Time Baby for Sony Playstation Portable

Outdoor Talking Clock Program for Sony Playstation Portable








Time Baby is primarily a talking PSP clock program that I wrote for displaying the time on the PSP screen
in large graphic numerals in a similar style as my earlier GPSP (GPS front end) program. It started simple.
GPSP was the first time anyone announced connecting a GPS to a PSP in public and made
news on many gaming forums: Engadget Qj Gizmodo Makezine
GPSP would now be considered far outdated by MapThis! by Deniska, a much more current, and functional mapping program.
The hardware used for GPSP has been recycled for other projects

Having said that, If Time Baby is run on a PSP with a GPS connection, it can aquire the time from the GPS system,
and update the PSP's system clock (something which is yet to be seen in another PSP program) I have Adrahil of ps2dev.org forums
to thank for the PSP clcok setting functions whose implementation in Time Baby provides a third option for setting the PSP clock,
as later PSP firmware versions are able to update the clock over a wifi connection to the internet.

Time Baby speaks the time at the press of a button, just like many of the talking clocks in novelty and electronics shops.

Time Baby has an alarm that can wake the PSP unit from suspend or standby modes thanks to a
special PSP Alarm library also provided by Adrahil of ps2dev.org.
Time Baby also boasts a nice graphic transition effect which simulates the 'rolling in' of new numbers
as occurs with the clockwork odometers used in most older vehicles.

It was an objective during development that this program be run under iRShell while playing mp3s,
so that the user could see the graphic clock while playing their music. iRShell has it's own clock, but it's not very pretty ;)
Later, I implemented the iR Shell MP3 player into Time Baby, and implemented my own mp3 file browser and playlist manager.
Now a sleep mode makes it possible to go to sleep listening to an mp3 playlist, the PSP auto suspends itself at the end of the
playlist, and then wakes itself up in the morning to sound the wake up alarm, and the PSP still has a full battery!

Thanks to a routine by Jarmo Lammi, Time Baby has a feature to display Sunrise and Sunset times for any given location.
A "Rooster Chime" has been implemented as an extension of this, so the program can be set to make a rooster sound at every Sunrise!
I have also implemented a moon phase calculation, and moon rise / moon set algorithm that I ported from a twenty year old BASIC program.

Here is another world first for the PSP: The PSP Heart Rate Monitor!
The program interprets the signal sent by a commercial chest trasnsmitter,
and displays heart beat, and heart rate (beats per minute) to the screen.

The first HRM program was written within twenty four hours of purchasing my heart rate monitor unit.
The watch component, which normally displays the heart rate, went straight in the bin as soon
as I figured I could replace it with the PSP which would of course, calculate, and show more information.
Soon after I got it working, I had a talking heart rate monitor written into the Time Baby program.

This setup requires a coil of wire be connected across the PSP microphone input,
and placed near the chest transmitter which means that it is now "virtually wired"
although the coil of wire is used as an antenna, and there is no actual connection made to the transmitter.

The latest addition to the Heart Rate Monitor at the time of writing is an 80 minute workout graph that can
be seen in one of the images above.




One of the YouTube video links show the Heart Rate Monitor mode working.
It is intended that you pay attention to both the heart beat that you can hear,
and the activity I engage in which is shown on the screen.


The pictures above demonstrate one way the program came in handy for me.
I modified a waterproof Pelican Case so that a twin headphone adapter fit through the side,
and resealed with Selly's silicone glass sealant
. The end result is that on a day that isn't so bright (or at night), I can see the time of day
on my PSP while I'm in the pool, while listening to mp3s at the same time!

I wrote a special function to set the PSP clock to the time aquired from a connected GPS unit.
The video below demonstrates this process, as it starts out high on a mountain with the clock
initialy set to 01:01 01/01/200. Once the GPS time setting mode is activated, the correct time
and date is aquired, and the PSP clock is auto updated in this remote location!

Download Time Baby or search Google for "Time Baby PSP for the latest update".


The video below (left) demonstrates the Moon phase, and Moon Rise & Set time calculator ode working.
This is roughly how the Sunrise and Sunset calculator mode works as well.
The video below (right) is a split screen video that demonstrates the solar power monitor mode which is used to
monitor a solar panel charging the PSP while camping, etc. If you look closely, you can see the graph move as the
solar panel outside is shaded from the sun, and the PSP subsequently is powered by it's battery.



The video below (left) is shot on a mountain peak, and demonstrates the GPS time setting feature in action, in a remote location.
The video below (right) is shot on a desk, and is clearer in showing the process actually works.



The video below (left) demonstrates the World Time Clock feature in operation..
The video below (right) demonstrates the Mad Playlist MP3 Player implementation.



The video below (left) demonstrates the Plasma Clock mode in action.
The video below (right) is a similar demonstration of the Fire Clock mode.



The video below (left) demonstrates the Heart Rate Monitor feature in operation.
The video below (right) shows some early field testing of the Heart Rate Monitor feature.



The video below (left) demonstrates the Alarm Triggered Infrared Control feature in operation.
This allows the program to turn on a TV or stereo, rather than just make an alarm sound.
The Philips Pronto compatible infrared functionality was provided by AhMan (author of iRShell).

The video below (right) demonstrates the Infrared remote control (receive) feature.
Any household IR remote can be used to announce the time, cancel the alarm, or skip mp3 tracks.


The videos below demonstrate what I beleive is the pinnacle feature of this type of program.
In the first video, the location shown on the time zone map starts out incorrectly set to Vancouver,
so the pointer moves from it's default position in Brisbane, Australia, to Vancouver, Canada.
Then the location and UTC time is acquired from the connected GPS unit, the map pointer
returns to Brisbane, Australia, as the program now knows that this is the correct present location.
Finally, the correct local time is determined by using the world time zone map as a lookup table.

The result is that the local time is determined anywhere in the world without the program ever
being told your timezone offset. Not a very practical feature, but more a programming feat.

The second video demonstrates how this feature was expanded to set the PSP timezone so
that the time on the PSP clock would be set to the correct local time, even if the user didn't
know the time, or the current location on the map, or the timezone.

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