Som's Virtual Space

Maestros eUno R10 - A Comprehensive Telecardiology Solution

2012-01-03T10:03:00.000+05:30

It is an established fact that coronary heart disease is one of the leading causes of death across the globe. Every second in some part of the world a person suffers from chest pain or has a heart attack. It is commonly observed that these victims waste substantial time before seeking medical help. This could be due to sheer ignorance, lack of knowledge or the absence of an efficient medical support system.

In these situations, as the saying goes ‘time is muscle’. As time progresses the deficiency of oxygen causes irreversible damage to heart muscles. This can cause abnormal contractions of ventricles and eventually result in cardiac arrest. Hence it is extremely necessary to recognize these cardiac abnormalities early and seek timely medical assistance.

eUno R-10 coupled with the Maestros Rhythms24x7 web Based Platform and any supported Smart phones is a system which has been designed keeping the above points in mind, and provides an ideal telecardiology platform for remote ECG analysis and real time reporting from the doctor for the attending paramedic or the general practitioner.

This innovative product eUno R10 enables the transmission of real time 10 seconds – 12 channel ECG from a highly portable ECG device known as R10(designed, developed and manufactured indigenously by Maestros Mediline Systems Ltd ), directly to the doctors mobile phone from almost anywhere. This device is also capable of pulling in the reports and interpretation that the doctor does from a remote location and also printing them locally at the location where the patient is being attended.

Other than the real time connectivity features that the device supports, it also has the flexibility to store up to 20 patients records and is also capable of interfacing with the PC for further storage and archiving.
In brief, this device has all the features packed into a very small package which are present in bigger and bulky ECG machines along with the ability to communicate with the specialist in real time and the ability to be carried very easily.

In ambulatory cases, the device also has the ability to send along with the ECG data, also the location data, which the doctor can view remotely on their mobile phone. The device in itself is CE-1293 certified which means that the precision of the ECG which is captured can be compared with the best in the world.

Apart from viewing and reporting ECG’s sent by this device from their phones, the doctors also avail of a web based portal website, where they can keep a track of the patients they had attended along with their complete details, and if needed can also dig down into the past history of the same.

The basic aim of the device is to ensure a reliable way in which specialists can immediately connect to their cardiac patients as and when needed even if they are away from their respective hospitals.

Today, this mobile telecardiology solution is implemented in well known establishments like Nanavati Hospital(Mumbai), Riddhi Vinayak Critical Care(Mumbai), Jaslok Hospital(Mumbai),Pramila Hospital(Mumbai),Orange city Hospital(Nagpur) to name a few. Other than this, there are also various ECG and door to door ecg collection camps that are being conducted by independent organizations like ExpressECG in ahmedabad using this platform.

For more information, you can also visit www.rhythms24x7.com

Recently the product has also been awarded the Frost & Sullivan award for excellence in innovation.

Getting the android Bluetooth to work

2011-05-30T17:54:00.001+05:30

Recently I was working on this telemedicine project, where I was supposed to get 180 seconds single lead ecg data from the user who is using our Bluetooth enabled Event Loop Recorders through his cell phones Bluetooth receiver and transmit it over to our server along with sending a mail to the doctor all in realtime. Now a difficult aspect of it was surprisingly the Bluetooth part, especially the device discovery part.

After struggling for about 2 days, I finally wrapped it into an activity class and made it reusable, activity class because, tomorrow I might want to have a more good looking Device Discovery screen than what I have today.

Here’s the complete listing of the class,

package com.BTWrapper;

import java.io.IOException;

import java.util.Set;

import java.util.UUID;

import android.app.ListActivity;

import android.bluetooth.BluetoothAdapter;

import android.bluetooth.BluetoothDevice;

import android.bluetooth.BluetoothSocket;

import android.content.BroadcastReceiver;

import android.content.Context;

import android.content.Intent;

import android.content.IntentFilter;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.view.Menu;

import android.view.MenuItem;

import android.view.View;

import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;

import android.widget.ListView;

import android.widget.Toast;

// =============== SOM, This class is meant for wrapping the Bluetooth connecting interface provided by android devices.......

// =============== Basically is a state machine, and the communications will happen in a separate thread so as not to obstruct the main UI

public class BTWrapperActivity extends ListActivity{

static public final int REQUEST_CONNECT_BT = 0x2300;

static private final int REQUEST_ENABLE_BT = 0x1000;

static private BluetoothAdapter mBluetoothAdapter = null;

static private ArrayAdapter<String> mArrayAdapter = null;

//static private Set<BluetoothDevice> btDevices = null;

static private ArrayAdapter<BluetoothDevice> btDevices = null;//BluetoothDevice[] btDevices = null;

// Unique UUID for this application, Basically the SPP Profile

private static final UUID SPP_UUID =

// UUID.fromString("fa87c0d0-afac-11de-8a39-0800200c9a66");

UUID.fromString("00001101-0000-1000-8000-00805F9B34FB");

static private BluetoothSocket mbtSocket = null;

@Override

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

// Change the title of the activity

setTitle("Bluetooth Devices");

// Get the List of paired and available devices

try {

if(initDevicesList() != 0) {

this.finish();

return;

}

} catch(Exception ex) {

this.finish();

return;

}

// Register the Broadcast receiver for handling new BT device discovery

IntentFilter btIntentFilter = new IntentFilter(BluetoothDevice.ACTION_FOUND);

registerReceiver(mBTReceiver, btIntentFilter);

