CODEWITHSUNDEEP
java.netandroidnetwork-programmingbluetooth
Dhana
Dhana

Reputation: 371

Control a desktop application using an android phone

I want to build an application where an android phone would control a desktop application. I only need to send coordinates from the phone to the desktop when user's finger is on the phone screen. But I am kinda confused on the networking side if i should use bluetooth, usb, or wifi (intranet).

I did some research on bluetooth, doing bluetooth socket programming on an android phone shouldn't be a problem, but on the desktop side there are only a few free SDK/library. any suggestion on what to use?

If I were to use USB/cable, What API on the android side I need to use?

I am actually more familiar with general socket programming (wifi), but I think it's going to be slow (correct me if Im wrong) so this would be my last option.

PS: I am using Java for the desktop application too

any suggestions on what method to use? or even maybe I should use .net on the desktop side?

Thanks

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2525

Answers (2)

Chris Stratton
Chris Stratton

Reputation: 40357

Wifi is probably the most supportable.

Bluetooth requires hardware and drivers on the PC side

USB would ordinarily seem like the most sensible if the wire isn't a problem, but the catch is that it requires that the user enable "USB debugging" on the phone, and have either the android SDK or equivalent functionality to the adb forward command installed, plus a compatible USB driver for the phone. If all that were the case, you'd just forward a port from the PC to the phone and have a pc program connect to that port on the loopback interface which will be forwarded to a service running on the phone.

It's possible you could do something piggybacked on the USB tethering capability of more recent releases to get you a network-over-usb that you could use to connect programs on the PC and phone, but you'd need modified PC drivers so that you don't actually push the PC's internet traffic through the phone (unless you mean to tether as well).

Upvotes: 0

James T
James T

Reputation: 1079

You might find the open source RemoteDroid app to be useful in creating your app. It may even do everything that you want.

The source code is here. You may need an svn client like TortoiseSVN in order to download it.

Upvotes: 2

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