TxTy: Textable Walkie-Talkies

[Interestle]

The idea for this project is to create a system of textable walkie-talkies. By that, we're thinking to have two devices that preferably fit in the palm of a hand that can communicate using radio frequencies. This idea would be perfect for a pair of people who would wish to communicate silently, or have a simple message board when they're out of range of a cell tower. This would have value for hunters, campers, and back-packers alike.

Website: https://interestle.github.io/TxTy/

Objective: Build a pair of devices that can communicate with each other wirelessly. Something like this isn't really available, and having something unique would be really rewarding.

Market Impact: People need to communicate, and sometimes they need to do so silently, or if an immediate response isn't needed, then the message can wait. Not everyone has perfect access to a stable Wi-Fi, 4G, 5G, etc. connection, but they're close enough that radio would work perfectly for where they are. This product would be perfect for campers or hunters that need to speak, but would prefer a textual message system.

Monetary Items: Microcontroller: $5 - $20 Keyboard module: replacement blackberry keyboard? ~$25 Screen: ~$10-$20 Radio module: ~$10-$30 Batteries and chargers: $20?

Total per unit (worst case scenario): ~$100 Total per pair: $200

Challenges: Software

• Data transmission - What kind of libraries exist for radio communication
• Security - Can the data transmission be secure or encrypted
• Transferring data in a readable format, is ASCII too much?
• Storing messages - Is an additional peripheral needed to store messages?
• Properly buffering data
• Keeping the MCU from wasting excessive power. The battery needs to last.
• Handling Data transmission errors

Hardware

• Antenna - None of us are experts at wireless communication.
• Power Supply - We don't want to be plugged in, so we need batteries
• Screen - Different digital screens need different power levels and data transmission
• Keyboard - Small keyboards aren't readily available, but there are BlackBerry replacements
• MCU - Different models exist, one will work best for our project
• Interference - How badly are these modules affected by other wireless signals?

Proof of Concept We will have two devices with radio modules. The master device will send a byte of ASCII data to the slave device through the LoRa protocol, and the slave device will respond by lighting an led connected to the board. If time permits, we will have the slave device send the byte back to the master device.

Current Members: Colton Watson Seth Jackson Phelan Hobbs

Who we're looking for: Anyone looking to graduate with a degree in CS, CE, or EE. The project currently looks hardware heavy, but there are many opportunities to see code in a variety of ways such as encryption, data verification, interfaces, data protocols, and plenty more. This will be a challenging and rewarding project for those who are interested.

Who to contact: Colton Watson - colton.watson@utah.edu

[ColinPollard]

Colin Pollard, Jacob Bills.

Practical use of the project: This provides a text interface to communicate over when cellular communication is not available or practical.

Challenges: Ease of use, cost, size, range, longevity (battery).

Marketplace: Outdoorsy consumers, search and rescue, noise-limited environments where talking is limited (too loud or stealth operations).

Will we buy it: if it has good range and price, absolutely!

Improvements: Mesh networking could extend range between people, a phone case version that integrates with texting would add to ease of use, encryption and security improvements.

Super cool project!

[jason-zavala]

What is the practical use of this project? Being able to text nearby devices when cellular is not available.

What are the challenges we think of to implement this project? Cost is a big one and reliability.

What is the marketplace for this project? Apparently there is a big market for this. Hunters is a big one, outdoors people.

What to improve from an outsider's perspective? Maybe adding things in like encryption, or other security options. This is a cool idea and I am stoked to see how this pans out!

[salwab]

*practical in terms of communications in a short-range.

• some of the challenges would be wireless implementation and finding people who buy it.
• the marketplace: campers, hunters.
• No, because you don't really need it, there is wifi everywhere and its also expensive.
• make it more user friendly.

[MrYo531]

What is the practical use? If you want to text someone with a walkie talkie What are the challenges we think of to implement this project? Data transmission, but I think there's protocols for that. Security, make sure no one else can get your messages What is the marketplace for this projet? Hipsters that don't like phones Will we buy it? I have a phone What to improve from an outsider's perspective? This is a fair price, can it be any lower? How you guys plan to implement the networking if invovled?

[Huchimama]

VectorU (Scott Crowley, Aaron Tea) A text-able walkie talkie I cloud have used these many times while hunting. My two biggest complaints on walkie talkies have always been the rage and battery usage. I think success will be dependent on how good the marketing is. I would buy them to try them out. I would advise some kind of silent notification system. You don't want to be hunting and hear a beep or a vibrating notification.

[linnebach08]

Comment from Group HealthyBois (Nathan Hummel, Michael Linnebach, Brady Smith):

• What is the practical use? -- Could be used when hunting, camping in a remote location, or for military purposes
• What are the challenges we think of to implement this project? -- Developing the antenna to accurately receive the radio waves. -- Making your peripheral big enough to store the messages. -- Handling interference. -- Battery life on the device.
• What is the marketplace for this project? -- Sportmans warehouse or where other outdoor equipment is sold.
• Will we buy it? -- Probably not we aren't hunters or campers
• What to improve from an outsider's perspective? -- Silent notifications. -- Make it so some stuff shows up on the website before scrolling specifically the team members and abstract.

