Andreas Jakl's Forum Nokia Blog

Andreas Jakl's Forum Nokia Blog http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog <p>As an Assistant Professor, I'm teaching Symbian OS at the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg, Austria. My company "Mopius" is developing mobile software with a special focus on Symbian OS.</p> mopius 2009-11-23T12:35:47Z Mobile Surveillance Tools http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2009/01/04/spyphone <p> <table align="right" border="0" cellspacing="10" width="215"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/SpyPhone_FN.jpg" alt="SpyPhone / BabyPhone" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><em>SpyPhone / BabyPhone is a Python-application that monitors the surrounding sound level. </em></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </p> <p> At the core of every mobile phone, there’s still the voice channel. Therefore, every phone is equipped with a microphone that’s optimized at recording the human voice. Add the aspect that the phone is mobile and that the owner usually carries it with him all the time, it’s no surprising thought that the phone can be used as a remote surveillance tool. </p> <p> <a href="http://beta.handango.com/HgoStore/catalog/ProductFullDetails.jsp?productId=222047" title="BiBUnit">BiBUnit</a> is based on a rather simple concept and essentially accepts incoming video calls if a previously set number is calling, allowing you to monitor the surroundings through the phone camera. <a href="http://www.8mobile.org/spyManager.aspx" title="SpyManager">SpyManager</a> on the other hand lets you take remote snapshots of through phone, also through a PC server application. </p> <p> Similar, but with a different usage scenario is <a href="http://www.symbianguru.com/phone-guardian-s60-3.html" title="PhoneGuardian">Phone Guardian</a>, which allows remotely controlling aspects of the device in case it was stolen from you. <a href="http://www.killermobile.com/newsite/mobile-software/s60-applications/secureme-%11-anti%11theft-security-application-for-s60-3rd.htm" title="SecureMe">SecureMe</a> is built based on the same concept. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.skyestream.com/cart/shopcart_spy3_main.htm" title="SkyeSpy">SkyeSpy</a> turns the situation around and alerts the observer autonomously. The application on the "spy"-phone is able to monitor the audio level of the surroundings. If it exceeds a threshold, the phone will contact a previously paired phone per SMS or a call. </p> <p> There might be other applications around that I missed, but the list should give you an overview of what is currently possible on a S60 phone. </p> <h2> SpyPhone / BabyPhone </h2> <p> Now the students <a href="mailto:clemens.rainer@fh-hagenberg.at">Clemens Rainer</a> and <a href="mailto:daniel.haslinger@fh-hagenberg.at">Daniel Haslinger</a> went up to the task of implementing this application via PyS60 and have released their results for free as an open source application called <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/spyphone.php" title="Spyphone / Babyphone">SpyPhone or BabyPhone</a>. </p> <p> Like the SkyeSpy-application, the phone constantly monitors the audio level of the surroundings. If a pre-defined threshold is exceeded, the phone automatically calls the number of a pre-defined "agent". </p> <p> A good use-case would be the monitoring of a baby. When it starts to cry, the phone will automatically call the number of the parents. As the call is a normal voice connection, they can hear what’s actually happening. If it sounds serious, it’s about time they pay a visit to the child. </p> <p> Technically, the application is constantly working on two tasks. The first records the sound into a file on the device. In the meantime, the other task analyzes the previous sound file. The next step would be to add more sophisticated sound processing to the application. Instead of just calculating the volume like SkyeSpy does it as well, it would be possible to measure the frequencies in the recorded sounds and only react if these are in the range of the human voice. </p> <p> As the <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/spyphone.php" title="SpyPhone / BabyPhone">SpyPhone / BabyPhone</a> application is available as open source, it provides an ideal starting place for your own audio experiments in <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/pys60" title="PyS60 Project Page at SourceForge">Python for S60</a>.<br /> </p> General Python S60 2009-01-04T19:07:32Z mopius Euro 2008? -> Table Soccer on your phone! http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2008/06/16/pywuzzler <p> <table align="right" border="0" cellspacing="10" width="215"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/pywuzzler_overview.jpg" alt="pyWuzzler - accelerometer controlled table soccer" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><em>pyWuzzler - accelerometer-controlled table soccer on your phone.