README

README.md

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+FlashPrance
+===========
+
+FlashPrance is a toolkit allowing data to be transferred by flashing
+lights on and off.
+
+
+Application
+-----------
+
+It's primary purpose is to allow settings to be sent from a computer or
+cellphone to an embedded device, such as an Arduino.
+
+The screen of the computer or cellphone will quickly flash between black
+and white at different intervals, and the device shall measure the
+duration of the light intervals to decode the data.
+
+Because bandwidth is limited by the frames per second that can be
+displayed on screen, it is only suitable for very small amounts of data.
+It takes roughly 1 second to transfer 1 byte.
+
+It's benefit is the cost and convenience. The sender (computer or
+cellphone) does not need any additional hardware or drivers - only the
+capability to flash an area of the screen - this may even be a web page.
+The only additional components on the receiver (embedded circuite) are a
+light sensor and a resistor - this should cost less than $1. 
+
+
+Planned Features
+----------------
+
+*This is still an early work in progress - most of these features are
+not implemented yet.*
+
+Sender implementation libraries:
+
+*   Web: JavaScript (DONE)
+*   iOS: Objective-C (TODO)
+*   Android: Java (TODO)
+*   Terminal console: NCurses/ANSI (TODO)
+*   Generic C++: algorithm + {MFC,GTK,QT,WinForms,...} (TODO)
+*   Generic Java: algorithm + {Swing,SWT} (TODO)
+
+Receiver implementation libraries:
+
+*   Arduino (DONE)
+*   Generic C: {atmega,attiny,msp430,arm,pic,...} (TODO)
+
+Communication protocol:
+
+*   Data streaming (DONE)
+*   Clock syncronization (DONE)
+*   Manchester encoding (TODO)
+*   8B/10B encoding (TODO)
+*   Message framing: start/length/end (TODO)
+*   Checksums (TODO)
+
+