External USB devices to Android phones?

Question

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.

Answer 1

heya,

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

Answer 2

This guy has modded his Nexus One to work as a USB host and has done several cool things.

He uses a USB keyboard and runs a movie from his USB stick. Then he runs a webcam through the phone and displays it on the computer and even runs an entire desktop-based Linux distro from his phone onto his computer monitor.

Pretty amazing stuff.

http://sven.killig.de/android/N1/2.2/usb_host/