}

public static BluetoothSocket getSocket() {

return mbtSocket;

}

private void flushData() {

try {

if(mbtSocket != null) {

mbtSocket.close();

mbtSocket = null;

}

if(mBluetoothAdapter != null) {

mBluetoothAdapter.cancelDiscovery();

}

if(btDevices != null) {

btDevices.clear();

btDevices = null;

}

if(mArrayAdapter != null) {

mArrayAdapter.clear();

mArrayAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged();

mArrayAdapter.notifyDataSetInvalidated();

mArrayAdapter = null;

}

finalize();

} catch(Exception ex){}

catch (Throwable e) {}

}

// Som ==== This method will Connect to our SPP Bluetooth Device after discovering and pairing if required

// Do not forget to add the permission for Bluetooth to use this method

// Also this method is very tightly coupled with the above method, for getting the status of bt connection

private int initDevicesList() {

// Flush any Pending Data

flushData();

// Get the Bluetooth Adaptor of the device

mBluetoothAdapter = BluetoothAdapter.getDefaultAdapter();

if(mBluetoothAdapter == null) {

// Weird Condition ==== Implies that the device does not have a bluetooth module ?????

Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Bluetooth not supported!!", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

return -1;

}

if(mBluetoothAdapter.isDiscovering()) {

mBluetoothAdapter.cancelDiscovery();

}

mArrayAdapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(getApplicationContext(), android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1);

setListAdapter(mArrayAdapter);

// get the list of devices already paired

Intent enableBtIntent = new Intent(BluetoothAdapter.ACTION_REQUEST_ENABLE);

try {

startActivityForResult(enableBtIntent, REQUEST_ENABLE_BT);

} catch(Exception ex){

//ex.getStackTrace();

return -2;

}

Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Getting all available Bluetooth Devices", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

return 0;

} // End getDeviceList

@Override

protected void onActivityResult(int reqCode, int resultCode, Intent intent) {

super.onActivityResult(reqCode, resultCode, intent);

switch(reqCode) {

case REQUEST_ENABLE_BT:

if(resultCode == RESULT_OK) {

// Start getting the paired devices list

Set<BluetoothDevice> btDeviceList = mBluetoothAdapter.getBondedDevices();

// If there are paired devices

try {

if (btDeviceList.size() > 0) {

// Loop through paired devices

for (BluetoothDevice device : btDeviceList) {

if(btDeviceList.contains(device) == false) {

btDevices.add(device); // Add the device to the device list

// Add the name and address to an array adapter to show in a ListView

mArrayAdapter.add(device.getName() + "\n" + device.getAddress() /*+ "\n" + "Status : Paired"*/);

//mArrayAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged();

mArrayAdapter.notifyDataSetInvalidated();

}

} catch(Exception ex){}

}

break;

}

// Also register for new devices which are discovered

mBluetoothAdapter.startDiscovery();

} // End onActivityResult

private final BroadcastReceiver mBTReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver() {

@Override

public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {

String action = intent.getAction();

// When discovery finds a device

if (BluetoothDevice.ACTION_FOUND.equals(action)) {

// Get the BluetoothDevice object from the Intent

BluetoothDevice device = intent.getParcelableExtra(BluetoothDevice.EXTRA_DEVICE);

try{

// No paired device found

if(btDevices == null )

{

btDevices = new ArrayAdapter<BluetoothDevice>(getApplicationContext(), android.R.id.text1);

}

// Ensure non repetability

if( btDevices.getPosition(device) < 0 ) {

btDevices.add(device);

// Add the name and address to an array adapter to show in a ListView

mArrayAdapter.add(device.getName() + "\n" + device.getAddress() +"\n" /*+ "Status : Unpaired"*/);

//mArrayAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged();

mArrayAdapter.notifyDataSetInvalidated();

}

} catch(Exception ex)

{

//ex.fillInStackTrace();

}

};

@Override

protected void onListItemClick(ListView l, View v, final int position, long id) {

super.onListItemClick(l, v, position, id);

// Dont proceed if the bluetooth adapter is not valid

if(mBluetoothAdapter == null) {

return;

}

// Cancel the dicovery if still going on

if(mBluetoothAdapter.isDiscovering()) {

mBluetoothAdapter.cancelDiscovery();

}

// Try to connect with the selected device,

Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Connecting to " + btDevices.getItem(position).getName() + "," + btDevices.getItem(position).getAddress(), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

// made the thread different as the connecting proceedure might break down the system

Thread connectThread = new Thread(new Runnable() {

@Override

public void run() {

try {

mbtSocket = btDevices.getItem(position).createRfcommSocketToServiceRecord(SPP_UUID);

mbtSocket.connect();

} catch(IOException ex) {

//Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Unable to connect to " + btDevices.getItem(position).getName(), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

runOnUiThread(socketErrorRunnable);

//Handler myHandler = new Handler();

//myHandler.post(socketErrorRunnable);

try {

mbtSocket.close();

} catch (IOException e) {

// TODO Auto-generated catch block

//e.printStackTrace();

}

mbtSocket = null;

return;

} finally {

runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {

@Override

public void run() {

//flushData();

finish();

}

});

}

});

connectThread.start();