</em></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </p> <p> Austria is currently one of the host countries of the <a href="http://www.euro2008.uefa.com/" title="Euro 2008">Euro 2008</a>, the UEFA European Football Championship. Naturally, soccer is one of the biggest topics in our country at the moment, even though our chances of winning the tournament are, well, not so high. </p> <p> To compensate for this, Benjamin Gmeiner and Yen-Chia Lin, two students of the <a href="http://www.fh-ooe.at/mc" title="FH Hagenberg - Mobile Computing">Mobile Computing department</a> of the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg (Austria), have developed a new application called “<a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/pywuzzler.php" title="pyWuzzler">pyWuzzler</a>”. </p> <p> In short, it’s a table soccer game on a S60 phone, which you control through the accelerometer. After all, Austria won the <a href="http://www.abendblatt.de/daten/2006/05/29/567563.html" title="Table Soccer World Championship 2006 (in German)">world championship in table soccer</a> in the year 2006, something that won’t happen too soon for traditional soccer. </p> <p> The whole frenetic game might be a bit too difficult to play on a phone. Therefore, the students have reduced it to a head-to-head match of the two attacking players against the goalkeeper (controlled by an artificial intelligence). Score as many goals as you can within two minutes! </p> <p align="center">   <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="350" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/jzvceJAgpX8" id="ltVideoYouTube"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jzvceJAgpX8" /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent" /> <param name="allowScriptAcess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="quality" value="best" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded" /> </object> </p> <p> How to score a goal? It’s intuitive, just by turning your phone. Change the inclination of the phone to move the attacking players (red) to the right and left. Turn the phone to trigger a shot. The movement of the ball is based on a small physics engine to simulate accurate movement. With this control scheme, you can even perform tricks like in a real table soccer match, as can be seen in the YouTube video. </p> <p> pyWuzzler is available for free from <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/pywuzzler.php" title="pyWuzzler">symbianresources.com</a>. The source code is published under the Apache Licence.<br /> </p> Entertainment Games Python 2008-06-16T18:55:49Z mopius ShakerRacer is now Open Source! http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2008/01/30/shakerracer-is-now-open-source <p>A short summary: ShakerRacer allows you to control a real RC car with the accelerometer of the N95. This means that you can turn and accelerate simply by tilting your phone. Read more at the previous <a href="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/python/2007/11/27/shakerracer" title="FN Blog post about ShakerRacer">Forum Nokia blog post</a>.</p><p><table align="left" border="0" cellspacing="10" width="215"><tbody><tr><td align="center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/ShakerRacer.jpg" border="0" alt="Close-up of the modded RC car for ShakerRacer." /></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><em>Close-up of the modded RC car that can be controlled by the accelerometer.<br /></em></td></tr></tbody></table>We have published a video of the app in November 2007 – since then, a lot of things have happened. The <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=EMjAYdF13cU" title="ShakerRacer video at youtube">video at Youtube</a> is currently at a whopping 105,000 views. The <a href="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/python/2007/11/27/shakerracer" title="ShakerRacer FN Blog post">Forum Nokia Blog entry</a> has been read 10,000+ times. We improved the code and added several new features, e.g. a speed limit mode for demonstrating the car at exhibitions.</p><p>And we got countless emails asking for the source code.</p><p>Now it’s finally ready – we have just released the source code along with some documentation. You can download it for free at <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/shakerracer.php" title="ShakerRacer source code">symbianresources.com</a>! So (nearly) nothing can stop the fun anymore.</p><p>Especially with the latest version of ShakerRacer, it is very easy to control the car – and of course it’s a lot of fun. The great thing is that you don’t have to explain the concept to anyone. It’s just a natural way to drive.</p><p>We demoed ShakerRacer at an information exhibition for pupils interested at studying. Obviously, it drew a lot of attention when a small car races around on the floor and someone just tilts his phone. During the development phase, the car lost both bumpers due to some serious crashes – luckily, there was only a single small crash with one of the visitors thanks to the new speed limit mode :)</p><p><strong>Some more information</strong></p><p><table align="right" border="0" cellspacing="10" width="215"><tbody><tr><td align="center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/ShakerRacer2.jpg" border="0" alt="How to control the car by tilting the mobile phone." /></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><em>The most natural way to control the car turned out to be the landscape mode.<br /></em></td></tr></tbody></table>Keep in mind that the phone cannot simply connect to an out-of-the-box RC car, as the standard wireless remote control of a car uses some proprietary protocol and technology for communication. Only by adding a microcontroller + Bluetooth module, you can make the car understand Bluetooth and enable it to communicate with the phone. Stephan Selinger has written some short instructions on how to accomplish this, but it requires some hardware ownership as well as –knowledge.</p><p><br />The Python application now uses the official <a href="http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.php/S60_Sensor_API" title="Nokia Sensor API at the Forum Nokia Wiki">Nokia Sensor-API</a> by default. This allows using the mobile client with the Nokia 5500, N95 (Firmware 20+), N95 8GB, N93i and the N82. For the N95 with older firmware, you can reconfigure the code to still use the very nice <a href="http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120394" title="aXYZ module">aXYZ Python-module</a> from Cyke64.