[Request] Car Alarm type app for G sensor

[djfuego]

This is a bit of a cool gimiky app well it's like 2 apps in one.

Anti theft so if your phone is moved (Picked UP) it makes a car alarm sound and if you put it down it makes the Blip Blip sound to say it's armed.

And the other is a sort of fun mode so if it is moved It will play pre recorded sounds like "Oi put me down!"

I suppose you could call it a warning mode.

Has anyone thought or is thinking about making this?

[quark1980]

i geuss it would be very basic to make...
i dont programm, so here is the way i think it could be programmed..

make a programm wich when it runs polls the gsensor, when it detected a change greater than normal when lying on youre desk, or a change of orientation, it would play a wavefile...

that for the alarm part...
the activate could be accomplisched in the following way...
when activated the gesensor is detecting movement because you are handeling it...
when de device is still for a 5 seconds or so.. it plays the blibblib file, and then starts the polling of the sensor above...

to make this complete it would be neccesary to enter a simple pincode to deactive the alarm sound...


i actually tried to get into programming to make this.. but my efforts where came not even close... as long as i cant programm in basic, im lost :P

anyone with a bit of spare time who could code this?

[djfuego]

Its an Idea a friend suggested.
It sounds like a really easy app to make but as I don't make apps for mobiles yet I wouldn't know how to build one
I could help with the GUI interface.


the rules would be simple.

when the phone is jogged for about a second play a warning sound.

Then the phone is picked up and jogged violently play the alarm sound looping.

when the phone settles down again play the rearm sound.

The guy who did the lightsaber app could whip this one up

[sakkehh]

Sounds fun and useful :) espescially at home where kids tend to touch everything and move things around..

Hope this gets wind :cool:

[bobgreen]

Will it cost much battery?
I guess...

[optionj]

I don't think it will cost much battery, provided you don't keep picking it up!

[quark1980]

indeed..

it just polling the gsensor... that shouldnt drain too much...
anyway, when i leave it lying at my desk its most of the time thetered anyway...
graficly it dont has to be very much...

[norkoastal]

This could be a very funny and useful tool!!!!

Have a barking dog noise when the phone is touched.
Have a woman screaming when the "alarm" is set off...
Have a GPS tracker tool triggered once this program is launched.
Have the camera activate once the alarm goes off
Have the phone shut off with a special lock code when in "scream" mode.

:D

[djfuego]

So it's agreed. then.. who can we ask to make this?

[bobgreen]

This could be a very funny and useful tool!!!!

Have a barking dog noise when the phone is touched.
Have a woman screaming when the "alarm" is set off...
Have a GPS tracker tool triggered once this program is launched.
Have the camera activate once the alarm goes off
Have the phone shut off with a special lock code when in "scream" mode.

:D
Diamond's battery is only 900mAh, if GPS and camera are turned on, it will cost too much battery.
Athough Gsensor and Lightsensor cost little battery, but what I thought is, if the system should be always turned on (when screen is off)?
I don't know much about that, just guess~
Who can answer?

[Rones]

Good idea! Here is the car-locking sound!!

This is a bit of a cool gimiky app well it's like 2 apps in one.

Anti theft so if your phone is moved (Picked UP) it makes a car alarm sound and if you put it down it makes the Blip Blip sound to say it's armed.

And the other is a sort of fun mode so if it is moved It will play pre recorded sounds like "Oi put me down!"

I suppose you could call it a warning mode.

Has anyone thought or is thinking about making this?

(You sould change the title of your topic to get more intrest, like g-sensor car alarm?)

[djfuego]

The application could be set to activate when the backlight is inactive.
in a similar way to the S2unlock application in that respect.
Can you poll the G sensor less frequently to save battery life? every 0.5 seconds
I can't see how running this as well as other apps will kill the battery any faster than if you where playing Teeter for a long period.