}

private Runnable socketErrorRunnable = new Runnable() {

@Override

public void run() {

Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Cannot establish connection", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

mBluetoothAdapter.startDiscovery();

}

};

@Override

public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {

super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);

// Add the menu options

menu.add(0, Menu.FIRST, Menu.NONE, "Refresh Scanning");

return true;

}

@Override

public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {

super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);

switch(item.getItemId()) {

case Menu.FIRST:

initDevicesList();

break;

}

return true;

}

} // End of class definition

Here’s an example of using it:

1. Invoking the activity

// Global declarations

private static BluetoothSocket mbtSocket;

private static InputStream mbtInputStream;

private static OutputStream mbtOutputStream;

// Do this when you want to start discovering

Intent BTIntent = new Intent(this, BTWrapperActivity.class);

this.startActivityForResult(BTIntent, BTWrapperActivity.REQUEST_CONNECT_BT);

2. Getting the connected socket(Remember as found in a variety of other phones, the Bluetooth connection appears as a socket stream)

protected void onActivityResult(int reqCode, int resultCode, Intent intent) {

super.onActivityResult(reqCode, resultCode, intent);

switch(reqCode) {

case BTWrapperActivity.REQUEST_CONNECT_BT:

mbtSocket = BTWrapperActivity.getSocket();

}

3. Transferring data to the remote device

private int sendBTData(int[] dataBytes, int dataLen) {

int dataCount = 0;

try {

for(dataCount = 0; dataCount < dataLen; dataCount++) {

mbtOutputStream.write(dataBytes[dataCount]);

}

}catch(Exception e) {

return -1;

}

return 0;

}

5. Reading data from the remote device

while(true) {

try {

if(mbtInputStream == null || mbtOutputStream == null) {

break;

}

dataBytes[dataCount] = mbtInputStream.read(); //This call will block until it gets something from the stream, will return -1 at

// end of Stream or throw an IOEXception

} catch(IOException ex) {}

}

Droid Locator - Simply Locate Someone!!

2011-04-20T21:47:00.004+05:30

Click Here to find it on the market.

Description of the App

Locate any device on google map in realtime, get your driving directions from your location to your friends location.

WORKS WITH ALL GSM(Not Tested for CDMA) DEVICES (Android v.2.1 and up).

IF YOU HAVE DIFFICULTIES SETTING IT UP, PLEASE MAIL ME…

Droid Locator allows you to locate any Android device by simply simply selecting their number. If Droid Locator is not installed on the remote device, then an invitation will be sent to it automatically.
Features:
* You can force location updates remotely at any time without the user having to take any actions and it does not matter if the application is running or not
* The ability to send a "SMS Ping", which will force an automatic location update of the remote device.
* Even if the phone is rebooted, Droid Locator will automatically resume tracking and updating its position!
* The ability to automatically send sms’s along with the location details of the phone when sim card changed or phone is stolen.
* There are no limits to the number of users to track

Droid Locator allows you to track you to know where your loved ones are with relation to you, and you can leverage all the google maps functionality like getting the driving direction, proximity to your location etc. You can now find out where they are, at anytime, as long as they have their Android phones with droid locator installed on it. You can also see yourself on the map and see nearby places and the proximity of the person you are trying to locate. Droid Locator also has the ability to send an SOS message along with its location details in case of the device getting stolen and sim card changed event.
How to make Droid Locator Work:
->Install Droid Locator.
->To get a remote location update, Enter the remote devices number or select one from your contacts and then click on Locate. The remote location would show in a map if the remote device has droid locator installed, or an invitation will be sent out to the remote device.
->Generate your friend list by selecting Broadcast settings and entering or selecting contacts from your contact list, these will be the numbers used for your location broadcast or SOS in case of sim change or phne getting stolen.
->Sim Track Settings: Here enter the sms that should go out to all the people you added in your list of friends, in case the sim is changed in the phone.(The IMSI number will also be sent along with that text), so essentially you will have the new number, IMSI and your custom message sent out to your friends as an SOS.
->Display Location: This will show your current location on the map.
->Broadcast: This will broadcast your location to everyone in your friend list in the form of SMS. You can also Share your location info in facebook, twitter or other social sites, along with having an option of mailing it or sending it through bluetooth.

Please share your comments and ratings...

Stm32 I2C PCF8563 Blockup

2011-03-12T19:09:00.000+05:30

After almost 27days of my current project, yesterday I was reviewing my efforts, thought I did a neat job and did it really quick.

-Interfaced a 320x240 TFT and SRAM with DMA and FSMC,
-Wrote the Driver and the filtering logic for handling the touch screen IC,
-Wrote the Drivers for handling internal and external Flash ( IAP & SPI ),
-Managed to remove the TFT flickering issue whenever a SRAM access was done, since the CS of TFT did not work and the WR/ signal was shared between both the peripherals, so wrote a pretty neat state machine and filtered out the unwanted clock pulses from the TFT.
-Mixed C and C++ to produce a pretty neat GUI and event handling mechanism for the widgets.
-Managed to interface my android phone along with the board on bluetooth and get the ECG reproduction on my phone.

I managed to take on all the above relatively quicker with respect to my deadline requirements, until i realised that I took almost 6 days upon this stupid problem of interfacing an I2C based commonly used RTC chip - PCF8563....man this was the greatest shocker!!
That was when I decided to write this article, I know it's not something you write about, I2C interfacing is one of the most common things that an embedded guy does......But still I will write and explain whats so special with STM32 especially when you are doing a lot of things with the small guy!!

