Espresso aumtomated and manual test at the same time

I am writing Espresso automated tests for an android app that interacts with an instrument through NFC tag.During the NFC read and manual interaction with the instrument, I want to halt the espresso test for 3-4 minutes.Can we have the automated and manual interaction at the same time during espresso tests.Is Idling resources an option as there are going to be UI changes during the halt.