wireless hardware dev question

[azezial]

Hey all, I am interested in building a sensor pack that can wirelessly display through android. I know I can accomplish this using bluetooth however being that most droids are class 2 I am worried about the range. Does anyone know if it would be possible (using a standard locked phone *not rooted*) to use the androids standard wifi connection for tx and rx? Would the range be any better than the bluetooth? My worry is that the droid does not let you take control of the wifi function but I really don't know. Im driving to work while thinking about this so I apologize if this information is easily available. I have a bs in ee and cpe with a focus in wireless signal communications, but I've never worked in the field after graduation, id love to see what I can use my degrees for haha.

Thanks for any help!
Mike
:-$

 

[jdbower]

Why not just make it a full WiFi-enabled device? Have the device connect to a WiFi network and communicate over IP for infinite range. It makes things a little more difficult in that you need some configuration options, but once you've got a WiFi board chances are there are already libraries for this (I know you can do it with an Arduino-based project, not sure what your platform is). If you want to play with the radios directly just for fun that's another story, but that seems like both overkill as well as limiting functionality to just the range of the WiFi radios involved.