[bbleaptrot]

Comment from Group 5 (John, Luke, McKay, Benjamin): --Practical Use A silent to mostly silent communication system that can used in a variety of outdoor or indoor activities where cell phone reception is poor. --Challenges Size: If this product is too large and bulky people will not want to use it. --Marketplace Outdoorsmen, search and rescue teams, people living in places with poor phone reception --Purchase? We are split. Walkie Talkies are useful for camping and other outdoor activities. However, what are other benefits over the regular walkie talkie? --Improvements For the screen, will there be an easy to use UI to separate different group chats? Will it have a chat history? Include a voice-to-text AI in the event that the user is injured and cannot use the keyboard on the product.

[Durrantula]

Group 3 (Tristan Stotesbery, Spencer Durrant, Ben Van Hoose) The practical use is that we could use it for hunting, backcountry sports, search and rescue, military. Some challenges we see are if GPS is used then IP might get complicated, there might be a lot of small things that could get tricky. Keeping the size small could be hard. This is very similar to a pager, and there will be competition from that established technology. We would potentially buy it to go along with our water depth sensor as we hike into canyons. A visual would help and explain the differences from a pager.

[bcwadsworth]

Comment from Group 1 (Benjamin Wadsworth, Dalton Clift, Sam Hirsch):

What is the practical use? This seems to be useful for text-based communication in backcountry situations. It could potentially power a hiking IOT.

What are the challenges we think of to implement this project? Range might be an issue, especially with obstructions. It also appears to be oriented towards one-to-many communication, any sort of security/ message designation would need to be developed.

What is the marketplace for this project? The marketplace seems to be outdoors people.

Will we buy it? We give this a strong maybe. The overall extra functionality given by this solution would need to be worth the cost, we don't see the main portion of the project as providing enough value added over traditional methods.

What to improve from an outsider's perspective? It seems that there needs to be additional value added in order to provide a worthwhile product. Maybe working this into a "Camping IOT"?

[alexCharters]

Comment from Group 6 Emmanuel Lotubai, Brandon Chen, Alex Charters:

What is the practical use? Texting over radio waves. Useful for silent communication or transmitting text data.

What are the challenges we think of to implement this project?

• Cost and size.
• Security of transmission.
• Filtering out interference from the environment.

What is the marketplace for this project?

• Hunters, Hikers, Wilderness rescue. Also could be for fun.

Will we buy it? Yeah. Seems like a useful device.

What to improve from an outsider's perspective? Maybe consider a solar charging option. Fix typo in the abstract.

[kieblade]

Comment from group 9 Colton Watson, Phelan Hobbs, Seth Jackson

To Groups 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8: • what's wrong with your comment Nothing is wrong everything said was a valid criticism. Some things like user-friendly design will be considered even if not directly applicable. • what's correct with your comment

1. Cost – Keeping the cost low will be important especially for a device that isn’t as useful for a large amount of the population. It shouldn’t be too expensive.
2. Size – modules we are currently looking at should keep the device small.
3. Encryption/security – the LoRa modules we are currently looking at have some encryption and security options but it would be a good idea to research this issue.
4. Battery Life – You don’t want it to die on you. A possible solution is rechargeable batteries.

[BradySmith1019]

HealthyBois comment:

Is the prototype related to the project? Yes, the prototype seems to be related to the project. Maybe a little more detail would be nice as it's a little unclear what devices will be used in the prototype. Will we invest? Depends on what the prototypes look like.

[altonbill]

Is the prototype related to the project?

Yes, proving you can achieve this core function is a really good first step.

Is the prototype convincing for you to invest? Yes, I think this is an interesting idea and could be really popular if it was able to provide a reliable experience for its users

[MrYo531]

Is the prototype related to the project?

• Simple yet gets the point across. Good proof of concept.

Is the prototype convincing for you to invest?

• Sure

[alexCharters]

Is the prototype related to the project?

• Yes. what about more than two devices?

Is the prototype convincing for us to invest?

• Yes, if 2-way communication can be demonstrated.

[Durrantula]

Group 3's response Is the prototype related? Yes, the proof of concept demonstrates the core communication between devices is possible.

Is the prototype convincing to invest in? Yes, it covers the most important aspects of the project.

[YeZhou0226]

Is the prototype related to the project? Yes. Is the prototype convincing for you to invest? Yes, it comes up with basic function of the project.

[bbleaptrot]

Comments from Team 5 (Luke, Benjamin, John, Mckay): -Is this prototype related to the project?

Yes! This prototype, once completed, will confirm the possibility of creating a text based walkie talkie.

-Is the prototype convincing us to buy?

Yes! Completing the rest of the text-based walkie talkie after this prototype will become a matter of decreasing the size and cost of the device

[ColinPollard]

Is the prototype related to the project? Certainly.

Is the prototype convincing for us to invest? Yes. I would recommend defining the scope of the prototype functionality very precisely as in exactly what type of signal, protocol, etc.

[mfateh93]

Team 8 (Salwa, Joshua, Todd, Mohammed):

-Is this prototype related to the project? Yes and no. There might need to be an effort to describe/explain the prototype items better.

-Is the prototype convincing us to buy? No. I am not sure how these components are going to work together to represent a prototype. I would recommend re-writing the section to give more context about what and how each item is working individually and collectivaely.

[Huchimama]

vectoru (Aaron Tea, Scott Crowley) The prototype is related to the project but it could use some work. We think it needs to be more descriptive and clear what it will be.

[Sam3077]

Group 1 (Sam Hirsch, Dalton Clift, and Benjamin Wadsworth)

Is the prototype related to the project? Seems like a good prototype to demonstrate what your final goal is. The prototype does seem to be a fairly small scope.

Will we invest? Probably not. We're not sure what the market is for this product and this prototype isn't quite compelling enough to drive a market.