As a developer, you can communicate between apps running on the Blade and apps running on a phone. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways. You can choose to manage your own communication protocols using wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy. You can also leverage the Vuzix Connectivity framework to communicate between apps using the same secure communication protocol used between Blade and the Vuzix Blade Companion App.
Managing Your Own Communication
Writing apps for Vuzix Blade is very similar to writing apps for any other Android device. If your Blade app needs to communicate with another device, or an app running on a phone, you can use familiar technologies such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to make that happen. The advantage of using these technologies is that they are standard, well-known technologies that can handle all sorts of use cases and requirements. The disadvantage is they often require a lot of coding to get setup and working in your app. This guide will not go into details about how to write a custom protocol for app communication. Instead we will focus on getting up and running quickly using the Vuzix Connectivity framework.
Vuzix Connectivity Framework
The Vuzix Connectivity framework enables simple communication between an app running on a Blade and an app running on a phone. The framework leverages the Android broadcast system and extends it to enable sending broadcasts between devices.
This approach gets you up and running very quickly without having to worry about how to locate devices, without worrying about how to secure your data, and without designing a custom communication protocol.
Using the connectivity framework in your app will depend on the type of app you are developing. Blade apps and Android apps designed for a phone will use the Vuzix Connectivity SDK for Android. iPhone apps will use the VuzixConnectivity framework for iOS (coming soon). Both require a phone running the Vuzix Blade Companion App.