Here's the source code, look out for something special, if you can guess it, then trust me you are doing good. i know the codes not perfect with all the redundant loops, but in my case, no worries I have a watchdog, and also i do very less transactions on i2c bus -----

#include "includes.h"

TypedefRTCStruct RTCStruct;

/*********************************************************************************************************************
Function Name : InitI2C
Parameters : None
Description : Configures the I2C to be used for interfacing with the RTC
Author : Som
**********************************************************************************************************************/
void InitI2C( void )
{
I2C_InitTypeDef I2C_InitStructure;

// Enable the clock for I2C1
RCC_APB1PeriphClockCmd( RCC_APB1Periph_I2C1, ENABLE );

I2C_DeInit( I2C1 );

/* I2C configuration */
I2C_InitStructure.I2C_Mode = I2C_Mode_I2C;
I2C_InitStructure.I2C_DutyCycle = I2C_DutyCycle_2;
I2C_InitStructure.I2C_OwnAddress1 = PCF8563_SLAVE_ADDRESS;
I2C_InitStructure.I2C_Ack = I2C_Ack_Enable;
I2C_InitStructure.I2C_AcknowledgedAddress = I2C_AcknowledgedAddress_7bit;
I2C_InitStructure.I2C_ClockSpeed = I2C_Speed;

/* I2C Peripheral Enable */
I2C_Cmd(I2C1, ENABLE);

/* Apply I2C configuration after enabling it */
I2C_Init(I2C1, &I2C_InitStructure);
}

/*******************************************************
* Name:I2C_8563_PageWrite
* input:unsigned char* pBuffer, unsigned char WriteAddr, unsigned char NumByteToWrite
* output:none
* Author : Somdutta roy
*********************************************************/
void I2C_8563_BufferWrite(unsigned char *pBuffer, unsigned char WriteAddr, unsigned short NumByteToWrite)
{
/* FSMC Clock Disable */
RCC_AHBPeriphClockCmd(RCC_AHBPeriph_FSMC, DISABLE);

// Initialise the I2C Bus
InitI2C();

/* Wait if bus is busy */
while(I2C_GetFlagStatus(I2C1, I2C_FLAG_BUSY));

/* Send STRAT condition */
I2C_GenerateSTART(I2C1, ENABLE);

/* Test on EV5 and clear it */
while(!I2C_CheckEvent(I2C1, I2C_EVENT_MASTER_MODE_SELECT));

/* Send address for write */
I2C_Send7bitAddress(I2C1, PCF8563_SLAVE_ADDRESS, I2C_Direction_Transmitter);

/* Test on EV6 and clear it */
while(!I2C_CheckEvent(I2C1, I2C_EVENT_MASTER_TRANSMITTER_MODE_SELECTED));

/* Send the EEPROM's internal address to write to */
I2C_SendData(I2C1, WriteAddr);

/* Test on EV8 and clear it */
while(!I2C_CheckEvent(I2C1, I2C_EVENT_MASTER_BYTE_TRANSMITTED));

/* Send the byte to be written */

for (short i = 0; i < NumByteToWrite; i++) { I2C_SendData(I2C1, pBuffer[i]); /* Test on EV8 and clear it */ while(!I2C_CheckEvent(I2C1, I2C_EVENT_MASTER_BYTE_TRANSMITTED)); } /* Send STOP condition */ I2C_GenerateSTOP(I2C1, ENABLE); /*De inittialise the I2C Bus*/ I2C_DeInit( I2C1 ); // Disable the clock for I2C1 RCC_APB1PeriphClockCmd( RCC_APB1Periph_I2C1, DISABLE ); /* FSMC Clock Enable */
RCC_AHBPeriphClockCmd(RCC_AHBPeriph_FSMC, ENABLE);
}

/******************************************************************************
* name: 2C_8563_BufferRead
* input: pBuffer read to it,ReadAddr read address,NumByteToRead the number
* of ready to read
* output: None
* Author : Somdutta Roy
*******************************************************************************/
void I2C_8563_BufferRead(unsigned char* pBuffer, unsigned char ReadAddr, u16 NumByteToRead)
{
/* FSMC Clock Disable */
RCC_AHBPeriphClockCmd(RCC_AHBPeriph_FSMC, DISABLE);

// Initialise the I2C Bus
InitI2C();

/* Wait if bus is busy */
while(I2C_GetFlagStatus(I2C1, I2C_FLAG_BUSY));

/* Send START condition */
I2C_GenerateSTART(I2C1, ENABLE);

/* Test on EV5 and clear it */
while(!I2C_CheckEvent(I2C1, I2C_EVENT_MASTER_MODE_SELECT));

/* Send EEPROM address for write */
I2C_Send7bitAddress(I2C1, PCF8563_SLAVE_ADDRESS, I2C_Direction_Transmitter);

/* Test on EV6 and clear it */
while(!I2C_CheckEvent(I2C1, I2C_EVENT_MASTER_TRANSMITTER_MODE_SELECTED));

/* Clear EV6 by setting again the PE bit */
I2C_Cmd(I2C1, ENABLE);

/* Send the EEPROM's internal address to write to */
I2C_SendData(I2C1, ReadAddr);

