Tuesday, September 26, 2017

SmartWatch as robot brain?

Our robot story so far has been about smartphones as robot brains. We want to make small robots and smartphones are a little too big. So here's looking at you, smartwatch. 30 dollars including postage buys a DZ09 smartwatch.

Photo: With straps removed and placed beside a smartphone:

Photo: On removing the straps I discover that the antenna is inside part of the strap.
So it gets this board mount:



First tests and impressions:

  • Works with a Vodafone NZ SIM card, in that I can send and receive txts. 
  • With the straps removed, to get a reasonable touch response, I need to also hold or touch the metal casing.
  • Needs a micro SD card before showing any storage space when connected with USB.
  • Good camera placement for a robot animal head. It looks out the top end parallel to the screen surface rather than at the usual 90 degrees perpendicular.
  • The "browser" icon starts an installation from the Internet. This "Library Update" ends with a message: "Net busy". I am trying variations on the "APN" configuration setting for Internet via cell network but with no result yet.
  • After much searching and reading, I am not sure if this is running an "Android Wear OS" or a "Nucleus OS". First experiment will be to try to program it with the Android Development Kit and see how far we can get.
Photo: of me taken with the DZ09:

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