Android - Fm/radio Transmitting

I was wondering if it is possible at all the manipulate the radio hardware on the device to transmit an FM signal on a specified frequency. As far as I am aware, the phone uses Bl

Solution 1:

I was wondering if it is possible at all the manipulate the radio hardware on the device to transmit an FM signal on a specified frequency.

AFAIK, most (if not all) Android devices ship with hardware radios, not software radios, and therefore this would not be possible.

Solution 2:

It looks like many of this next generation of phones have chips that support FM transmission ( ie Sony's Xperia line utilizing Texas Instrument's Omap chips ) but the FM transmitter is not supported. I can only speculate on the reasons. Extra internal components/shielding required? Interferes with the phone's other electronics making it prone to crashing? Not user friendly? Needs a custom antennae in the headset plug?

Sony released their modified TI drivers... http://developer.sonymobile.com/2012/03/07/fm-radio-module-released-as-open-source-and-sensor-hal-updated/ and the TI code to control the transmitter is among the lower level routines... but I didn't notice it carried up to the Java interface level.

Would be interesting to try it out....