This project involved developing a radio based paging system, designed for use by people with limited mobility. A bedside control unit is connected to a client patented sense pad which provides an ingenious method of detecting user input from people unable to use conventional keypads and buttons. The user is able to generate actions through simple gestures on the sense pad, triggering the sending of messages to the remote pager and providing infra-red control of equipment such as televisions.
IBEX provided the complete electronic hardware design and the basic embedded software design.
The electronic circuitry of the pager is designed so that all of the components are usually switched to an ultra-low power ‘sleep’ state, briefly powering up every few seconds to check for any new events via the radio link. This approach provided a massive increase in battery life between charges, allowing a smaller more lightweight battery to be used in the sleek pager design.
We incorporated a solid-state audio message playback solution in the bedside control unit which provided audio confirmation of a users actions.
In addition, an infra-red learning input and transmit output for use with domestic frequency infra-red control signals was also incorporated.
IBEX provided the client with the embedded software as a basic template, controlling all of the functionality ready for the client’s inhouse developers to then expand it to provide the fully completed operating functionality.
