Astute Remote Monitor(c) by Johannes Schneider
... is an application to observe
objects distantly using a mobile phone. It can send pictures to your PC and
triggers an alarm on certain conditions. It takes pictures on alarm and
transmits them.
Sample Applications
o
Is
anybody using(turning on) some electrical device, e.g. TV, PC, washing machine?
o
place
the phone at the back of the device and use the magnetic sensor
o
Remote
Web Cam
o
place
the phone where you want to monitor and use a dummy alarm trigger (e.g.
temperature <1000). Pictures are sent every few seconds.
o
Somebody
entering the house? E.g. Are your parents
coming home? (Don t get caught if you are doing something they do not want...)
o
When did your kids come home last
night?
o
place
the phone on the entrance door and use movement monitoring or use light
monitoring
o
Nail
them down with the picture, if you aren t home yourself
o
Did
your mom go through your stuff while you were at school?
o
place
the phone in the fridge and use temperature surveillance
o
Baby
monitoring: Is your baby sleeping quietly or crying?
o
put
the phone in the room with your kid and use noise monitoring
o
A
picture is sent to you on alarm!
But attention! Learn the basics how
your phone and its sensors work first!
DOWNLOAD
PROFESSIONAL VERSION on phone: www.android.com/market/
PROFESSIONAL VERSION PC App: http://www.dcg.ethz.ch/~jschneid/Download/PCApp_AStuteRemoteMonitor_103.zip
(PC App) requires JAVA DOWNLOAD FREE: http://www.java.com/en/download/
FEEDBACK/QUESTIONS
Drop a line to vollkoff@yahoo.com
What can my phone/the app measure?
Basically the Astute Remote
Monitor(c) makes use of all sensors in your phone.
Typically, these include:
Movements, Noise, Proximity, Light,
Orientation, Camera (GPS monitoring and more will be supported in the next
release)
Some phones come additionally with
temperature, pressure
How will I be notified?
You can choose
o
Mail
o
SMS
o
Call
(upcoming version)
o
PC/Computer:
An app (PC Astute
Remote Monitor(c) ) for desktop computers is included
for Astute Remote Monitor(c) that plays an alarm sound
and creates a blinking screen and displays pictures.
o
Phone
to phone via Internet: is coming up...
What if there is an incoming
call/text message while the phone is somewhere else?
You will be notified.
Does this work with slow internet
connection?
Yes, but to transmit pictures you
need about 10 kB/s. Thus any WiFi connection is usually more than sufficient. If
you require lower speed let us know: vollkoff@yahoo.com
Why is this app a good app?
Try the free version and judge
yourself! We claim:
o
a
lot of functionality
o
Considers
almost all available sensors
o
Many
notification schemes
o
Live
web cam: An App for desktop computers is included (see Download) for Astute
Remote Monitor(c)
o
easy
to use interface
o
A
four step process to start monitoring
o
Apart
from automatic configuration it is easy to define customized alarm conditions
o
low
price
It is done in cooperation with a
Swiss person, where privacy is more important than anywhere else in the world.
How can I set it up?
It takes a few steps, just launch the
app. It is useful to read the part below: Background on setting things up.
Minimimum Requirements
Android Phone with OS 1.5 or higher;
(IPhone App is coming up)
For PC App: Java 1.6 or higher, download
free: http://www.java.com/en/download/
Recommended
Android Phone with OS 2.2 or higher;
I want something similar/new
features/I am facing problems...
Drop a line to vollkoff@yahoo.com
FAQ: Frequently asked questions
o
An
alarm is triggered, but I get nothing on my PC! Try the following:
1)Reboot your phone and check internet connection (go to
browser, search something arbitrary to see that internet works)
2)Restart the app on PC, Enter Email, Press (Re)ConnectTo
phone and monitor
3)Start the app on the phone
4)Choose Alarm Trigger Movement, Choose Above my value, Enter
my value 1
5)Choose Notify Computer and Get pictures continously
6)Press Start on Phone and wait for 5s
7) Shake phone and an alarm should be triggered
If this did not do it, copy and paste the log from the PC
App, describe the problem and send it to vollkoff@yahoo.com; I try to have a look at it
o
It
seems very slow.
In general you cannot have a lot of
background while monitoring. The App basically requires the full device.
Running many other heavy load processes puts its stability at risk, if the
camera is used.
o
I
do not like the alarm sound on the PC App.
Just go to the application folder (search
for AStuteRemote) and delete alarm.mp3 or replace it, but use only short mp3
(1-2 secs).
o
I
see pictures but they look too dark/ too white.
The light sensor of the camera should
not be blocked. So try it while holding the camera the same way if you took a picture.