/* Test on EV8 and clear it */
while(!I2C_CheckEvent(I2C1, I2C_EVENT_MASTER_BYTE_TRANSMITTED));

/* Send STRAT condition a second time */
I2C_GenerateSTART(I2C1, ENABLE);

/* Test on EV5 and clear it */
while(!I2C_CheckEvent(I2C1, I2C_EVENT_MASTER_MODE_SELECT));

/* Send 8563 address for read */
I2C_Send7bitAddress(I2C1, PCF8563_SLAVE_ADDRESS, I2C_Direction_Receiver);

/* Test on EV6 and clear it */
while(!I2C_CheckEvent(I2C1, I2C_EVENT_MASTER_RECEIVER_MODE_SELECTED));

/* While there is data to be read */
while(NumByteToRead)
{
if(NumByteToRead == 1)
{
/* Disable Acknowledgement */
I2C_AcknowledgeConfig(I2C1, DISABLE);

/* Send STOP Condition */
I2C_GenerateSTOP(I2C1, ENABLE);
}

/* Test on EV7 and clear it */
if(I2C_CheckEvent(I2C1, I2C_EVENT_MASTER_BYTE_RECEIVED))
{
/* Read a byte from the EEPROM */
*pBuffer = I2C_ReceiveData(I2C1);

/* Point to the next location where the byte read will be saved */
pBuffer++;

/* Decrement the read bytes counter */
NumByteToRead--;
}
}

/*De inittialise the I2C Bus*/
I2C_DeInit( I2C1 );

// Disable the clock for I2C1
RCC_APB1PeriphClockCmd( RCC_APB1Periph_I2C1, DISABLE );

/* FSMC Clock Enable */
RCC_AHBPeriphClockCmd(RCC_AHBPeriph_FSMC, ENABLE);
}

/*******************************************************
* Name:ReadRTCDateTime
* input:None
* output:none
* Author : Somdutta roy
*********************************************************/
void ReadRTCDateTime( void )
{
unsigned char ucaBuf[16];

I2C_8563_BufferRead( ucaBuf, 2, 7 );

RTCStruct.ucSec = BcdToBin(ucaBuf[0]);
RTCStruct.ucMin = BcdToBin(ucaBuf[1] & 0x7F );
RTCStruct.ucHour = BcdToBin(ucaBuf[2] & 0x3F );
RTCStruct.ucDay = BcdToBin(ucaBuf[3] & 0x3F );
RTCStruct.ucMonth = BcdToBin(ucaBuf[5] & 0x1F );
RTCStruct.ucYear = BcdToBin(ucaBuf[6] & 0xFF );

GlobalBlockingDelay( 2 );
}

/*******************************************************
* Name:SetRTCDateTime
* input:None
* output:none
* Author : Somdutta roy
*********************************************************/
unsigned char SetRTCDateTime( void )
{
unsigned char ucaBuf[16];

if (IsValidDateTime( &RTCStruct ) == FALSE)
{
return 0;
}

ucaBuf[0] = 0;
ucaBuf[1] = 0;
ucaBuf[2] = 0;
ucaBuf[3] = BinToBcd( RTCStruct.ucMin );
ucaBuf[4] = BinToBcd( RTCStruct.ucHour );
ucaBuf[5] = BinToBcd( RTCStruct.ucDay );
ucaBuf[6] = 0;
ucaBuf[7] = BinToBcd( RTCStruct.ucMonth );
ucaBuf[8] = BinToBcd( RTCStruct.ucYear ) ;

ucaBuf[9] = 0x00;
ucaBuf[10] = 0x00;
ucaBuf[11] = 0x01;
ucaBuf[12] = 0x00;

ucaBuf[13] = 0x00;
ucaBuf[14] = 0x00;
ucaBuf[15] = 0x00;

I2C_8563_BufferWrite( ucaBuf, 0, 16);

GlobalBlockingDelay( 2 );

return 1;
}

/*******************************************************
* Name:IsValidDateTime
* input:None
* output:none
* Author : Somdutta roy
*********************************************************/
unsigned char IsValidDateTime(TypedefRTCStruct *pRTCStruct)
{
unsigned char RTC_MonthVal[] = {31, 28, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31};

if( ( short )pRTCStruct->ucYear < RTC_YEAR_MIN || pRTCStruct->ucYear > RTC_YEAR_MAX)
{
return 0;
}

if (pRTCStruct->ucYear == RTC_YEAR_MIN)
{
if ( ( short )pRTCStruct->ucMonth < 0) { return 0; } else if( ( short )pRTCStruct->ucDay < 0) { return 0; } } if((pRTCStruct->ucMonth < 1) || (pRTCStruct->ucMonth > 12))
{
return 0;
}

if((pRTCStruct->ucDay < 1) || (pRTCStruct->ucDay > 31))
{
return FALSE;
}

if( pRTCStruct->ucDay > RTC_MonthVal[pRTCStruct->ucMonth - 1])
{
if(pRTCStruct->ucMonth == 2)
{
//if (IsLeapYear( pRTCStruct->ucYear))
if( pRTCStruct->ucYear % 4 != 0 )
{
if (pRTCStruct->ucDay > 29 )
{
return 0;
}
}
else if (pRTCStruct->ucDay > 28 )
{
return 0;
}
}
else
{
return 0;
}
}

if ((pRTCStruct->ucHour > 23) || (pRTCStruct->ucMin > 59) || (pRTCStruct->ucSec > 59) )
{
return 0;
}

return 1;
}

Well looks like a very simple snippet of code doesn't it, but reality check is that i took 6 working days on this, even after implementing the same stuff so many times starting from 8051 to arm9 linux and wince based boards.

