IR Remotes with Letter Keys?

desau asks: "In the never ending quest to build a better MP3 player for my car, I've decided that I would like to be able to punch in letters via my IR remote. The only problem is that I can't find an IR remote with letters. I'm distinctly trying to stay away from the number pads with letters overloaded (such as phone pads) as they prove to difficult while driving. Also, it needs to work with the IRDA standard and work with LIRC. Anyone out there know where to look?"

Comments

you mean like a keyboard?

[quinto2000]

wireless remote with letters...hmm...

All those old WebTV keyboards on ebay

[nesthigh]

please save them from the landfill..

Please!

[MacAndrew]

These remotes already have too many &*#^*&(! buttons.

A programmable remote such as available at smarthome should work. $$$ -- shop around. I also recall a site that does *nothing* but advanced remotes -- name eludes me -- but they have everything.

Drive carefully...

moron

[molo]

as they prove to difficult while driving

Are you stupid? Don't you have enough to do while driving between chatting on your cell phone and trying not to let your SUV roll over?

You're the reason my insurance rates are going up.

in your car?

[tps12]

Whatever you end up doing, please don't come anywhere near my house. It's dangerous enough driving with all the people talking on the phone and eating dinner. Rather than working on yet another way to grab yourself a Darwin award, I suggest you look into speech recognition.

Cell phone like, or T9?

[teqo]

This isn't really the answer to your question, but since so many of us use these annoying small devices called cell phones, what about using your numerical remote control in the cell phone SMS fashion? (77726|666|6633777, | being a pause, for Ramones, for example) If you are ambitious and/or lazy, why not going for T9 support, having your MP3 player guess the choices you make...

May sound a bit uncomfortable, but its still smaller (and if you ask me, even geekier) than a full alphanumeric keyboard thing...

Re:Cell phone like, or T9?

[mini me]

On a related note: I once created a WAP interface to Winamp (http://classic.winamp.com/plugins/detail.jhtml?co mponentId=94546). I would never ever want to try and use it for a remote while trying to drive a car, but it works well otherwise.

Because I prefer to survive my commute....

[Jonny 290]

Log the fuck off and drive, please.

If you are really occupying your car enough that you can't either type in ID3's on your home machine and then transfer, or hook up a $3 PS2 keyboard in the trunk or under your seat, I worry for you.

mouse

[zogger]

--honestly, I have no idea *how* to do this, but could you adopt a wireless mouse instead of a keyboard? Scroll or middle button to tracks, forward to play from right button, left button pause or stop? Something like that? That way can keep eyes on road, not even need letters or numbers.

Hrmph

[GoRK]

First let me say you are a stupid stupid motherfucker if you try to use this bastard while driving. Plenty of people get in wrecks just trying to change the radio station.

Secondly, you are a dumbass for thinking that IRDA has anything to do with remote controls. Remote controls generally adhere to a standard called CIR (Consumer IR) which is much much different. IRDA ports found in devices such as laptops and palm pilots can, to some degree, transmit and receive CIR through much software trickery, but the range is very limited and the results are poor. There is, to my knowledge, only a very small number of manufacturers that have implemented remotes that use IRDA (Pace is one, and lots of people get pissed off because their universal remotes won't talk to IRDA stuff). Anyway, if you'd read a damn thing about LIRC you'd know that you (in most cases) have to build a special receiver to get the CIR signals.

Finally, im going to answer your (lame) question since you can't seem to use google. First, there are IR keyboards. I'm betting that you know this, and they are too large for your application (one handed button pushing while driving like a fuck.) Anyway, for a one button remote with an alphabet on it you could just pick up most any programmable LED sign. I have quite a few signs with IR remotes that contain an entire alphabet, punctuation, and many other great function keys. I'd bet that 99% of these function with CIR equipment, and I know for a fact that the remote that comes with the BetaBrite (a dumbed down version of the other sign products made by Adaptive) uses the same IR carrier and code format of the remotes that come with Creative products such as their computer speakers and sound cards. If you have a LiveDrive IR or an AudigyDrive, you can point the BetaBrite remote at it and get remote data out of /dev/midi.

Tons o fun.

~GoRK

Re:I have a great idea: Use "T9" text entry...

[Drakino]

"This is what the Empeg software has used for years."

But remember, everyone here thought the empeg was too expensive. Noone ever bothered to stop and think that hardware was not the only cost. The software and remote that is easially usable while driving had to cost something too...

Oh well, I'm happy with my units, and will be for many years to come. With GPS navigation coming into its own on the unit, the dynamic volume compression, and ever developing API and 3rd party programs, the newness of my empeg still has not worn off.

My Nomination for the Darwin Award

[TheWanderingHermit]

I wasn't going to post this, because I thought maybe it was just my dark sense of humor coming through and I really didn't want to be accused of trolling....

When I first saw this, I thought, "Doesn't this person know enough to use Google?" Then I realized, just after a report comes out that links 6% of all traffic accidents in the US to cell phone usage while driving, here we have someone asking how to set things up so he can type in text while driving.

Anyone stupid enough to want to do that is not smart enough to use the complex interface Google provides. And, after this person is killed because he was typing and not driving, all of us on /. could nominate him for a Darwin award.