[quark1980]

i`m with stupid ;)

anyways..
nobody who has posted here seems to have programming skills(incuding myself), but the idee is imho a good one..

we just need the app to do the basic alarm thing wich i posted already.. choosing youre own sounds for the different events would be nice tough...
i have no problem to manually activate the alarm(an thus it doesnt need to be "silent" in the taskmanager, otherwise the thing would go off in my pocket when i walk around.. just start teh exe and its active... when enter the correct pin it shuts down again..)
it could be possible to trigger an event, or a external program whenever a alarm is given.. this makes it easier for other developers/user to add functions they need, like a gps logger or wathever.. it doenst need to be hardcoded i mean... just a event trigger to an choosable exe would be suffient...

so...
in the meantime ill keep dreaming sombody does have the time...
but i think it would be a rather popular app when developed, a have seen already many question for software like this...

ill try to clarify in the hopes somebody gets inspirated ;)

- start software
- 10 poll sensor for 5 seconds.
- 20 if valeus differ too much then goto 10 else goto 30
- 30 play sound1 (beebbeeb)
- 40 poll g sensor
- 50 store valeus x-y-z in file/memory Z
- 60 poll sensor, valeus x-y-z.
- 70 if valeus polled differ more compared to memory play sound2 (alarm) else goto 60
- 80 execute external command
- 90 if alarm is ringing execute pin-routine, if correct pin is entered terminate alarm exe


mah, i told you im not a programmer...... but hopefully it will clarify my idea about this software

furtermore.. changing the topictitle into [REQ] CarAlarm-like software would be more suited as topictitle

[djfuego]

I've posted the GUI for the app

[Rones]

Great! Keep up te good work!!

[quark1980]

the gui is just a grafical representation on how WE think it should work...

so far no-one has posted who is willing to code..

:(

[Rones]

Is there nobody who wants to try to make a application?

[harleysat]

Very good idea..I let my phone always behind on my desk and i am thinking that somebody looks into the phone. This is very usefull to protect my phone..
When is the program ready?:p

[addy.cdc]

Hi there! I have a little experience with .NET CF programming, and took a look at this thread... Any way, this is my first post on this forum :)

I think this application is not so hard to program.. The only problem would be that in the Stand-by mode, the G-sensor cannot be polled (correct me if I`m wrong). All the applications are suspended (except for the notifications and usual phone processes).

I think the application would work OK if the alarm is triggered when the phone is picked up from the initial place and woken up from standby mode (e.g. if an unwanted person tries to take a look in your phone :p).

This surely saves a lot of battery than preventing the phone to enter standby mode plus polling the G-sensor often).

So what do you guys think?


[Edit] I just found another way to poll the G-sensor every x seconds. The application can be opened even in stand-by mode, check the sensor values, then go back to sleep.

[Thilo T.]

I´m currently working on this gadget but there are/were quite some problems:
1: The diamond has to stay on under all circumstances! If it goes into the suspend mode, the alarm program will also suspend and therefore stop polling gsensor values. This is solved.
2. How to disable or turn off the alarm? I decided to integrate two ways of handling this subject: 1. you can choose to turn it face down and the triggered alarm will stop, respectivly the alarm system will be disabled. 2. You can enter a self-chosen PIN. The problem with this is, that when the alarm system is active and you choose to enter the PIN to disarm it, you have be quick (3sec) otherwise the alarm will go off. If I wouldn´t handle it this way, a thief could snatch the phone and try to enter a PIN while pausing the alarm system doing so.
3. And this is point unfortunately is still not solved: I don´t know how to disable the hardwarebuttons (power, volume, home ...) of the diamond.
4. When finished I want to make a cab file from the project, so that installing is made easier.

So right now the gadget works, but problem No. 3 remains. If you do keep the diamond in a pouch or case it works ok but if you leave it uncovered, someone who tries to steal it, can disarm the alarm system.
Therefor I´m not really satisfied with my work so far and I don´t have much time around this time of the year because I´m married, have a little daughter and still need to do christmas shopping; then come the festivities... ;)
I guess if I can manage to control the hardware buttons I can post the completed project sometime in January.

bye,

Thilo

[addy.cdc]

[Edited] Meanwhile, Thilo finished the application, and here is his post with the application release:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=3159925&postcount=26

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Thilo! Nice to see someone else is working on this app too :)

About the #3 problem.. I think a good workaround would be to minimize the application when the alarm is armed... Or better than this, open another thread (that has no form associated to it) and poll the sensor / raise the alarm when needed. This process could be hidden from the task manager, and could be quite hard to kill (for the ordinary user that is ;) )

About the hardware buttons, I think there are ways to disable them (or at least not react to them in this application), but I haven`t had the time to look into this yet.

