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Turn Phone Into USB Keyboard

Im looking for an app like this too, im looking to plug my phone into my wii system so i can input text for cheats/hacking etc. I dont have a usb keyboard.
 
I have wanted something like this for a disabled person I take care of. At home she can use the WiFi, or BT methods, but at University she cannot access the lab computers.

I have conseptualized a method where there is a hardware step between the Android and PC made up of an arduino to act as a USB device, and a shield with another USB port to take input from the Android. While this is not ideal, the total price could be kept under $50, and be 100% open hardware and software. Unfortionatly I have no background building and coding these boards, so I am left with an idea that has no outlet. If there is anyone with experience with this kind of hardware building, I can share more of what I have figured out, I would love to make this happen for everyone.

Take Care,
Michael Daly
 
I would love not to have to keep a wired keyboard around just for the soul purpose of using it to reconnect my bluetooth keyboard when it gives out...please. Anyone that can make this happen. I will give you money.
 
Too bad we can't find a service that lets us all make contributions to a secure fund, until we have enough to rent a coder, and then opensource the resulting code.
 
If you are interested in using Android phone as a USB device (keyboard, mouse, gamepad etc), take a look my project.

General idea:
InputStick is a small, wireless (Bluetooth) USB device that basically acts as a middle man between smartphone and USB host (similar concept to what OIK2 has described in his post): InputStick handles USB protocol, while application on smartphone takes care of logic/user interaction. I work on a library that allows to implement different kinds of USB devices in Android applications, for example you can add USB keyboard functionality to a password manager application so it can type passwords for you. To use InputStick there is no need to root your phone, you only need Bluetooth, so I guess it should be able to work with anything >Eclair.

Here's a post with video, where I use my phone as a USB keyboard/mouse

Let me know what do you think about my project :)
 
It is very cool. My initial thought was to make it a KickStarter project ... but there are clearly pros and cons.

Have you given any thought as to whether you will try to market this, and if so how and at what price? I think that there would be a market for it around $20.
 
Well, it's just a prototype, at this moment I'm mainly focusing on improving Android library and demo apps (password manager, barcode scanner etc). Some people I know have been asking me if they can get one, so some time soon I will order components for a few more units.

As for price, everything depends on a scale of production. Prototype cost me about $50 and one hour to solder/assemble, but I guess that for, lets say >1000 units it should be possible to go down with price to $20.
 
This one will not work with iPhone (although jailbreak should help), because of used Bluetooth 2.1 module. Solution would be to use still relatively new Bluetooth 4.0, but this time it will not work with most of older Android devices. I think that best way out of this would be to make two versions of the device.
 
I do side work on touch screen register terminal POS systems in restaurants and I hate carrying a keyboard in my car for the few command line items I must type. An app that would run and simulate a usb keyboard and then connect the phone to the computer via usb would help me out a lot. Is there any apps that could do this?

Most of the terminals I work on are Windows XP based so being able to emulate a generic usb keyboard would be the best solution. I have seen the wifi keyboards but you have to install a program on the pc you would like to control. Same thing with bluetooth, you would have to install a bluetooth driver on the pc you are going to control.

TIA
 
Take a look at my projects webpage: InputStick. I think you'll be most likely interested in Remote Control app or Macros app. It requires additional piece of hardware (InputStick), but that allows you to solve WiFI/Bluetooth/drivers/software issues, since InputStick will be visible in the system as a generic USB keyboard.

It's been a long time since I've last posted here. At this moment, InputStick is being really close to finally being released.
 
I've been working on this project for over a year now, many things turned out to be more difficult/time consuming that I initially assumed, but finally it's almost ready. In February/March InputStick will go into small scale production. Anyone who is interested in this project and would like to support it, can make a pre-order via Indiegogo: InputStick Indiegogo Campaign all the details are there. If you would like to know more, please take a look at my webpage (inputstick.com)
 
Unified Remote is a very similar app but this only works over wifi. There's another app called Wifi keyboard but IIRC it works the other way round - using your PC's keyboard to type on your phone.

I'm very interested to see how this project develops, good luck!
 
Welcome to our AndroidForums, @HVM :).

It looks like there are some requirements (from reading the app's description in the Play Store) you have to meet before that particular app will work on your device:

1. You must be rooted

2. You must be running a device that is using a customized kernel that supports this app's behavior​

That sounds like quite a bit of work unless you happen to be already be running this kind of setup.

Cheers and best of luck!
 
Hey. I'm not really an Android developer, but I do develop in Java, so a possible solution came to mind. I know that in Java you can send raw commands via USB (I did this with a small project), so if you could do this via Android's language (I know it's some kind of modified Java) maybe you could send raw signals which are the same as a keyboards. Sorry if this doesn't work/make sense. I don't really work with physical hardware, and I'm not too familiar with how USB works.
 
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