Notice the code in italics, i forgot to stop the FSMC clock, and stm32 has its limitation that I2C and FSMC do not work together, you need to time multiplex them. The fact is as we embedded systems developers move ahead with more faster and powerful micro controllers, we tend to forget our roots, stuffs we learnt when we had the humble 8051 cores to play with, Timing Timing and more Timing!! Bus Timings are the way to go in embedded systems.

My Ongoing project

2011-03-07T14:16:00.001+05:30

A short demo of my ongoing Project, the development of an embedded device which acquires the ecg and transmits it to the doctor in real time via GSM / Bluetooth etc ( No more Details in here!! ).

In this video, I am registering a patient and sending his ECG live on to my android phone over Bluetooth.

Really enjoying writing the firmware for the board right from the scratch handling touch screen, designing my own UI, and the communication channels.....

The story of my life rediscovered

2010-12-27T01:15:00.000+05:30

Here i am writing after a very very long time, it's been a really hectic one month albeit a beautiful one at that, hard to believe that I am married and am right now all cuddled up in my room with that special angel who just came down for me, but hey this x'mas this is the divine gift that I could get from the heavens and from my parents. Its so amazing, this institution of marriage which basically brings 2 souls living apart for a major part of their lives in their own independent entity suddenly find themselves wrapped up in a beautiful intertwined cocoon. It all started with harmless chatting, almost 10 years ago, when we were just making friends. Things were actually going nowhere, my angel went her way, i went about my way, life just went on. We went after our professional aspirations did a lot of other right and wrong things in life, and then as destiny would have it, my angel comes to Mumbai, gives me a call, giving me a small spark which just started to ignite my lonely bushes. Electronics and software took a backseat. But I guess, the divine entity had different ideas for both of us and my angel parted ways with me to make her career, and me to make mine. Electronics and software again took a front seat, till another phone call came my way, this time to give a huge spark to my lonely bushes, and actually put it on fire. Still remember that dinner that we had, which I guess changed it all. MAN O MAN, can I ever forget that dinner, I kept on watching the soccer match between arsenal and MU, and my angel kept on talking of life after love. Then suddenly my engagement came along, life took a turn, got one of the most beautiful projects in terms of professional aspirations involving ECG's and telemedicine and got a chance to write really good softwares, this was what I always aspired to have, angel joined times, both of us got to do things which we loved doing both professionally and personally.
I still remember the times when I used to come from work, look at the moon and think of life gone and life now, tonight I am seeing my angel sleeping right besides me, with a guilty feeling that she could not keep herself awake to see me writing this blog, something she was always interested in, man can i ever be able to stay without this feeling of being loved by someone so sweet and tender.

FINALLY I BELIEVE LOVE HAPPENS,

Its how we define it, my definition of love was never ever clear, but my angel cleared it for me without ever uttering it, love is defined by just that feeling of being bounded in a strange and mystical world, where you care and get worried for someone else, and you want to do and let that someone do whatever that someone wants to do.

And I guess that is the simplest definition of love, isn't that the reason our parents loved us for so long!!

Love story combined with Mobile ECG.....2 beautiful things happening in life

2010-09-01T12:09:00.000+05:30

Whooooooooooooooooooooooosh, the past few months have really been hectic and ofcourse a persons most beautiful times, finally a beautiful angel ( and angel she has to be ), choosed me to be her better half...god knows how this miracle happened over that one round of dinner that I had with her, and man did things move from there, 3 months from that both of us got engaged.

I always beleived in coincidences, and as a matter of fact, there were so many things that kept on happening in life and kept proving me right every time about my belief in coincidences. I guess one of the biggest thing which happened in my life was that shobha did come back to my life(came back, well one big story which will take up a blog of it's own, guess that will come next).

Anyway talking of coincidences, here I got engaged with my lady, and almost immediately got to work directly with an M2M project and that too involving telemedicine, I guess one of the most dynamic fields where medical electronics, doctors and communication advances work together to actually towards making the society a better one and bringing a person more closer to his doctor.

The project I am working on is one of the more challenging projects that I have worked for till date, it's such a beautifully simple and yet complicated project in terms of development, and more so I am getting a chance to work with the experts in the domain. The overall concept is basically taking the ecg of a patient and transferring it to the doctor with the minimum latency time. Along with this, the ECG data is also stored and redrawn whenever needed in a web based portal, so that doctors/specialists can view it whenever needed. As a matter of fact we have acheived this feat of transferring data in less than 5 minutes from anywhere. Simple model, yet having the power to change the way doctors connect with their patients and vice versa. In technical terminology, this is an always live stuff, where whenever a patient needs medical assistance, he/she could readily get it using this device. Currently we have built this device for communicating via a phone line and a GSM network.

Not only this, the GSM device is also capable of pinpointing the patients loacation. Such devices go a long way in ambulatory services.

Portal :
http://www.rhythms24x7.com/

I am writing this blog after a long time, not because I had nothing to get excited but because everyday newer excitements came along life.