I just started working on this app this morning... I almost finished the GUI and the next step would be to play around with the G-sensor. But as you said, the Christmas holiday is coming so the time is limited for me too :D

Good luck on your project, and please keep us posted about it.

AddY.

[Thilo T.]

Hi Thilo! Nice to see someone else is working on this app too :)

About the #3 problem.. I think a good workaround would be to minimize the application when the alarm is armed... Or better than this, open another thread (that has no form associated to it) and poll the sensor / raise the alarm when needed. This process could be hidden from the task manager, and could be quite hard to kill (for the ordinary user that is ;) )

About the hardware buttons, I think there are ways to disable them (or at least not react to them in this application), but I haven`t had the time to look into this yet.

I just started working on this app this morning... I almost finished the GUI and the next step would be to play around with the G-sensor. But as you said, the Christmas holiday is coming so the time is limited for me too :D

Good luck on your project, and please keep us posted about it.

AddY.

Hi AddY,
IMHO hiding the thread from any taskmanager is not a problem. I´ve searched already quite sometime and I didn´t find a solution for #3. The problem is that it depends on the hardware manufacturer to stay to ms guidelines when implementing e.g. those buttons.
I´m able to intercept messages from the wheel button. But that solution doesn´t work for the rest of the buttons.
I´ll post an, lets call it alpha ;), version shortly.
So, if anyone knows how to control the volume keys and the power button, the project can be finished.

bye,
Thilo

[quark1980]

first of all, many tnx to the 2 guys who picked up this request.

i am looking forward to see the first results...


furthermore, merry x-mas and all the best for 2009..

[cicinka]

This app exist for symbian phones like n95, caller nAlertMe,
Activation and deactivation is coded by special movement :).

[harleysat]

Thanks a lot Thilo and addy

Nice to hear that you guys makes the program.
I`m looking forward to use your programs:)
Everyone have a nice Christmas.

[Thilo T.]

Hi everyone,
after quite some hours of work, you can take a look at my version of the alarm app.
After you installed the app and started it, you can arm the alarm by klicking on the huge green "Arm System" button. Then you´ll have X seconds to place the device somewhere. After this delay, the alarm system is active.
You can use the setup menue to adjust certain settings.
There are 2 ways of turning the alarm off or to disarm the device:
1. turn it face down
2. enter a PIN (not THE PIN, but a self chosen 4 digit number) - you have to be quick here ;)
Just play around with the setting and you´ll see how it works.
Now to the bad part of this posting:
Unfortunately I was not able to gain control over the volume buttons and the power button.
So if anyone knows of a way to control these buttons, I´ll gladly update my solution. I´ve been looking around code guru, code project, ...
Since my spare time is limited, I won´t recode the project in C++ or anything else. So I would need a solution in C#.
Also I didn´t get the Icon to show up. Does anyone know, how this can be done? What size does the icon have to be of to be displayed correctly in the shortcuts (e.g. start menue\programs)?
Even though it´s not quite finished, I still hope you have some fun with this gadget.

cu,

Thilo

P.S. be sure to have the compact net framework 3.5 installed

current version no. is: 0.0.6.1

fixed:
- PIN is now saved (thanks to djfuego for that hint!)
- when "cancel" is pressed in the PIN unlocking menue, gyro alarm is rearmed and will go off as soon as you move the phone
- the main form will stay on top and maximized (as long as you don´t press any keys)

still open:
- disable the hardware buttons for volume control and power!!! <<-- biggest problem so far and no solution in sight :(
- main form to stay on top and maximized no matter what key is pressed

One thing about the PIN unlocking and disabling the alarm at all:
The time you have to enter the PIN is 3 seconds. That is really not much, but think about someone snatching your device from a table: if I´d allow more time, someone could just press the "Disable Alarm" button and walk right off with it (as long as he/she doesn´t change it´s relative position that is).
On the other hand, I still don´t know how to access the volume buttons and the power button, which could become a "feature" in this case ;) :
If you want to take the device out of e.g. your jacket, just hit the power button or the volume down button and the alarm will go off silently.
After all it´s just a nice gadget and shouldn´t be taken too serious.
As for the path´s:
I´m german and therefore I´m using a german os, so please just edit the mp3 paths "by hand", if you use a non german os. In the future I might include a language selection but before that I´d like to gain control of the hardware buttons (volume and power).
Also plz always install the app to phone memory. I don´t know why the shortcuts fail. If you do install it to the external memory, you´ll have to make the shortcuts by yourself (using the total commander e.g.).

