Bladox Hardware and Applications
Bladox have released a wireless version of their application development system.
In order to understand what this is, it’s necessary to step back a bit and look at Bladox’s previous products.
Bladox design and manufacture a board that piggy backs onto most SIMs to allow electronic IO outside of the phone….
The board contains a ATMega 128 MCU which allows you to write programs (in C) that, for example, intercept SMS messages and control external devices. Alternatively, external devices/sensors can be monitored and SMS messages sent when things change. There’s also a version of the board that can detect movement.
The programs run on the board, not on the phone, so that this type of development is compatible with most GSM phones. The programs also have access to SIM toolkit functions which are usually only available to SIM toolkit applications developed by SIM manufacturers. These functions have (limited) phone UI support to allow, for example, setup of program parameters.
If you don’t need the IO functionality and just want to write applications that manipulate the phone/SMS then you can get a very slim ‘mini’ version of the board that folds into most phone cases…
Finally, if you are willing to cut some plastic from the SIM, there’s a version that sits on top of an existing SIM…
The SIM Toolkit API is fairly low level yet provides some very useful functions. As well as SMS, it provides access to location (cell) information and allows actions to be performed when, for example, the user dials a particular number. Some ‘cheap’ international roaming SIMs work this way (running in the SIM rather than extra board) by routing calls depending on the destination number. Other applications include encrypting/decrypting SMS messages on the fly or providing a place for secure passwords.
Going back to the Bladox BRA, this a new version of the system, programmed in the same way, that provides another (wireless) way for the program to communicate with external devices. Think of it as a wireless to phone bridge. Bladox currently see applications in home automation, payment systems and proximity marketing.