Keep Me Safe

Amon’s phone was stolen twice freshman year. He had the app “Lookout,” but the app was useless because the thief turned the phone off and he could not track his phone. This app allows you to set a password to lock your phone so that the mobile device does not turn off when the power button is held. When the power button is held, a screen will cover the options asking for the password set by the phone’s owner. If the password is entered correctly, the screen will disappear, revealing the power options. If the password is entered incorrectly, the current location of the phone will be sent to the email address registered with the account and also take a picture via the front camera. We built the app using App Inventor 2. Since App Inventor uses the block coding, the blocks could only do a certain operation. Having to find ways to make complex operations using simple blocks was the most difficult challenge we ran into while creating this app. One accomplishment is configuring a RGB algorithm. Another accomplishment is getting simple blocks that have certain operations to do complex operations and to catch errors by the user. Database configuration and usage is another accomplishment. We learned that it takes a lot of time to create an app. Also, we learned that it takes many “if” statements to catch all the user’s mistakes so the app functions correctly. The next steps for Keep Me Safe are to further develop the app using Amazon Web Services credits that was given to us for winning 1st place in the 4th District Congressional App Challenge. Also, as a result of developing the app using professional assistance and professional software, we plan to make the app compatible with iOS and Android operating systems and making the app available to download for both iOS users and Android users.