Grub
New app on the list: Grub
May/13/2010 10:55 AM
So I've been toying with an idea for a few years now; I even suggested it as potential work in college for my team's senior design project (go Team Wolf @ UMass!).
I'm not announcing the app just yet, but like my other works in progress I want to be able to talk about this publicly while working on it.
Code-named 'Grub', this application will repurpose the GSM/UMTS air interface (radio) of the N900 to provide an augmented reality service that is both entertaining and useful. It's usefulness will depend greatly on factors that I can't fully predict right now; but I saved my old 'Signals and Systems' text book, as well as the text for 'Communications' so I'll dive into those for a refresher and ensure that usefulness is at least theoretically possible.
Implementing the app is another thing altogether; even if the app's usefulness would be proven so limited that no one would use it for professional reasons, the app would still be a lot of fun. So no matter what my research show, I intend to write the app. If the research shows that it cannot be truly useful then I'll put less effort into the signals analysis because the computed outcomes would be for entertainment purposes only.
What truly sets this app apart from any others is that Maemo/MeeGo devices are really the only devices on which I think such an app is even possible. Apple would freak out if a 'legit' app tried to muck around with the baseband, never mind that Apple forbids use of anything but the public APIs (which surely don't give undiluted hardware access to the radios). Android apps actually run in a virtual environment, and the system as a whole is not fully open so developers aren't welcome to muck about with the baseband at runtime there either. What about Maemo (MeeGo)? It's possible that I won't have runtime access to the baseband, sure, but I can download the source and provide myself with an interface to it. Having that in my development environment I can fully implement my code and push for community support for new baseband related APIs.
Basically what I'm saying is that this project isn't feasible on Android or iPhone; there may be show stoppers even on Maemo/MeeGo, but at least there's a path to follow and a realistic possibility to get this app on the Ovi Store.
I'm not announcing the app just yet, but like my other works in progress I want to be able to talk about this publicly while working on it.
Code-named 'Grub', this application will repurpose the GSM/UMTS air interface (radio) of the N900 to provide an augmented reality service that is both entertaining and useful. It's usefulness will depend greatly on factors that I can't fully predict right now; but I saved my old 'Signals and Systems' text book, as well as the text for 'Communications' so I'll dive into those for a refresher and ensure that usefulness is at least theoretically possible.
Implementing the app is another thing altogether; even if the app's usefulness would be proven so limited that no one would use it for professional reasons, the app would still be a lot of fun. So no matter what my research show, I intend to write the app. If the research shows that it cannot be truly useful then I'll put less effort into the signals analysis because the computed outcomes would be for entertainment purposes only.
What truly sets this app apart from any others is that Maemo/MeeGo devices are really the only devices on which I think such an app is even possible. Apple would freak out if a 'legit' app tried to muck around with the baseband, never mind that Apple forbids use of anything but the public APIs (which surely don't give undiluted hardware access to the radios). Android apps actually run in a virtual environment, and the system as a whole is not fully open so developers aren't welcome to muck about with the baseband at runtime there either. What about Maemo (MeeGo)? It's possible that I won't have runtime access to the baseband, sure, but I can download the source and provide myself with an interface to it. Having that in my development environment I can fully implement my code and push for community support for new baseband related APIs.
Basically what I'm saying is that this project isn't feasible on Android or iPhone; there may be show stoppers even on Maemo/MeeGo, but at least there's a path to follow and a realistic possibility to get this app on the Ovi Store.