Typing while driving -- IMNSHO, it's just as stupid as not knowing how to submit a simple question like this to Google.

Modify a keyboard based PDA?

[biglig2]

I bet you can get an old Psion Revo (aka Diamond Mako) on ebay cheaply enough (surf surf - about $50 average).

IRDA? WTF!

[dacarr]

Rather than futz around with a remote...well, one user suggested voice recognition, several suggested logging off and driving. Both of these are excellent. However, you look like you are trying to kill yourself. Please save others the trouble and drive off of a cliff - I would suggest those by San Onofre, CA. I've had run-ins with people who talk on their cellphones while driving, and having almost been plowed down more times than I care to count (I commute by bicycle), something needs to be done.

However, in the event you are actually trying to nav your MP3 tree in your car, might I suggest implementing a palmOS based solution and mounting your palm on some conspicuous spot in your car that you can look at without endangering other drivers (IE, just above the dashboard) that you can easily read? IMO this would be a more optimal solution than fucking around with a wireless remote.

Less Redundant...

[dr00g911]

Yeah, I fall into the "keep your hands on the fucking steering weel" camp, myself.

I've worked on a similar project (which didn't stay connected too long because of battery charging issues + having $1200 worth of gear in my car plus the girlfriend was having second thoughts about my sanity).

iBook + clip-on Mic with creative wire splicing (to fool the Mac into thinking it's capable on a normal mic) + 10.2 + Plaintalk + iTunes + PHP/Perl/Applescript worked marginally well, although getting recognition working over 50% of the time would require a MUCH quieter car than I have.

Plusses: A kludge to brag about. You can not only choose songs and have query results read back to you, but you can also play Apple/GNUchess against the computer at the same time with voice recognition, seeing as how you've obviously got a much greater attention span than most.

Minuses: $1k worth of gear in your car, one hell of a kludge, battery requirements.

Why don'tca just get an iPod? 1-finger browsing, it's small, and it'll charge from your lighter adapter.

Or a small touch screen monitor, maybe?

I can't even dream of recommending something that would take more than a single finger to operate.

For the record, I've gone with the iPod. I'm just waiting for 802.11 or Bluetooth to be added to a new iPod model -- then I won't even have to take it out of the car to load music.

An idea.

[cybermace5]

It's probably been patented already, though. Since you're looking to buy one, I doubt you'll want to develop your own remote.

But I would build a remote that used a jog wheel, kind of like a mouse scroller. My mouse has 24 click positions, so a larger (1.5"-2") wheel could handle 36 clicks (26 letters and 10 numerals). Rotate the wheel to the desired character, click the wheel. An 8-bit microcontroller takes the encoded wheel position and outputs an IR code.

Not too fast for text entry, but perfect for navigating an MP3 title tree.

I'd make mine pretty compact, and clip it on the steering wheel at the 2 o'clock position, where it's easily adjusted and seen. And of course, the wheel would be made of clear acrylic, painted black, with the characters engraved around the edge, so it can be lighted with a blue LED. ;-)

Re:An idea.

[cybermace5]

Well, maybe just one hand on the wheel. About half the posts in this thread were whining about how the Asker would be typing with one hand and holding a cell phone in the other. As if you would want to listen to music, and manage playlists, while talking on the phone anyway.

Rev. 2 of the idea: volume control wheel next to the alpha-scroll. Or else modifier buttons, located on the *other* side of the remote where your fingers wrap around the steering wheel, allow you to change volume, bass, treble, and balance. I like the modifier button idea because there's still just one wheel, and the unused space on the back of the remote gets used. So how would you tell where the volume is, or if the stereo is balanced? Tick and center marks on the wheel with the text. Rotate wheel to whichever volume/balance you want, squeeze the modifer button first and then click the wheel. Or squeeze and hold while rotating the wheel. The buttons on the back would have touch-identifiable buttons since you wouldn't be able to see them, or perhaps the remote would use a red LED to light the remote while changing volume, green while changing bass, etc. with different LED combinations providing more colors. We're still well within the capabilities of a $2.50 microcontroller. Power may not be much of an issue, microcontrollers can go into sleep modes where they draw microamps, and the LED's could time out after a minute (maybe a nice fading effect), or only activate when the remote is being used.

I hate when I have ideas like this, because I rarely do anything about them. In 1998, I had just started freshman year in a college that required laptops. We were forced to use the laptops in a certain class while the LCD projector was running, and there wasn't much light to type by. I had the idea of putting a bright LED on a flexible wand, then using the laptop USB port to get the negligible power required. I got some parts, got distracted, passed the class, never did anything about it. So in 2001, I walked into a computer store, glanced at a rack of accessories, and was dismayed to see a stack of Kensington FlyLights retailing for $20. They still sell pretty strongly, and I've even seen people use them on their Macintosh keyboards with the USB ports on the sides. But I'm now comforted by the fact that a sort-of similar device, using a light bulb, was patented by a Taiwanese guy in 1997. So Kensington may have had to pay him a little bit.

Go for speech recognition.

[Mustang Matt]

It's too dangerous to type while you drive.