PhoneFinder

Inspiration

Everyone has misplaced their phone and it is a pain to find it. During this Hackathon alone we have seen 3 people lose their phones. We want to make that easier.

What it does

Communicates to your phone via Wi-Fi. The user interacts with a GUI to send instructions to vibrate, ring, record, gain contact list, use flashlight, enable gps, and turn on battery saver mode as a last ditch effort to keep your phone from dying.

How I built it

We created communication between a server in Python and a client in Android studio using socket objects. The user clicks GUI buttons (PyQt5) to send instructions to phone. All communication is pure byte data to ensure a fast and robust communication.

Challenges I ran into

Android saves sound files in a .3gp format by default. We could not get the file to save as a .mp3, send, and be decoded effectively. Also, an android studio socket does not stop reading for new data unless a newline character is recieved.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We are able to turn volume on even when the phone is on silent. This application works even when the phone is in sleep mode.

What I learned

Before this hackathon, I had no experience with Python or computer communication. I now understand sockets and client-server communication, and how to make an effective and visually appealing GUI. My partner learned Android API. We both learned how the languages communicate and the common issues that need to be debugged due to differences in communication styles.

What's next for PhoneFinder

PhoneFinder can be used to communicate with someones phone from a computer. The possible uses are endless. What we specifically want to program next is functionality to take pictures of the phone's surroundings for increased visual information on the phone's whereabouts.

Built With

• android-studio-and-python