HiJacking the iPhone's Headset Port

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at the University of Michigan describe how to hijack the iPhone's headset port to power peripherals, establish bi-directional communications with them, and interface various sensors, all without jailbreaking your iPhone or having to pay thousands to access to the Apple Dock Connector. This makes it possible for students, hackers, and DIYers to extend the phone's functionality to the physical world. The team is giving away 20 HiJack modules/programmers to enable new apps."

Comments

This is a modem

[Anonymous Coward]

These guys have rediscovered the modem, circa 1982.

I've done something similar using a Bluetooth headset. Open up the headset and remove the microphone. Use a PWM output of an embedded microprocessor to read the sensor and drive the microphone input. Send data to the host with FSK modulation.

With the Bluetooth headset, your sensor is wireless as well.

Re:Question:

[Kadagan AU]

So you want to have a 1 cubic inch device hanging out of your headphone jack with a "back" button on it? Seems like it would be a pain in the ass, and make it more difficult to store your phone in your pocket or holster or wherever you like to carry it.. Or keeping the device in your pocket and only inserting it when you need to hit "back" is also tedious.

USB

[markdavis]

Stupid Android phones with their easy, accessible, standard USB ports and connectors!!! Takes all the fun out of it!