By the way, talking of coincidences, I know its trivial, but it's still cool, my ladys family are mainly into medicines and doctors..........;)

Basic Object Oriented Design methodologies

2009-11-11T22:44:00.050+05:30

Today I was just revisiting the design patterns which are commonly used in the object oriented paradigm. Suddenly I found that even after spending so much time( and so much time coding around ), I was unable to recollect a few commonly used patterns. I know it's common, I mean not always does one keep coding around and implement these stuffs and over a period of time, all though you apparently seem to know the concepts, but you sort of get all confused when you really want to apply them. So finally I decided to write this blog on this topic for people like me who know the stuff but have spent quite some time without using the methodologies, especially true I guess if you are lost in an embedded world for some time. But let's also clear the mist that, this is by no means supposed to replace the traditional books written by the gurus and the experienced programmers over the years. You have got to know the insights before you start playing around with the methodology.

Basically design patterns are nothing but experiences of programmers accumulated over long periods of time by experienced programmers( specially from the feedbacks of guys who take the handover from the senior pros ). Everyone who have done their bit in coding knows that taking a handover and working your way out with the code in a tight deadline schedule is more traumatizing and challenging than actually writing the code from the scratch. In fact sometimes the project manager actually decides to scrap the old code and write the code from scratch, but this is a very precarious balancing act as the man/hour cost of the previously written code gets nullified and on top the new code writing schedule can disturb the on going processes. In view of this, the design patterns if implemented right from the architecture stage correctly, could save huge amounts of time and money.

Anyway now without wasting any more time, I will try and revisit the stuff for all of us.....

Here are some commonly used Design Patterns used in OOPS,

1. The Singleton Pattern

A singleton pattern is basically a substitute for global variables, the usage of which can help in demolishing the quick code scattering in your dream program. Usually a singleton class will have a protected or private constructor, a private Instance variable and a method which will return the instance variable.

Class _Singleton
{
  private:
   static _Singleton *m_Instance;
   static int m_iNoOfHits;
   _Singleton( void );
public:
   _Singleton * GetInstance( void );
   int GetNoOfHits( void );
   void IncrementHits(void);
};

_Singleton :: Singleton( void )
{
   if( !m_Instance )
   m_Instance = new _Singleton;
}

_Singleton * _Singleton :: GetInstance( void )
{
   return m_Instance;
}

void _Singleton :: IncrementHits( void )
{
  ++m_iNoOfHits;
}

int _Singleton :: GetNoOfHits( void )
{
   return m_iNoOfHits;
}

This seemingly innocuous methodology can be used to great extends for e.g. while having a single database connection, or simultaneously handling multiple connection requests from clients.

2. The Abstract Factory Pattern

In theory, the abstract factory provides an interface which selects the objects needed to be instantiated by the client code instead of the client code directly doing the same, thus freeing the client code from the responsibility of knowing what is going on under the hood of the other section of the code. It improves the understandability of the code and also helps in separating the two aspects of the code.
Let's take an example, Suppose in a petrol pump dispensing unit we have 3 serial ports on the microcontroller and further these 3 ports are wired up to be used as follows:
Port 1: Printer Port No 1
Port 2 : Printer Port No 2
Port 3 : Automation Port
Now after a dispensing is over, the resultant data is to be sent to one of the ports depending on the configuration, Let's see how we can achieve it using the abstract factory methodology,

class Port // Abstract class
{
public:
   virtual SendData() = 0;
};

class PrinterPort1 : Port
{
public:
  SendData();
};

class PrinterPort2 : Port
{
public:
  SendData();
};

class AutomationPort : Port
{
public:
  SendData();
};

class DataFactory
{
public:
  SendDispensedData( int iPortNo);
};

DispenseOver()
{
  int iPortNo;
  DataFactory dataFactory;

  iPortNo = GetPort();
  dataFactory.SendDispensedData( iPortNo );
}

In the above example, the SendDispensedData function in DataFactory, selects the object to instantiate based on the port number given to it, thus segregating the port modules from the rest of the code sections.

3. The Builder Pattern

Basically, there are 3 things at play here,
1. The Builder
2. The Director
3. The Product

This pattern is used when the construction of a process is complicated, the pattern then segregates this construction process is such a way that it can be used again. Let's take a simple example, which would help us in getting a grasp,

Suppose we have a Invoice generation implementation, which can be exported onto an excel or a pdf format, here except for the exporting of the invoice in the two formats, the construction process of the invoice remains near about same,

class ReportBuilder
{
protected:
  ReportProduct reportProduct;
public:
  virtual void SetHeader( CString & ) = 0;
  virtual void SetFooter( CString & ) = 0;
  virtual ReportProduct GetReport() = 0;
};

class PDFReportBuilder : ReportBuilder
{
  // contains implementaion
};

class ExcelReportBuilder : ReportBuilder
{
  // contains implementaion
};

class DirectorReport
{
public:
  ReportProduct MakeReport( ReportBuilder & );
};

Now when the Director class object is created and the MakeReport method is called and the parameter of the appropriate type is given, the director orchestrates the calling of the right method of the right type of document needed.

class ReportProduct
{
public:
  SetHeader( CString & );
  SetFooter( CString & );
  MakeReport();
  ReportProduct GetReport();
  void DisplayReport();
};

There are certain other important ones also, but right now I am running out of steam, maybe will write tomorrow !!

