GSoC 2009 Roundup

Rockbox is an open source firmware replacement for a growing number of MP3 players. Rockbox aims to be considerably more functional and efficient than your device's stock firmware while remaining easy to use and customisable. Rockbox is written by users, for users. A more elaborate introduction can be found at WhyRockbox. This year is the third time that we have participated in the Google Summer of Code program. We had five students sponsored by Google, and it has been the best GSoC summer that we have had with Rockbox since we first participated in 2007. Below are the five projects and their outcome:

Rockbox Support for Wavpack Hybrid Compression

Student: Bryan Jacobs
Mentor: Dave Chapman

The aim of this project was to bring the Wavpack Hybrid Codec to Rockbox. The Wavpack audio codec supports an unusual "hybrid" compression mode, in which a traditional lossy file is complemented by a "correction" file. When the two are decoded together, the original input bitstream can be recreated exactly. The lossy file may also be decoded on its own.

Bryan Jacobs extended the Rockbox buffering API to buffer multiple files and succeeded in playing Wavpack Hybrid files in Rockbox. However, serious bugs remain and the code hasn't yet reached a state where it is suitable for committing to Rockbox SVN.

Overall we regard the project as a success but more work is needed to ensure this work is committed to SVN and users can benefit from this new feature.

Adding RM support to Rockbox

Student: Mohammed Tarek
Mentor: Michael Giacomelli

Thanks to Google and Mohammed Tarek, Rockbox now plays RM files with the most common codecs in them. Mohammed began by porting the cook codec and the RM container format to Rockbox. By the time of the mid-term evaluations, Rockbox could already play the first cook files realtime! Mohammed then continued by implementing AAC in the RM container, followed by Atrac3

We think this project was a huge success.

Port of Rockbox to the Sansa View

Student: Robert Keevil
Mentor: Paul Louden

Robert Keevil's Summer of Code project was to port Rockbox to the Sansa View. There was some progress made, but unfortunately there were problems which could not be solved

The project failed. There was good progress up to midterm, but then things went bad. Problems with different hardwares, bricked devices and more.

Make Rockbox a musical instrument

Student: Wincent Balin
Mentor: Peter D'Hoye

The project taken on by Wincent Balin was to port the PureData system to Rockbox, in an effort to make Rockbox a digital musical instrument. Wincent made good progress in the first part of the program, and his system produced its first sounds near midterm. Unfortunately he stumbled over some bugs with certain pd files.

After midterm he continued with the UI for PdPox with success, and his work was committed to SVN. Some bugs and performance problems remain, but we consider this a successful project.

Allow USB class drivers to be implemented as plugins + Implement Human Interface Device (HID)

Student: Tomer Shalev
Mentor: Frank Gevaerts

The purpose of this project was twofold: the first part consisted of adding HID support to Rockbox, so that it would function like a multimedia keyboard when connected to a PC. The next part involved creating a driver infrastructure for Rockbox, which would allow loadable USB drivers. Tomer Shalev implemented the first part in a timely and efficient manner. Unfortunately real-life events interfered with the latter part of GSoC, and he didn't manage to complete the USB driver infrastructure.

We consider this project a limited success - the parts that Tomer managed to complete are completely satisfactory. The fact that he was prevented from completing the project is unfortunate, but that can of course happen to any student at any time.

Conclusion

We are very grateful to have been part of SoC, and we are already planning proposals for next year's edition! We learned much about mentoring and communication this year, and we will try to improve even more next year.
Thanks again, Google, it was a pleasure to be part of GSoC this year, and to have people paid to code for Rockbox.