</p><p>Some more pictures as well as the documentation and the source code are available from <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/shakerracer.php" title="ShakerRacer source code">symbianresources.com</a>.</p> <p align="center"> <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="350" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/EMjAYdF13cU" id="ltVideoYouTube"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EMjAYdF13cU" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="allowScriptAcess" value="sameDomain" /><param name="quality" value="best" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded" /></object></p> Connectivity Entertainment Games Python 2008-01-30T00:33:38Z mopius ShakerRacer: Real RC car controlled with the N95 acceleration sensor http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2007/11/27/shakerracer <p>Since the API to read the data of the acceleration sensor of the N95 has been released a short time ago, a lot of applications using it have been released. Some examples are the original <a href="http://research.nokia.com/projects/activity_monitor" title="Moving Ball sample application from Nokia">moving ball</a>-application from Nokia, the <a href="http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/6227_Light_Sabre_go_iPhone-hunting_.php" title="Light Sabre at AllAboutSymbian.com">light sabre</a> or <a href="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/luis-valentes-forum-nokia-blog/symbian-c/2007/11/20/accelerinvaders-video" title="Accelerinvaders">Accelerinvaders</a>. It’s finally possible to reach a bigger target audience than a few months ago when we released <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/carmeter.php" title="CarMeter">CarMeter</a> and <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/gboarder.php" title="gBoarder">gBoarder</a>, which were only supported by the Nokia 5500 Sport.</p><p><table align="left" border="0" cellspacing="10" width="215"><tbody><tr><td align="center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/t_ShakerRacer2.jpg" border="0" alt="ShakerRacer: Control a real car in a natural way by tilting your phone!" /></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><em>Control a real car in a natural way by tilting your phone!</em></td></tr></tbody></table>Now we wanted to take the acceleration sensor of a mobile phone to the next level and use it to control something literally “bigger” than an application that is running on the phone itself.</p><p>The result is called “<a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/shakerracer.php" title="ShakerRacer">ShakerRacer</a>” (thanks to Adam Montandon for this great name!). Stephan Selinger, one of our professors, bought a normal RC car for about €90 and “tuned” it. Not in the traditional way, but instead he replaced the standard remote control component with an own microcontroller and a Bluetooth-module.</p><p>Using the Python module <a href="http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120394" title="aXYZ Python module">aXYZ</a> from cyke64, it was possible to write a small application that translates the movements of the N95 acceleration sensor to commands that can be understood by the car. This enables you to go as fast as 30 km/h by just tilting your phone!</p><p>It is a bit similar to the control scheme of games like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excite_Truck" title="Excite Truck">Excite Truck</a> for the Nintendo Wii, with the huge difference that it’s now in real life. Another idea that has a bit in common is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UzXVJodfpU" title="GroundSurf">GroundSurf</a> where a skateboard can either be controlled by your own movements (like the <a href="http://www.segway.com/" title="Segway">Segway</a>) or with a PDA through a Bluetooth connection – but through the stylus on a touch screen and not intuitively like it is possible with acceleration sensors. </p><p>Of course connecting the tile of the phone with a real toy car involves you as a player a lot more than the traditional controller ever could, making it a lot of fun!</p><p>If you’d like to see it in action, check out the short video that we have made available at YouTube. Enjoy! As usual, you can find more information at <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/shakerracer.php" title="More information about ShakerRacer at symbianresources.com">symbianresources.com</a>.</p><p> James Bond would have loved it...  </p><p> <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="350" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/EMjAYdF13cU" id="ltVideoYouTube"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EMjAYdF13cU" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="allowScriptAcess" value="sameDomain" /><param name="quality" value="best" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded" /></object></p> Entertainment Games Python 2007-11-27T21:34:40Z mopius Mobile Application Prototyping with Python for S60 http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2007/10/22/mobile-application-prototyping-with-python-for-s60 <p>Application development for mobile phones is not so easy to get into in case you use native languages. For many applications – and especially for prototypes – “simpler” languages are preferable.