Grid Computing

2009-11-01T12:03:00.000+05:30

Todays Sunday times, carries this article on Cloud Computing in it's headlines, the whole things seems to have come straight out from one of Dan Browns fiction's, and in fact the article fantastically replicates his writing mannerisms specially the apparent creation of INTERNET by CERN. While I don't deny the fact that CERN is the mother of great inventions and is the home of many a Science scholars, but there's something I would like to bring out from my childhood days, a simple instance proving that Grid computing was always there in place and in various levels!!
I remember as a school kid, Dad had bought this HCL busybee 486 machine, Man o Man --- was I happy!!, Dad used to go to office in the morning and I used to go to school, used to come home, and start fooling around with DOS. And then one day, Dad came home with a bunch of windows 3.1 floppies, and finally when it started I was just awe stuck, allthough I knew that switching into VGA graphics mode from interrupt 19h ( read it in Herbert schildt ), I never knew that graphics could explode into such a big mystical thing. From this point ownwards, i started noticing the bottlenecks that my PC started going into. Along this time, there was this guy in my school, who was an UNIX fanatic, matter of fact me, my dad and my buddy were all UNIX lunatics, one day me and my buddy were as usual hiding in my building terrace and puffing away.....(hehehehe, my summer of '99...best days of my life ), when we suddenly stuck upon this concept.....We coupled our PC's mine running on windows, his on Unix( hang on guys I know today this stuff is hopelessly common, and one would say I am talking rubbish, but take this, i and my buddy were about 16 - 17 years old and not brilliant at all, just meagre morsels in the trade ). We did the coupling on serial port, we wrote a terminal program on both the machines....( Oh and what experience I had with turbo C, it rocked....as programming with UNIX was quite simple using GC and Bourne shell ), The whole idea was to take a really really big number kind of a long long long number and get it's factorial.
One may say, any one machine could have done it, but hey c'mon, we were trying to prove somethings!!
We split up the numbers, giving it a 50% processing power on each machine. In fact within 2 weeks we came up with an algorithm to actually break up a huge number into seeds and spread it into the two machines and forget about what the other guy was doing. We moved onto publish the algo, which was kindof adapted by ICS Delhi...Don't even know if they exist anymore ).
One day, in that same period, I came upon an article by Berkeley systems asking for volunteers for sharing their computers over the net, I dont quite remember, but possibly they had embarked on intercepting some extraterrestrial systems, and wanted to process it in real time, the article stuck me....
Then came Peer to Peer computing( Do I have to say anything ).
And then today's article about CERN using the internet for creating a huge Virtual PC for analysing the results of theirs Large Haldron Collider..............I wonder which huge entity God used when he was creating the universe for all the processing power he required......
One thing for sure though, Cloud computing has arrived big time!!

Geo Track

2009-10-23T01:35:00.025+05:30

Software Download Links

Version 3.0
http://www.4shared.com/file/148046144/c61366f8/_3__Geo_Track_Setup.html

Changes carried out:

1. Option to save maps retrieved from google maps, for offline use.
2. Direction Estimation provided from current location to destination location.
3. Options such as roadmaps, satellite views, zooming provided for maps.( which can also be carried out offline ).
4. Location can now be tagged on the basis of Text, Street Views and captured map images.
5. The application on startup goes into Cell tower ID polling state by default so as to minimize confusion for some users at the start.

Version 2.0
http://www.4shared.com/file/143478519/fc355dd3/_2__Geo_Track_Setup.html

Changes carried out:

1. Added facility for picture tagging of a location.
2. Location updation rate changed from 2sec to 1 sec.
3. Changed location of log file to be saved to application data folder.
4. Removed bug due to which corruption occured, if software not closed properly.
5. Removed the << >> which was used previously to identify tags

Version 1.0
http://www.4shared.com/file/142717572/ca7dbf31/Geo_Track_Setup.html

Software Description

Geo Track is basically a software to emulate GPS, by using your nearest cell towers. It allows you to tag your location by providing you with the option for storing one or more descriptions of a location in terms of text and/or pictures.After this, your device will display these textual or image desciptions every time you visit these locations. In the longer run, you would be able to upload these maps to a central server, so that users can readily avail these maps for localised information by a one time map download. If you do posses a GPRS connection you could instaneously capture the latitude and longitude information of the particular location or point out your location in real time map, courtesy Google maps©. Every location is classified by a unique ID.

Further you could also view these logs in real time maping software on the PC.

These kind of location tagging techniques, I believe has a huge potential, just as a starting point, let's imagine a suburban city with all the emergency services mapped locally in one of the city based servers, imagine the amount of help we could derive out of this in realtime that is. I really admire google, for the wonderful work that they have done( I am talking of google maps ).

I am also looking for volunteers who are ready to submit the tagged locations, which will then be uploaded onto servers for personal use by people around the world. The next version of the software will have the facility to upload the tagged information onto internet servers. Do write in to somdutta2000us@yahoo.com with your feedbacks.

Diwali Vacations

2009-10-23T01:14:00.000+05:30

Had taken a leave of 2 days for Diwali( in all summing it up to 5 days ), wanted to do some soul searching for myself. I was really cranked up with this petrol dispensing pump project, the softwares was already damn complicated for the system, and now it has become more so. Thought I did a good job, but the supporting of this new version is a hell lot more difficult, then actually writing it.....hehehehe