Building an Open Source "Clicker"?

fieldtest asks: "Most Slashdot readers have read about "clickers", remote control style devices that students use to wirelessly answer a teacher's questions. Unfortunately, as a college student, I have had less than stellar experiences with these clickers. I hear complaints from my professors and fellow students often as well. So, I want to build an open source clicker system for all universities to use. I believe that this is a prime opportunity to show how powerful free software can be. So, what do the talented people of Slashdot recommend?" "The problem is this: a clicker system requires...clickers. What I need are remote controls that have a minimum of 6 buttons (for users to select options with). The sticking point comes when a button is pressed -- the remote must send the option choice, as well as a unique ID specific to the remote, so the clicker software can distinguish between different students.

I've experimented and Googled around. I've tried standard TV remote controls combined with an USB-UIRT receiver, but the range was too low. Googling shows some interesting programmable remotes, but they're far too expensive ($100+) to have each user purchase one.

How should I go about building the perfect clicker and receiver system? Any suggestion is welcome, from IR to radio, from Bluetooth to ZigBee based communications. Recommend a commercial product, or a do it yourself solution. Please also recommend a receiver device, and a way to connect it to a computer. Also, if you recommend that I just build a custom circuit board for the remote control, please give some references and examples of how it should be implemented."

Comments

Try these Cypress chips

[Savantissimo]

www.cypress.com
CY7C601xx
CY7C602xx
About $3-$5 in quantity
Development kit: CY3655 $350

(also check out their wireless USB products)
* Wireless enCoRe(TM) II -"enhanced Component
Reduction"
o Crystalless oscillator with support for an external crystal or resonator. The internal oscillator eliminates the need for an external crystal or resonator
o Configurable IO for real-world interface without external components
* Enhanced 8-bit microcontroller
o Harvard architecture
o M8C CPU speed can be up to 24 MHz or sourced by
an external crystal, resonator, or signal
* Internal memory
o 256 bytes of RAM
o Eight Kbytes of Flash including EEROM emulation
* Low power consumption
o Typically 10 mA at 6 MHz
o 10-A sleep
* In-system reprogrammability
o Allows easy firmware update
* General-purpose I/O ports
o Up to 36 General Purpose I/O (GPIO) pins
o High current drive on GPIO pins. Configurable 8- or 50-mA/pin current sink on designated pins
o Each GPIO port supports high-impedance inputs,
configurable pull-up, open drain output, CMOS/TTL
inputs, and CMOS output
o Maskable interrupts on all I/O pins
* SPI serial communication
o Master or slave operation
o Configurable up to 2-Mbit/second transfers
o Supports half duplex single data line mode for
optical sensors
* 2-channel 8-bit or 1-channel 16-bit capture timer. Capture timers registers store both rising and falling edge times
o Two registers each for two input pins
o Separate registers for rising and falling edge capture
o Simplifies interface to RF inputs for wireless
applications
o Internal low-power wake-up timer during suspend
mode
o Periodic wake-up with no external components
* Programm

Re:Actually, this is a poor solution

[rknop]

Clickers are a solution looking for a problem.

In fact, research has shown that using clickers to help enable "Peer Instruction" techniques can greatly improve the quality and durability of learning.

Hopefully, some empirical evidence outweighs what you think ought to be true.

Re:Actually, this is a poor solution

[Dr. Zowie]

Well, the last time I chimed in with experience from lecturing, I was modded down "flamebait" -- but I'll come back for more. The clickers (in my experience) really help the middle third of the class -- the people who aren't coming back as majors, and therefore will only learn whatever they glean from this particular class: it is the last time they will encounter this material formally.

The future majors will probably do just fine anyway -- it's the history majors in astronomy class, or the engineers in art history class, who need help. The clickers have been shown to help those students focus and assimilate material.