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Android application

The Audio-to-Tactile Android app connects to tactile devices over BLE. You can use the app to check the device microphone, battery level, configure algorithm tuning knobs, and so on.

Building

  1. Install and open Android Studio.

  2. In the project selection screen, click Open and select the extras/android folder.

  3. Select the release build under Build Variants.

  4. Run Build → Make Project. The resulting APK will be under extras/android/app/build/outputs/apk/release/.

App installation

The app requires an Android phone with Oreo 8.0.0 or later (API level 26).

First-time development prerequisites: Enable "developer mode" on your Android phone: go to Settings → About phone and tap Build number seven times. Return to the previous screen to find Developer options at the bottom (see Configure on-device developer options).

On your computer, install the adb Android Debug Bridge utility. Use a USB cable to connect your Android phone to your computer. Then install the APK on the phone with the ADB shell command

adb install AudioToTactile.apk

replacing "AudioToTactile.apk" with the path of APK to be installed.

If successful, adb will print "Performing Streamed Install, Success". On the phone, the installed "Audio-to-Tactile" app icon looks like this:

App icon image

Using the app

Connecting

With the tactile device turned on, open the Audio-to-Tactile app and press the "Connect" button. The app will show a list of found tactile devices. Note: For power efficiency, the tactile device does BLE advertising for only the first 5 minutes after it turns on. So if the connection screen doesn't show up, try turning the device off and on again, wait 5 seconds, then press "Connect" again.

Home screen

Once connected, the app shows a home screen. This displays the current battery voltage, temperature, the device name, and a scrolling input level graph from the device microphone. The scrolling graph is useful to check that the device is getting input at a reasonable gain. Note that the plot has about a 1 second delay.

App home screen

Other screens

Use the hamburger ☰ button in the upper-left corner to open the navigation drawer. You can reach all the tools in the app from here:

App tuning screen

  • Tuning: Adjust algorithm tuning knobs in real time.
  • Channel map: Change the gain individually for each tactor and configure which source plays on which tactor.
  • Pattern editor: Design and play tactile patterns on the device.
  • Firmware: Send a firmware update to the device over BLE.
  • Log: Diagnostic log messages.