[McHale]

I'm surprised nobody thought of this before (me included). This is a great idea. Had Brad Pitt had this in Ocean's Twelve, his cell phone never would have been stolen. :)

As far as the programming goes, if you made this app run when the device locked (like S2U) then the buttons would be disabled while the device was locked. To unlock it, you would need to enter your code.

Just a thought...

Haven't installed it yet but it sounds excellent so far.

-Mc

[quark1980]

hi,

first of all, GOOD WORK! ;)

it seems to work just fine..
for execpt just one minor thing...
it doesnt make any sound :p

in setup i found it pointed to the mp3 files for the sounds.
at first it pointed to the german style "/Programme/GyroAlarm/beepbeep.mp3"

hoewever when i changed it into "Programmabestanden/GyroAlarm/beepbeep.mp3" this doesnt help it..

also i tried copying the complete program into a new directory called Programme so as it would when i had a german phone.. but still no sounds...

any hints where to seek to find a solution?

[onscam]

It works great here, I installed it to the device, changed the mp3 paths to

\Program Files\GyroAlarm\beepbeep.mp3

\Program Files\GyroAlarm\Alarm1.mp3


Thanks

[quark1980]

didnt try the english paths, ill try that first, but for now just no sounds...
however it means that the problems relate somehow to the different languages....

edit.

so tried some different things...

the solution seems to be: install it in the phone memory not the sd memory..

that fixed the problem...

[gsessons]

I can't wait until this app is fully completed, now my girl will get freaked out when she trys to sneak my phone............... ha ahah ahahahahaha

[Thilo T.]

I´ll have a look into those bugs tonight.
I got really frustrated last night, when all of a sudden my C# project was messed up but now I´m already feeling better ;).
BTW: the only difference between the english and the german version are path settings. The visible text is in english in all versions.
I´ll test tonight with an emulated english wm6.

cu,

Thilo

[djfuego]

YESS!
Ace app..
Freeeking COOL!

Can you make the application minimize after it is armed?
Or add a tick box in the setup.

Another problem is the edit boxes with the path of the sounds in. they are fixed width so if you have a sound that is too long you cant use it.
I would suggest a button that could take you to a file selector "[..]"

Brilliant app...Woohoo.
My mate is thinking about getting a Diamond now as he thinks this is the best app for a phone.. ever!

Custom pin numbers don't seem to save when I OK the setup screen even if they are 4 digits.
It's still a cool app though.

Requests for changes (you can tell me where to go but I can ask can't I?)

Re arm if no sensor movement for X seconds
Skinning the buttons and alarm pictures
Warning sound option so you get a warning message and if the phone isn't returned to the same position it was in before then the alarm triggers.

Awesome app though. Hah I knew everyone would like it.

[nblakqori]

It works great here, I installed it to the device, changed the mp3 paths to

\Program Files\GyroAlarm\beepbeep.mp3

\Program Files\GyroAlarm\Alarm1.mp3


Thanks

yea, this works for me too,

thanks thilo,

[quark1980]

I´ll have a look into those bugs tonight.
I got really frustrated last night, when all of a sudden my C# project was messed up but now I´m already feeling better ;).
BTW: the only difference between the english and the german version are path settings. The visible text is in english in all versions.
I´ll test tonight with an emulated english wm6.

cu,

Thilo

i think the language difference only affect some path settings, nothing really big.
choosing to install on internal memory instead of device memory, make a huge difference..

device memory works fine after changing paths, internal memory (SD) cant seem to produce any sounds....

one other bug i encountered is when using S2U2 (slide to unlock) if the device is armed, and locked with slide to unlock, it also produces no sound...
it seems the 2 pieces of software are battelling for priority then :P

[ant611982]

I love this Application, it was a class idea and as soon as the minor issues are sorted it'll be even better.

