TouchScanner
Patent Pending · US Prov 64/076,507 World’s First Voice-Controlled Scanner

Speak the freq. The scanner tunes.

Voice control for Uniden SDS scanners. Press the mic, say a frequency, hands stay on the wheel. The independent Android app the community has been asking for, built by the team behind the original TouchScanner Raspberry Pi platform.

Audio over Bluetooth — your choice
  • Your phone speaker — the default
  • Your hearing aids over Bluetooth LE Audio
  • Your car infotainment system over Bluetooth HFP / A2DP
  • Any BT speaker, earbud, or headset already paired to your phone

Real-world example: in a monsoon on I-78, I said "tune one six two point five five zero." NOAA Weather came through my hearing aids in under 2 seconds. Hands stayed on the wheel.

Request more information Shop the gear we use → See supported scanners

Public tester program is closed.
Email us here for more information: info@touch-scanner.com

Voice in action

Speak. The scanner acts.

Press the mic, say the command, the scanner does the work. Audio you hear is the live transmission. Voice read-back confirmation is on the roadmap.

Operator says

"Tune to one six two point five five zero"

Scanner does

Tunes scanner to 162.550 MHz. NOAA Weather One.

Operator says

"Hold this department"

Scanner does

Holds on current department. Public Safety, Luzerne County.

Operator says

"Avoid this channel"

Scanner does

Avoids this channel. Excluded from scan rotation.

Operator says

"Start scanning"

Scanner does

Starts scan. Hits play through your audio output.

Operator says

"Start search"

Scanner does

Starts search on your last-used Search Key range.

Operator says

"Replay that"

Scanner does

Replays last transmission from the buffer.

On-device speech recognition. Patent pending — US Prov 64/076,507.

The story

TouchScanner started on the workbench. A Raspberry Pi, a touchscreen, and a Uniden SDS scanner — built because the official tools didn't get there. The community grew up around it. Then mobile changed everything.

Era 1 · Workbench

TouchScanner Pi

Raspberry Pi + touchscreen + USB serial to the scanner. The original community platform. Cable-tethered. Still in service today.

Era 2 · Wireless

BLE + WiFi remote

Network UDP + RTSP audio. Bluetooth LE GATT direct to SDS150. Pi-based TCP bridges for range extension. The scanner left the workbench.

Era 3 · Android

TouchScanner Mobile

Full control + live audio on any Android 8+ phone or tablet. Five connection modes. Patent-pending core. The app the SDS community has been asking for.

Era 4 · iOS · in development

TouchScanner iOS

Started during the Android display rewrite. Working display, working audio, working transports — running today on iPhone against a live SDS150 over Bluetooth LE. Not on a release calendar yet — but the platform is real, and iOS users who've been waiting on us: you haven't been forgotten.

TouchScanner iOS running on an iPhone connected via Bluetooth LE to a live Uniden SDS150, showing 103.100000 MHz tuned in, GPS coordinates, battery voltage (4.16V), and RSSI (-87 dBm)
Live iOS build · iPhone · BLE to SDS150 · 103.1 MHz tuned, real telemetry back from the scanner

Want to be pinged when iOS opens for testers? info@touch-scanner.com — subject: iOS tester interest.

The pitch

The Uniden SDS line is the best digital scanner hardware on the market. Its companion software has not kept up. Phone-to-scanner connectivity is fragmented across vendors that each solve a quarter of the problem.

TouchScanner solves it on Android. Same protocol the original TouchScanner Pi spoke; modern Jetpack Compose UI; auto-reconnect on every transport; live audio that survives the parking lot. Cable, network, scanner-hosted AP, Relay, or Bluetooth LE — the app is transport-agnostic.

If you can plug it in, point at it, or pair to it — TouchScanner connects.

Three things that set it apart

1

Bluetooth LE control of the SDS150 — no other Android app does this

Native Bluetooth LE GATT connection. PT-framed binary transport. ~100 ms display updates. KAL keepalive. Native libopus audio. No cable, no router, no PC. The capability that makes TouchScanner one of one.

