Prototyping of a Basic Functional Mobile Phone

Abstract

Communication is an integral part of science that has always been a focus point for exchanging information among parties at locations physically apart. The advent of phones led to new job titles such as Phone Engineers or Repairers, but phones are imported with no attempt to manufacture locally made phones in the developing countries such as Nigeria. Thus, there is a motivation to study the prototyping of a basic functional mobile phone with a view towards the local manufacture of mobile phones or at least some of its components. The basic architecture of the designed phone prototype consists of the keypad, microcontroller, digital display, the sound circuitry, GSM shield and the power circuit. The keypad liaises with the microcontroller to interpret pressed characters and serves as the primary method of input. The microcontroller controls and organizes the other components to give the desired output. The digital display which is typically a liquid crystal display (LCD) shows the character(s) that has been pressed on the keypad. The GSM shield connects to the nearest telecoms operator access point to get across to a call or short message service (SMS) recipient. Our prototype of a basic functional mobile is only able to make and receive both calls and SMS. We intend to improve the prototype further by reducing the response time after the key depression, reduce power consumption and use miniaturized components to reduce its current size.