Using Bluetooth to Deliver Student Information to Mobile Devices Proof of Concept or "how it is supposed to work" My goal with this project is to create a Bluetooth kiosk. Based on a Bluetooth commercial I remember from IBM*, I want to take Windows PC or laptop and make it a bluetooth kiosk/server so that students may walk up to the Kiosk, establish a wireless session with the kiosk/server and request college/class information with their cell phone. Once the server received their request, it would process it (via a database look up) and deliver student information over the wireless connection to their cell phone's display.. Given the limitation of short text messages for input and output, some potential uses on a campus might be:
The kiosk would be located in high traffic areas or near faculty offices. Any Bluetooth device with a chat (send / receive RFCOMM support) could be used to communicate with the server. Although the transmission could be encrypted the kiosk should only contain public directory information. *IBM had a commercial where a man approaches a soft drink vending machine to make a purchase. He does not have the correct change so he has to leave the vending machine without his can of soda. A moment later a lady approaches that same vending machine with her hands filled with shopping bags. Realizing she can only make the purchase by putting everything in her hands down to make the purchase, she grabs her cell phone and keys some information into the handset only to have the soda drop from the machine. She used a bluetooth connection to complete the transaction. (I may not have the commercial exactly as if happened but I thikn you get the point). Definition: What is Bluetooth? Bluetooth is a wireless communications protocol designed to connect similar devices in close range (less then 20 feet). The technology has existed for sometime but is most popular for "hands free" cell phone usage where a Bluetooth connection is set up between a ear piece and a cell phone laying in close range. Most cell phones have Bluetooth built into them but also PDA's can have Bluetooth support. A bluetooth dongle can be purchased for a PC or laptop for under $10 dollars if Bluetooth support is not already built in. Bluetooth Clicker Project Many textbook publishers and instructors have been adopting Clickers in their classrooms. Clickers are small radio (or infrared devices) that allow students to vote on questions asked by the instructor, They can be used in a "game format" where student keep score of their correct responses or the instructor can use the devices to do "on the fly" quizzes to see how students are understanding/retaining the material. Clickers can be very useful but can also be problematic since they must be handed out and collected at the end of each class session. Clickers get lost and lost clickers cost money. Most students have cell phones with Bluetooth support built in for "hands free" device support. For my Bluetooth project, I tested the viability of putting a PC in the classroom with a Bluetooth server program listening for clicker type input from students using the Bluetooth support in their cell phones. i was not sure if the project was technically possible but in fact I was able to create a Bluetooth server in Visual Basic (or PYTHON) running on my Laptop with a Bluetooth dongle ($5.00 on eBay) and a Bluetooth clicker client on a PDA. The students BT client was running a Visual Basic program I developed, Some of the screens are shown below and I plan to write up a more complete description of the project at the conclusion of my sabbatical. I was able to write a cell phone application to emulate the clicker and communicate with the Bluetooth server but since I was using the Microsoft Device Emulator for my development and testing, I was unable to communicate via Bluetooth (due too limitations with the emulator and serial porit support). A real cell phone with Microsoft SmartPhone support is necesary to complete the final testing for cell phone clicker support. I am very confident it can be done as successfully as was done with the PDA Bluetooth client I developed. Screen Shot - Server Screen The Bluetooth Server (BTs) listens for requests and based on pre-determined dialogs can respond to Bluetooth clients (BTc). The client could be requesting something like office hours or perhaps the when a course was being offered. The messages to and from the BTs from the BTs. I have created a test application that can exchange messages or have a PDA act like a student clicker and respond to a teachers questions at the front of the room. Her e are some screen shots of what I have been able to program with Visual Studio 2008. The BLs can also be programed using PyBluez and PYTHON for operating systems other than Windows alfhough for this project I have only tested with PYTHON running on Microsoft Windows. Main Screen Bluetooth Server (BTs) with Feedback from Student BTc sending clicker feedback on a PDA  This screen shows the running percent accumulations of answers coming from the students BTc concerning a Instructor question (i.e. Which of the following is not a Visual Basic object member? (A) variable (B) method (C) event (D) property). The last student submitted the answer B and so far A has 33% and B has 66% of the responses. This running would be displayed on the BTs with the Instructor. Main Screen Bluetooth Client (BTc) Students would use this client program show running from a PDA.  BTc running Survey program to simulate hope a BTc could be used as a classroom Clicker for Feedback  BTc running from SmartPhone emulator (This technology could not be fully tested with just an emulator. A Microsoft SmartPhone Cell Device is needed to complete testing.)  Description of Design Environment For this project, I am working on a complete different set of development tools. My client program is an example programming showing how to use .NET (C# specifically) to make Bluetooth RFCOMM serial communications for Windows Mobile PC version 5.0. For .his client program. I am using Visual Studio 2008 (Visual Basic). For the Bluetooth Kiosk server, I have modified some code that was available on the PyBluez site (hosted by Google). PyBluez is a open source PYTHON module that comes from MIT to support Bluetooth communication with PYTHON or for the screen shots on this page the sever was also created using I am using Wing 101 for my PYTHON code updates, debugging and testing. The Bluetooth server is a PC running Microsoft Vista Business Edition. Documentation was kept using Google Docs, Google Notebook and Google Site. return to homepage |