A beeper-app for your cell phone

Suppose your cell phone has an app that sends out a shrill, recognizable whistle every hour for two seconds or something like that. It could be handy if you ever get caught under a lot of debris from a falling building. You would obviously like to be able to keep it turned off most of the time, but then you have to hope that if you get caught in an earthquake, you are able to reach for your phone and turn the app on!

Or perhaps, the app can be programmed to sense that signals from cell phone towers have stopped coming and turn the beeper-app on.  It would act as a kind of black box for the individual.

As an additional feature, you can make the whistle a frequency-modulated signal carrying your cell phone number or a contact number of someone who is to be contacted. If the rescue team carries a cell phone equipped with the same app, it could decode the signal from the buried phone and display it.

Skiers and hikers could also use this app. In addition to an audible whistle, the app could send text messages that can be picked up by some specialized equipment that rescue teams could carry. The design of such equipment is itself an interesting project; it would have to work in the absence of normal coverage by a cellular network. Can one use microcell equipment for this purpose? It is worth investigating: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcell

The European Commission has co-funded a project for cell-phone assisted rescue work: 

http://www.rescuecell.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Press-Release-RescueCell-vFINAL.pdf

You may also find the following item interesting: 

http://news.cnet.com/Turning-cell-phones-into-lifelines/2100-1039_3-6140794.html

Using your cell phone as a weapon for self defence

Imagine a special button on your cell phone. In an emergency, such as a situation in which you are afraid you are about to be attacked by a criminal, point the cell phone at him and press the button to take his photo - this may well be the last photograph you take! The picture would be sent instantaneously for safekeeping to a remote server with location and time information. The audio channel would be switched on and a loud warning issued to the attacker; something like "Your photograph has been sent to the police. Avoid all violence!" Any conversation would be recorded and preserved on the server. The record would be preserved for use by the law & order authorities later on. Text and or email alerts would be sent to a set of pre-stored addresses.

The attacker would probably grab the phone and smash it, providing a useful distraction. You can improve the situation by throwing the phone into a bush or over a fence! Would the attacker be enraged and punish you? I cannot predict what will happen in the individual case but if the world comes to know that many people carry cell phones equipped with such an invention, attacks would surely come down.

The company or agency running the server should not allow the cell phone “owner” to retrieve or delete any recording sent to it. It should be treated as police property for investigation and use in a court.

Why did I think of such an invention? I was reading a very interesting article on the website of AAAS Science

To foster complex societies, tell people a god is watching

Obviously, belief in an omnipresent god deters a lot of people from anti-social behavior. The fear is particularly effective as “god can punish you even after you are dead!”

I believe that the ubiquitous cell phone could have significant deterrent effect too!

Why do I publish this in a blog meant for students? I hope that some of them will implement a project based on this idea or an improved version. The implementation may be as simple as an app; you don't really need a special button!

CCTV cameras are playing a useful role in helping police catch criminals. I would like every cell phone to function as something equivalent to a CCTV camera. There is usually a cell phone wherever there is a potential victim! 

App to Monitor Electrical energy Usage

I got bills for Rs 1998 in November, Rs 2547 in December and Rs 3011 in January. Was the increase due only to some increased usage in winter? After all, hot water geysers probably gobble up more energy than any other device!  Air conditioners may use more energy, but we do not have one. Our cooking is mostly done with a gas stove.

There are allegations that meter readings as processed by the utility company have errors in them and are sometimes subject to fudging. More than all this, I would worry about thoughtless consumption of what is a scarce resource in India. Sometimes we let a geyser run for a couple of hours for no reason. Sometimes we let lights stay on unnecessarily. The best remedy for this would be to give homes a true power meter which shows the instantaneous power consumption in watts or kilowatts. It could also show the accumulated charge for the current billing period, displaying the number of chargeable units and an estimated charge in the appropriate currency. In most cities, the charging is done on a slab basis indicating the rate per KWh as a function of the number of units consumed. It may be sufficient if an average rate/KWh is used to display estimated charges, on the basis of the average consumption in units per month in the house.

The basic idea is to create awareness of consumption of a scarce resource and to enable the user to manage consumption intelligently, reducing energy wastage. 

There is no standard for an interface for a device like this to be connected to house wiring. One possibility is to see if a fuse holder can be modified so that it continues to work as a current limiter and at the same time gives a measurement of instantaneous current being drawn. However, this could raise issues of safety and legality.

Would a simple display unit integrated into the sensor holder do? It would be the most inexpensive solution. Or would a cell phone be better to tap the computing and display capabilities of the cell phone? These are design issues to be tackled.

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Getting an auto rickshaw at your doorstep!

This blog has discussed this issue earlier and has suggested a few related project ideas: 

http://www.newstudentresearch.blogspot.in/2013/03/virtual-cars-for-everyone.html
http://www.newstudentresearch.blogspot.in/2009/01/potential-impact-of-cellular-technology.html

The purpose of this posting today is to suggest a simple project you can implement in a day or two, excluding a few days of learning time if that is necessary in your case. I will describe it in the Indian context mentioning “autos”, that is auto rickshaws. Obviously it will work for a variety of vehicles such as cabs, and even the inter-city buses that wait for passengers!

The suggestion is this: Create a website at which auto drivers can register, giving their name, cell phone number and vehicle number. Later, they should be able to send a short message to a server, giving the location at which they are waiting for passengers. They should mention a clear landmark, for example: Lal bagh.

The site will display over the Web a table giving driver’s phone number and location giving city name as well. Any one requiring an auto could do a web search mentioning something like this:

Site:www.getauto.in   Lal bagh

and select one of the displayed phone numbers. The rest of the work of contacting the driver and giving him the pickup address is left to the user. Later on one can add additional facilities like sending the user an SMS/email giving driver name and site registration number (SRN). In the rare event it is required, the police can use the SRN, contact the site and get driver’s license number, etc.

Remember – only the simplest ideas work first! You can of course write an App, but wait.Should you expect the auto driver to have 2G or 3G connectivity? Or should you try to build a system with an SMS interface? I suggest that you first focus on using a 2G/3G connection. Postpone your market expansion program for the present.

Srinivasan Ramani