Application development on an Android smart-phone

• Main Author: Udit Batra
• Other Authors: Yeo Chai Kiat
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Computer science and engineering::Software::Operating systems
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/48857
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

With mobile devices becoming exceedingly popular and greatly affordable, there is an ever growing number of people who own these devices. In addition, mobile devices such as smart-phones provide a myriad number of functionalities to a user – diverse means of staying connected (phone calls, internet, Bluetooth), games, schedulers and several other features, making smart-phones an important part of someone’s life. Mobile phones are quickly becoming an indispensable tool. It is in this context that the need for mobile-protection applications has grown so dramatically. With mobile devices integrated so thoroughly with peoples’ lives, their loss is felt very acutely. Misplacing a smart-phone or having one stolen can have serious consequences for individuals. This project is an attempt to design an application which facilitates the location and recovery of a mobile device which has been misplaced or stolen. It allows the owner of a mobile device to control certain features of the device without direct access to it. This control is achieved by sending the smart-phone instructions via text messages, through any other phone. The application intercepts all incoming messages and checks them for a certain password which uniquely identifies the owner. It then activates a specific feature based on the accompanying command. The alarm modules turn on a piercing alarm at full volume and can lock the phone if the owner suspects it has been stolen. The Locater module triangulates the location of the phone and sends back the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates to the user, allowing easy recovery. The audio, camera and video modules can surreptitiously record audio, take pictures or record videos, and email or upload them to a remove server, providing an owner more information about the current environment of the missing phone. Programming of the code was done using the Android SDK in the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Code was written using a combination of Java and XML. Overall, the application is successful in presenting an integrated solution to finding missing or stolen phones. Due to the limitations of the Android OS, certain existing features have unavoidable inconveniences, and some features could not be developed, providing much potential for the future growth of the application.