2

Audio that doesn't drop

Three independent decoder paths (libVLC for RTSP, ExoPlayer for MP3 Relay, native Opus for BLE). State-machine watchdog with red banner + Retry + scanner-reboot. Built for the field, not the lab.

3

Built by the people who built TouchScanner Pi

Same team. Same protocol. Same community. Updates that ship in days, not quarters. Pager hunter, agency correlator, unit-ID tracker — the features hobbyists actually asked for.

Supported scanners · what works on which transport

Scanner USB OTG WiFi / Network Access Point Relay Bluetooth LE Phase
Uniden SDS150 YES— — YESYES · GATTPhase 1 · now
Uniden SDS200 *YESYES · UDP + RTSP— YES—Phase 2
Uniden BCD536HP *YESYES · UDP + RTSPYES YES—Phase 2
Uniden BCD436HP *YES— — YES—Phase 2
Uniden SDS100 **YES— — YES—Phase 3

* SDS200, BCD536HP, and BCD436HP support is built but not yet field-verified on every hardware revision — Phase 2 testers help us confirm.
** SDS100 support is in active refinement — display rendering has known edge cases. Phase 3 opens once those fixes land.

Need a scanner or a USB-OTG cable?
Our Gear page lists every scanner, cable, antenna, and mount we actually use on the bench — with direct links.
Shop the gear →

Five ways to connect · transport-agnostic UI

Mode 1

USB OTG

Tethered to phone or tablet via standard OTG cable. Works on every supported scanner. Auto-launches on plug-in.

Mode 2

WiFi UDP + RTSP

Scanner + phone on the same network. G.711 audio over RTSP. Watchdog with keep-alive. SDS200 and BCD536HP.

Mode 3

Scanner Access Point

BCD536HP creates its own WiFi hotspot. Phone joins. Zero router, zero infrastructure. Auto-detect on connect.

Mode 4

Relay

Scanner stays home, phone reaches it from anywhere with signal. Three relay flavors: PC Bridge (Python on your laptop, scanner over BLE or USB), Pi Bridge (Raspberry Pi as always-on relay node), or ProScan (Windows PC running ProScan). All three present the same TCP socket to the phone — the phone doesn't know or care which is on the other end.

Mode 5

Bluetooth LE

Direct GATT to SDS150. PT-framed transport. Native Opus audio. The only Android app that does this.

What's in the box

Display & Audio

  • Portrait + landscape mirroring
  • System / dept / channel + RSSI + TGID
  • Full P25 NAC / WACN / Site / RFSS
  • libVLC, ExoPlayer, and native Opus
  • State-machine audio watchdog
  • Post-decode equalizer

Recording

  • Global, Follow, and Manual modes
  • 48 kHz 16-bit WAV + JSON sidecar
  • Tone-out screen with snippet playback
  • In-app audio viewer
  • Synchronized with scanner internal recorder

Scanner control

  • VFO direct tune
  • Close Call integration
  • TacScan trigger-based scanning
  • Discovery mode (trunk + conventional)
  • Quick-key toggles + FL exporter

Tone & Paging

  • Goertzel CTCSS / DCS detector
  • SAS vs SAD mismatch logging
  • Agency correlator
  • Pager hunter (TacScan-fed)
  • Pager Library — private paging catalog

P25 trunking

  • Unit ID tracker with per-UID history
  • Talkgroup affiliations + call counts
  • Three-tab viewer: recent, units, stats
  • Activity logger with full P25 fields

Field operations

  • GPS + NMEA injection to scanner
  • Route planner with county frequency lookup
  • Trip viewer + historical playback
  • Ticker overlay service
  • Foreground service + keep-screen-on

Patent pending

United States Provisional Application 64/076,507
Patent applications cover the core TouchScanner innovations.

Filed with the USPTO. Priority date locked. Assignment pending to Envy Group, Inc. Specific claim language is available under NDA to qualified prospects, investors, and channel partners on request.

Filed · Priority date locked

Questions, demo requests, or press?

Drop a line. We read every email.

support@touch-scanner.com Shop the gear → Tester program