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Wireless Audience Response Systems?
kjeldahl asks: "I've got some project ideas involving what I have learned are named audience response systems. These are small devices (typically a small keyboard with a few buttons) that can be handed out to an audience where they can participate in some kind of 'voting' or selection process where they press some buttons and their selections are recorded by a central server. Looking further, the wireless options include RF and IR, although IR senders typically conflict with eachother in environments with lots of people pushing buttons simultaneously. To be useful, one typically needs to be able to know the various devices apart (device X sent keypress Y). Some of the more advanced devices even include two-way communication with display abilities. Anyway, these devices seem very specialized and kind of tied to the platform (including hardware and software) - in effect quite expensive. Does anyone know of open audience response systems which use well-known technologies which can be adapted for use for audience response systems? I would guess the candidates include wireless keyboards (assuming they do not conflict with eachother), Bluetooth and WLAN-based systems."
How come you don't make the keyboards embedded into the chair in front of them, or pullout keyboards like some college lecture rooms have pullout 'deskspace'?
This is rather simple and conversion from ps/2 or usb to cat5 cable for the sole purpose of keyboard data isn't very difficult.
bluetooth!
ok, kidding. sort of. You could use PDAs (ok, not cheap, but lots of people have them) and use a 'base station' for each clump of people.
I wouldn't want to implement it (any idea what the collision issues would be, anyone?). but hey, it's an idea.
how about cell phones for that matter. or sms-enabled pagers. seems like there are devices out there that do similar things, just not in such enclosed spaces.
I've built a system like this before, and I can tell you the one reason why they don't use wireless handheld gadgets. People will STEAL the damn things if they're not wired down. This is another classic case of why engineers should not be put in charge of product design. They're so caught up in the coolness of some new technology that they forget that PEOPLE are involved.