ODU Safety Button
Presented by Wayne StilwellCS 495
Fall 2011
Recap
• Allow students to contact police in situations where they cannot talk.
• Help request is triggered by pressing the power button 5 times.
• The student’s location, basic information, and an audio recording is sent to the police.
Why Audio and No Video
• Not safe to take phone out when being robbed.– If phone stays in your pocket, video is useless.
What I Completed
• GUI• Load GPS locations• Send SMS automatically
(“behind the scenes”)• Send Email
automatically (with attachment)
• Record audio automatically
• Detect if WiFi is connected
• Let user select or take a picture and save it to my application
• Allow user to cancel a request if sent accidentally
• Status bar notification• Geocode address
What Needs to be Added/Fixed
• Don’t allow the app to trigger help requests off campus.
• Detect if GPS is enabled• Get email working flawlessly• Length of audio recording is not consistent• Other things I’ll discover during the demo
Problems I Faced
• Used JavaMail API to send email “behind the scenes”.– Doesn’t seem to work when WiFi is off.• Send SMS to email address instead• Doesn’t allow me to add attachments
– WiFi seems to turn off when the screen goes off• Used a wake lock (ACQUIRE_CAUSES_WAKEUP) to turn
screen on, wake-up WiFi, and send the email• Not ideal
Problems I Faced
• Could not figure out how to send MMS automatically
• Google temporarily locked my account– Thought I was spamming– Luckily I was emailing myself, so the messages that
were blocked still appeared in my inbox– Possible solution: make students enter their email
address
Main Screen
• Request Help– To contact police
immediately– Confirmation pop-up
first
• Call ODU Police– Returns to this screen
when call ends.
• Profile• About
Profile Screen
• User can enter their name, gender, and select a picture.
• “Select Picture” button opens up the photo gallery.– The picture is resized
and saved to the app.
About Screen
• Gives basic tips and information on how to use the application.
