science and Technology for Humanity, 2009,pp [5] Scientechworld.com, Understanding Global Positioning System (GPS), [Online]. Available: [Accessed: 13- May- 2016]. [6] Y Zurita, G., & M Nussbaum, A constructivist mobile learning environment supported by a wireless handheld network, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 20(4), ACKNOWLEDGMENT This research is supported by Microsoft (Nokia University Relations), Finland under the research grant of a project- Mobile Education Kit. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Microsoft (Nokia University Relations), Finland. 5

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Raspberry Pi 3 Model B

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Product Name Raspberry Pi 3 Product Description The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B is the third generation Raspberry Pi. This powerful credit-card sized single board computer can be used