Using the iPhone and iPod Touch for remote sensor control and data acquisition

Apple's iPod Touch1 is a powerful pocket computing platform, allowing users to play graphics-intensive games, listen to music, browse the World Wide Web, and communicate using email through a Wi-Fi internet connection. Apple's iPhone extends the iPod Touch by providing telephone service and high-speed 3G internet support when a Wi-Fi connection is unavailable. In this work, we investigate utilizing the iPhone and iPod Touch platforms for remote sensor control and data collection. Our example design interfaces a set of switches, a set of light emitting diodes, and a temperature sensor to the iPod Touch through a micro-controller and allows these devices to be controlled and monitored by a remote computer. Through this work, we show that the iPod Touch and iPhone can provide a low-cost, high-performance, and lightweight platform for remote data collection and control.