Team 2 – Tobii Project Meeting minutes for

We Now Have A Tobii Device To Test!!  Software updates have been made to the computer  Noticed that there are problems with the controlling the eye tracking device outside of the Tobii Communication application

Software Development  What is the best way to communicate to the Tira-2?  Girder is confusing and clunky!  EventGhost has issues with drivers!  Custom software is preferable.  Reduce bulk and restrict to what is needed.

Software Development  Communicating via serial is easy – especially in Linux.  Custom command-line software that is backwards compatible with Windows.  Scripting Languages – Perl, Python, etc…

Approach #1 - Perl  Tira-2 has it’s own serial protocol: electro.com/download/Protocol2.pdfhttp:// electro.com/download/Protocol2.pdf  Found after digging around in the custom software developer section of the HomeElectro website:  Ira-3 also has a serial protocol, but we’ll get back to that.  Next Step: Wrote custom command-line program in Perl programming language on a Linux Operating System (Linux Mint – Ubuntu variant)  Perl can be made compatible with Windows – hence why it was used.  The idea was to develop software that could communicate via the serial USB interface easily and collect IR codes from remote controls.

Approach #1 - Results  The program that was written works in that it spits out HEX codes for IR communication.  The program does not work in that it is unable to transmit the signal back out.  Collecting the results into a text document was also not implemented.  Perl is also a painful language to write in.  Considered this as an exercise in the Tira-2 serial protocol.  I was also up all night so there’s that to consider.

Approach #2 - Python  Found source code for the same idea, but written in the Python programming language by Pádraig Brady:  Python can also be made compatible with Windows.  The developer encourages people to freely edit and use his code under the GNU General Public License – we can edit it to our needs.  This code is awesome and works for data collection!

Approach #2 - Results  (Play video) ;)

Where do we go from here?  Decide if using Linux for the testbed is appropriate or not.  We can further develop the code to be compatible with Windows if necessary.  Collect all IR codes from the Uverse remotes.  We should test these IR codes with an actual Uverse box (Ashley’s).  Testing and design plans.

Where is Ira?  Tira-2 can transmit and receive so it was used for quick testing purposes. We may still use Ira in the final design.  Ira uses RJ45 interface and a different serial protocol – this complicates the design.  Tira-2 can use external emitters supposedly. Some were ordered for testing purposes.  My opinion: Tira-2 should be what is used in the final design – it would be easier to set up.

Thanks!