วันอาทิตย์ที่ 24 มกราคม พ.ศ. 2553

Mobile Computing - The Car Computer (Carputer)

Do you want the Internet Internet access on the go? Use Bluetooth to connect your phone and get internet wherever you have signal. Lost? Use a Bluetooth GPS module and GPS navigation software on your way out. I will only play music and videos? No problem, install a front-end and how we Centrafuse them away.

Hardware

The setup I have at the moment consists of a 1.4 GHz AMD Geode processor with 256 MB DDR RAM and a 30 GB 2.5? Hard drive. The screen is a 7? LiliputDASH and the power supply is an opus 120 watts. The whole setup fits in my glove compartment. The motherboard is a mini-ITX form factor board and the dimensions are 7? x 7?. The power supply is on the right side of the motherboard and the hard drive is secured within the power supply in the small corner crack. Then there is a USB 2.0 hub to connect with their own power supply to Bluetooth, wireless keyboard, etc.

Operating System

The operating system is TinyXP Rev. 06th TinyXP isbasically a stripped down Windows XP. The whole installation only takes up 400MB and uses only 40MB of RAM. Even with only 256 MB of memory, the computer still boots damn fast. From post to the Windows desktop, it takes less than 15 seconds! Watch the video below for a demonstration.

Peripheral / Addons

In order to meet the Internet, I usually line my car phone to the PC via Bluetooth. I use a Treo 755p with PdaNet installed to connect the car PC. Throughputvery well connected, whereas with the Sprint EVDO network, but it is nothing close to spectacular. Web pages will take an additional 2-3 seconds to load, but nothing major.

For navigation I use a Bluetooth receiver with the TomTom MKII SirfStar III chipset. The software includes only iGuidance v4, which uses Navteq maps. The GPS navigation system is pretty accurate and comes with a ton of POI.

802.11 Wireless communication is handled by a Zonet ZEW-2500P USB 2.0 card. It has a RalinkChipset, which is injecting the packets and therefore compatible with many of the wireless distribution available today. Finally, I want to replace the WLAN card with a Fonera that residence is on 24 / 7 is running in client mode with AutoAP. In this way, the Fonera will automatically open wireless networks available (there is always a shortage of em) to connect to them, and allow me to remote control the Fonera to the Internet. I was able to turn with Wake on LAN (WOL) on the car PC.I also plan to use a USB module to various vehicle functions such as remote start, alarm disarm arm control switch / to lock / unlock, etc. This means that the car can literally be controlled from the Internet!

Want to listen to music or watching movies? No problemo. Frontends like Centrafuse present the user with a nice interface with large buttons that compliment the touch screen and fat fingers:). Within the interface you can play music, movies, weather, start aWeb browser and much more.

Input is handled by a MadCatz wireless keyboard, which is generally used with PS3s. However, there is nothing special about the setup and it works well when used with a computer. I like it because I did not do to wear a bulky keyboard, and it can be concealed very easily.



candy corn

ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:

แสดงความคิดเห็น