If this does not work reboot the phone, the camera service might have some
issue.
o
I
get an alarm but no pictures or pictures stop transmitting.
If other processes use the camera at
the same time or lots of other processes are running the camera service might
crash. Reboot the phone and use only one.
o
I
get the error: ERROR Connecting to Internet ...or Server down. Please retry
later
Retry in a day or two, in case the
server is down. But if you cannot use Skype/chat programs because of a firewall
(often company firewalls are very strict and do not allow this kind of
communication we or other programs need), you must disable the firewall. Also
check that you really have Internet connection.
Background on setting things up
For easy configuration we provided
some preset values. But there is no app and not even an engineer that can
preset all values for all applications. Thus in some cases customizing might be
preferred. For example, if there is already some dimmed background light
present and turning on the main light is not too much of a difference.
Customizing is very simple: The currently measured sensor values are shown on
the screen. You simply look at the value of the phone during normal conditions
(weak background light) and during alarm conditions (main light on) and set the
alarm value somewhere in between. Generally, we recommend to use values close
to the normal state to be sure that the alarm goes off. However, sensors and
phones are of different quality. For example, for many phones proximity is
often binary, i.e. either close (< 2 inches/ 5 centimeters) or far. There is
nothing in between. The measured value of a sensor heavily depends on:
o
How
and where you place the phone. It makes a big difference, whether you place
your phone one meter (three feet) closer to a light source or further away. Also
some signals, e.g. noise, often has strong variation in intensity.
o
The
location of the sensors within the phone. If you put your phone on a table such
that light sensor is hidden from any light, naturally, the phone will not
detect if the alarm goes off.
We strongly recommend that you test the alarm with a weak trigger, e.g. at
situations which are much below the value you expect the alarm to go off, i.e.
close to the minimum threshold. For instance, if you want to see when the light
was turned on, you set up the app and place the phone and check if the alarm
goes off under weaker light. E.g. when you place the phone further from the
light source then you intend to install it for monitoring. So how well does it
work after all?
There are certain limits for the
sensors. Generally, anything that happens that you as a human can detect very
easily, the sensors can detect as well. But be careful there are limitations
regarding the necessary time and intensity:
o
Duration
of an event: Very short events can be hard to detect. Everything that lasts
less than a few seconds might be tricky to detect, i.e. a light blink, a
movement lasting a few milliseconds, temperature drop/increase; Some sensors
also have a relatively large inherent inertia, i.e. need time to detect
changes. However, for the optimized Astute Remote Monitor(c)
app and for our test phones we found the following regarding timing of the most
used sensors
o
Light:
A change in lighting that lasts 4 seconds can be considered very safe to
detect. Usually, 1 second or less is enough.
o
Movements:
A change in lighting that lasts 2 seconds can be considered very safe to
detect. Usually, 1/2 of a second or less is enough.
o
Noise:
A change lasting for 2 seconds can be considered very safe to detect. Usually,
1/4 of a second or less is enough.
o
Intensity
of an event: All sensors have precision limitations.
o
Light:
No camera can capture a picture at dawn as well as your eyes. But generally
contrasting between dark, semi-dark and bright is doable reliably.
o
Movements:
Slow movements at constant speed are hard to determine since most phones only
measures changes in speed, i.e. accelerations. It is easy to detect
accelerations, e.g. the beginning and end of a movement. If you move your phone
1/2 m (2 feet) on a table within 2 seconds, it is very safe to detect. The
limits are reached if you do the same thing in about 10 seconds. But check
yourself on your phone!
o
Noise:
The sensor is quite good. To distinguish between more than 5 levels can be done
safely.
To get a feel for the sensor just
watch how the values change.
When is the battery down?
If the battery is charged the application
works for a few hours - depending on the phone , but it requires quite some
power.
Is this guaranteed to work?
What if the battery is down? Internet
connection fails? Android crashes? The sensor does not detect the alarm?
You will always be notified when
battery is low. If you use the included PC Astute Remote Monitor(c)
App you will also be informed if the internet connection is bad or most of the
issues that the phone and the app run into, while monitoring. The bad news is
that Android (at least up to version 2.2) and phone manufactures do not give
any guarantees and how often and when they perform measurements. This is partly
due to the fact that the phone can be busy (or overloaded due to other apps or
internal stuff) and thus cannot perform any measurements for a while. The good
news is that given you do not run many resource consuming apps concurrently,
the sensors are practically guaranteed to measure within reasonable times, i.e.
way more than you need for most applications. Thus, any claims by any app (e.g.
of some baby monitoring apps) that it works 100% is a pure lie. However, if you
are happy with 99% reliability (nothing comes with 100% reliability ... you can
use the phone for a lot of applications.
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