<br /> <br /> The most obvious choices would be Java ME or Flash Lite, but both have their own shortcomings and limitations, which don’t always justify their use. A better choice can be using Python for S60 (PyS60), which allows development in a very efficient way and at the same time offers greatly simplified access to many lower-level features of Symbian OS phones.<br /> <br /> If you have not yet had the time to take a closer look at Python, the technical report from Bernhard Famler from the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg, Austria might be very interesting for you. On a few pages, he gives an overview of what makes the programming language special, how it is integrated with S60 and how you can distribute your applications – e.g. by building stand-alone applications.<br /> <br /> Of course, for a more detailed look, you should take a closer look at the highly recommended “<a target="undefined" href="http://developer.symbian.com/main/learning/press/books/python/index.jsp">Mobile Python: Rapid prototyping of applications on the mobile platform</a>”-book by Jürgen Scheible and Ville Tuulos. It has just been released at the <a target="undefined" href="http://www.symbiansmartphoneshow.com/">Symbian Smartphone Show</a> in London – if you didn’t use this event to get your own (signed) copy or at least one of his famous book covers with your own portrait on it :-) , you should <a target="undefined" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mobile-Python-prototyping-applications-Applications/dp/0470515058/">order it</a> as soon as possible!<br /> <br /> The technical report is freely available at <a target="undefined" href="http://www.symbianresources.com/tutorials/techreports.php#python">symbianresources.com</a>.</p> Python 2007-10-22T15:00:57Z mopius A new way of using the mobile phone for the visually impaired http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2007/09/13/a-new-way-of-using-the-mobile-phone-for-the-visually-impaired Nowadays, more and more features are added to every new generation of mobile phones. It’d be hard to find a phone without camera, mp3 player or advanced games. However, sightless people don’t get a chance to experience these fascinating possibilities.<br /> <br /> <table width="240" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="5" border="0" align="right"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><img width="240" height="180" src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/file.html?id=564&file=t_ninepoint_user.jpg" alt="Prototype of the ninepoint box in use." /></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><em>Prototype of the Ninepoint Box in use.</em></td> </tr> </tbody> </table>Without eyesight, there are currently only two possibilities for mobile communications:<br /> <ul> <li><strong>Text2Speech-software: </strong>This is problematic due to the privacy requirements – it’d be hard to use in public. Also, navigation through menus is slow. Another disadvantage is that it’d be nearly impossible to put text2speech-software on top of the existing UI of mobile phones, as today’s interfaces are usually very graphical. For example, even the alarm clock application couldn’t be read by software, as the time is usually presented in a graphical way.<br />  </li> <li><strong>Special Braille PDAs:</strong> They are comfortable to use, but very big and expensive, making their daily and mobile use problematic.</li> </ul> Why not use the power of modern Smartphones to provide a new and better solution? A project started by Ewald Kantner at our <a href="http://www.fh-ooe.at/uploads/media/MC_BSc.pdf">University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg</a> tries to address this issue.<br /> <br /> <strong>Ninepoint Box</strong><br /> <br /> <table width="240" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="5" border="0" align="left"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><img width="240" height="180" src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/file.html?id=565&file=t_ninepoint_closeup.jpg" alt="Closeup of a prototype Ninepoint Box." /></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><em>Closeup of a prototype Ninepoint Box.</em></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> A small, external box with several Braille components and keys for easy input connects through Bluetooth to the mobile phone. A special Python-application on a Symbian OS phone is responsible for communication and for providing the special non-graphical user interface.<br /> <br /> The interface has to be highly optimized to be able to efficiently access the most important features of phones, like making calls, sending SMS and using the alarm clock or calculator. Python proved to be the ideal choice for these tasks as its performance is sufficient and it enables better access to the required phone services than Java ME. On the other hand, using standard C++ would be very difficult due to the vast amount of different system APIs that are involved – of course, they’re very powerful but therefore also complex.<br /> <br /> The resulting solution is relatively cheap, easy to use and very transportable. It has been a big challenge to design the hardware and to test it with the target group, as the requirements are hard to meet. In the current status, fully working prototypes are finished and the final hardware design is on its way.<br /> <br /> To bring this product to the market, <a href="mailto:ewald.kantner@ninepoint-systems.at">Ewald Kantner</a> has started his own company “Ninepoint Systems”. Currently, he is searching for investors to bring the solution to the market – which is looking forward to the solution, according to the feedback from Europe’s biggest fare for sightless people, “Sight City”. Business Opportunities/Services General Python 2007-09-13T12:04:27Z mopius