Keep up the great work :D

[lubiak]

very cool app..thanks

[onscam]

After more use it really is a great app - thanks so much to the maker....

It would be good if once armed - instead of it sounding the alarm everytime, you could press a hardware button to disarm, or a key combination - prior to alarm going off.

Just a thought....

[harley4]

this is great, thx

It makes a icon in start menu, here is startmenu write at once. Had to put the icon from start menu >> startmenu.

[quark1980]

After more use it really is a great app - thanks so much to the maker....

It would be good if once armed - instead of it sounding the alarm everytime, you could press a hardware button to disarm, or a key combination - prior to alarm going off.

Just a thought....

what you mean is a delay before the sounds begin, to be able to disarm without all the noise?

[band27]

After more use it really is a great app - thanks so much to the maker....

It would be good if once armed - instead of it sounding the alarm everytime, you could press a hardware button to disarm, or a key combination - prior to alarm going off.

Just a thought....

Yes.....good idea. Like a 3 second count down. Hopefully by then, the thief doesn't sprint off with your phone...lol

[Thilo T.]

YESS!
Re arm if no sensor movement for X seconds
Skinning the buttons and alarm pictures
Warning sound option so you get a warning message and if the phone isn't returned to the same position it was in before then the alarm triggers.

What exactly do you mean with "Re arm if no sensor movement for X seconds"?
As for the skins: I like KISS (keep it simple stupid ;)), so in the very end, when the one major bug (volume and power button control) is terminated, I will move on to the "make it pretty" stage in programming ;).
I also thought about a warning sound, but I thinks that would give a thief extra time to get away - but I´ll keep it in mind for later.

cu,

Thilo

[Thilo T.]

Yes.....good idea. Like a 3 second count down. Hopefully by then, the thief doesn't sprint off with your phone...lol

That´s exactly the problem, especially when you think of loud pubs... The diamond is not really loud and 3s are really a long time.
my suggestion is to use the volume down key to silence the alarm.
I´ll think of a solution meanwhile ... ;)

bye,
Thilo

[orlandojumpoff]

this is a fun/good idea. id like mine to scream rape when it is moved... lol

[orlandojumpoff]

is it possible to add the beepbeep to play when you disarm or facedown?

[Thilo T.]

is it possible to add the beepbeep to play when you disarm or facedown?
Yes, it is.
I´ll implement that as soon as I´ve got some spare time ;).

cu,
Thilo

[homeplayer]

Wow

Love it,

one thing, auto disarm on incomming call.


Just perfect i will follow this treath

thanks

[orlandojumpoff]

oh and any way to have an option to turn the display off? i know pressing the power off button doesn't work (similar to how it stop music playback with certain players), but some players allow the display to turn off and continue playing so maybe it's possible with the car alarm too?

[orlandojumpoff]

looks like someone has taken it upon themselves to make another alarm app http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=473840

[Nibob]

:DAwsome app works great:D

[DeekayNL]

looks like someone has taken it upon themselves to make another alarm app http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=473840

I like this app way better!!
So I'll hope that the primairy bugs will be fixed soon :D

[m_ihab77]

Hi everyone,
after quite some hours of work, you can take a look at my version of the alarm app.
After you installed the app and started it, you can arm the alarm by klicking on the huge green "Arm System" button. Then you´ll have X seconds to place the device somewhere. After this delay, the alarm system is active.
You can use the setup menue to adjust certain settings.
There are 2 ways of turning the alarm off or to disarm the device:
1. turn it face down
2. enter a PIN (not THE PIN, but a self chosen 4 digit number) - you have to be quick here ;)
Just play around with the setting and you´ll see how it works.
Now to the bad part of this posting:
Unfortunately I was not able to gain control over the volume buttons and the power button.
So if anyone knows of a way to control these buttons, I´ll gladly update my solution. I´ve been looking around code guru, code project, ...
Since my spare time is limited, I won´t recode the project in C++ or anything else. So I would need a solution in C#.
Also I didn´t get the Icon to show up. Does anyone know, how this can be done? What size does the icon have to be of to be displayed correctly in the shortcuts (e.g. start menue\programs)?
Even though it´s not quite finished, I still hope you have some fun with this gadget.

