InfraRed Communications for Captioning on Glass

This repository holds the Arduino code required to simulate real-time captioning using smart glasses.

List of Materials

You will need:

• An Android device (a Google Pixel running LineageOS was used for experimentation)
• A USB OTG connector to connect your Android device to an Arduino
• 6 Arduino boards of any kind (recommended: 5 Arduino Nanos + 1 Seeeduino ADK Main Board)
• 4 IR Receiver Diodes (went with TSOP38238)
• 1 IR LED (went with a 950mm from SparkFun)
• Wires and resistors as necessary to keep your hardware from shorting.

The hardware should be set up to look something like this:

Design

This system works using a primary/secondary approach. One board mounted to the smartglasses outputs a constant IR signal, focused in the user's head orientation. Secondary boards connected to IR receiver diodes receive the IR signal from the glasses, and output signals to a primary board connected to the Android device. (The primary/secondary board approach was implemented to circumvent some limitations in the Arduino-IRremote library involving multiple IR receivers). The primary board reads the secondary boards' outputs, and writes to the serial port so the Android can read it. The Android device reads from the serial port (see the Android app repository for more information), and then sends messages to the smartglasses via Bluetooth. The smartglasses then display the transmitted messages on the user's field of vision, simulating a real-time captioning experience.