Systems for the interconnection of Android applications and automobiles via the OpenXC framework

Abstract

The topic of this thesis is the design and construction of a set of applications that use information from a vehicle to provide a better user experience. We introduce two Android applications that make use of the open-source OpenXC library to gauge driver awareness and to provide a user interface via steering wheel controls. The first of these applications deals with human-to-human interactions in the form of a messaging client. Our goal for this application is to provide a method of determining when to notify drivers of new messages by using vehicle data to gauge driver awareness. The second application deals with human-to-machine interactions in the form of a point-of-interest browser. Our goal for this second application is to use steering wheel controls in place of the touch screen traditionally associated with Android mobile applications. We hope to demonstrate that our versions of these mobile applications, with their focus on preserving driver awareness, provide a viable upgrade to their traditional alternatives.