cu,

Thilo

P.S. be sure to have the compact net framework 3.5 installed

current version no. is: 0.0.6.1

fixed:
- PIN is now saved (thanks to djfuego for that hint!)
- when "cancel" is pressed in the PIN unlocking menue, gyro alarm is rearmed and will go off as soon as you move the phone
- the main form will stay on top and maximized (as long as you don´t press any keys)

still open:
- disable the hardware buttons for volume control and power!!! <<-- biggest problem so far and no solution in sight :(
- main form to stay on top and maximized no matter what key is pressed

One thing about the PIN unlocking and disabling the alarm at all:
The time you have to enter the PIN is 3 seconds. That is really not much, but think about someone snatching your device from a table: if I´d allow more time, someone could just press the "Disable Alarm" button and walk right off with it (as long as he/she doesn´t change it´s relative position that is).
On the other hand, I still don´t know how to access the volume buttons and the power button, which could become a "feature" in this case ;) :
If you want to take the device out of e.g. your jacket, just hit the power button or the volume down button and the alarm will go off silently.
After all it´s just a nice gadget and shouldn´t be taken too serious.
As for the path´s:
I´m german and therefore I´m using a german os, so please just edit the mp3 paths "by hand", if you use a non german os. In the future I might include a language selection but before that I´d like to gain control of the hardware buttons (volume and power).
Also plz always install the app to phone memory. I don´t know why the shortcuts fail. If you do install it to the external memory, you´ll have to make the shortcuts by yourself (using the total commander e.g.).


Great work mate, works fine on my Diamond, thank you

[band27]

Just a suggestion to addy.cdc to let the forum know that this APP has actually been created, if you can change your first post to highlight / direct Thilo T. findings in POST #26 so extensive searching is diminished.

I'm not saying change your original post but underneath, add a little update sections mentioning post 26. If updates occur, at least we can expect for them to occur there.

If possible, thanks! :)
Great little app by the way!!

[clint_beukes]

Wow, what an awesome app. Well done!! Works great on my Diamond. Look forward to the updates!

[c.albert]

didnt work with turn off screen..


give an windows error or something like that.... need reset of the cell.. to exit from that error..

any fix to this problem?

[addy.cdc]

Hi Thilo T., and congrats on your application :) I am glad that someone finally finished it.

I have worked on my version of the application in December, but because I was busy with stuff, I didn`t get any chance to finish mine yet. I lost a lot of time in making the application Diamond stylish :D , and creating a more user friendly GUI.

I still have a lot of bugs to fix, and probably will discontinue developing it (because it has already been done by someone else). However I learned a lot of things while developing it, and the time was well spent :cool:


I will try to give some tips though and maybe you will find them useful:

I tried to implement what cicinka said in his post:

This app exist for symbian phones like n95, caller nAlertMe,
Activation and deactivation is coded by special movement :).

Basically the PIN code is a sequence of orientations of the phone. Maybe you can do the same in your future versions of the application (it is not that hard to implement, plus it is easier for the user to disarm the alarm this way without even touching the phone display).

Another side note would be your problem regarding the volume up/down. I tried to force the System Volume settings by setting the maximum value when the alarm is playing. And because my playback was done in a different thread, this could be done easily (i encountered some bugs here).

I had an idea on how to poll the Gsensor in standby mode, and this would probably reduce the battery consumption a lot. My idea was to start a different thread while the phone is in standby mode (using system notifications). This could easily prevent a thief from pressing the Power Button (because the device can be waken this way every x seconds) or could poll the sensor every x seconds, then go back to sleep.

And Thilo, could you please send me a PM with the dlls you used in playing mp3 files. I managed to play only WAV files, but playing mp3s would be worth knowing (for my future applications). The playback is done asynchronously?


Thanks, and again, good job on creating this application.

AddY.

[DeekayNL]

didnt work with turn off screen..


give an windows error or something like that.... need reset of the cell.. to exit from that error..

any fix to this problem?


I discovered that since the new ROM update (HTC NLD 2.03.404.2) I installed, it now works with the screen off too. Screen stays off, but the alarm goes off when the phone is moved :).
So that's a big improvement for me haha. Keep up the good work guys!