I would like to use Android phones as a way to do some processing and visualization of a sensor that would be attached to the USB port on the phone. The sensor would plug into the micro/mini USB, and then I would need to read the incoming data from the USB serial port.
Is this possible? I have heard of people using Android to steer robots and other applications, but I have never seen Android being used as a host for a USB sensor. I can't seem to find any official documentation on the subject either, but it seems like it would be a very useful tool. Any thoughts, links, or information on this matter? Thanks.
Plug and playAn OTG-compatible cable like this lets you plug any full-size flash drive into an Android phone with a USB-C port. Similar adapters are available for phones with Micro-USB ports. Thanks to a specification called USB On-the-Go (OTG for short), you can add more storage just by plugging in a flash drive.
How to connect a USB flash storage device to your Android phone. Plug your USB OTG cable into your Android phone. Plug your USB flash storage device into the female connector of your OTG cable. The file explorer on your phone should automatically pop up.
Usually, when you try to connect an OTG, you get an alert “Enable OTG”. This is when you need to turn the OTG option ON. To do this, navigate through Settings > Connected devices > OTG. Here, click on the On/Off toggle to activate it.
What you're looking for is USB Host support.
There's an open issue in Android's issue tracker here for it:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=738&colspec=ID%20Type%20Status%20Owner%20Summary%20Stars
and it's actually ranked 7th, in terms of "stars" (think votes, by the people), at 1110 stars. You can log in and star it yourself, both to vote for it, and to receive email updates.
There was also work on a patch back in February, 2010:
http://groups.google.com/group/android-kernel/browse_thread/thread/c8471573d7553331
and there's info on using a USB keyboard here:
http://www.tombom.co.uk/blog/?p=124
Perhaps you can find something for your sensor there?
This is cool =):
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/25286/?a=fb
Cheers, Victor
should be possible, look up android.hardware.usb.UsbDevice @ http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/usb/UsbDevice.html
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