Android based mobile tracker

PROJECT REPORT ON ANDROID BASED MOBILE TRACKER

Prepared by:
JASWINDER SINGH DHILLON(4223) MAYANK SINGH(4229) DHEERAJ JOSHI(4216) ARVIND SINGH(4215)

Android based mobile tracker

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. i) ii) iii) 2. 3. 4.. i) ii) iii) iv) v) INTRODUCTION..4 Need....4 Basic concept..4 Application..7 LITERATURE SURVEY...8 PROJECT STATEMENT...14 REQUIREMENT SPECIFICATIONS..19 Use case diagrams.....................................................................19 Data flow diagrams....................................................................21 Technology used...22 Hardware specifications.................................................................22 Software specifications....................................................................22

5. 6.

TIMELINE CHART..23 REFERNCES.25

Android based mobile tracker

1.Introduction: 1.1 Need: These days mobile theft is on the rise. On a rough estimate, there are 1.2 million to 2 million handsets lost or stolen in the country every month. Assuming that these are low-end handsets (priced between Rs 4,500 and Rs 5,000 each) the total lost or stolen value of mobile handsets would be around Rs 400 crore every year.Thats a lot of money involved. Mobile phones have now become the most important device as it doubles up as a wallet, not to mention its conventional uses of communication. It holds a lot of data, e-mail accounts, power point presentation files and documents, and protecting this is as important as protecting your wallet.So developing a mobile tracking device will be very helpful in overcoming the problems.This software application will help us to control and track our phone if it has been lost or stolen by somebody. If the phone is lost, the user can be assured that it would not fall into the wrong hands. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based global navigation satellite system (GNSS) that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. It is maintained by the United States government and is freely accessible by anyone with a GPS receiver with some technical limitations which are only
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removed for military users.Since the phones today are essentially smartphones with features such as GPS ,microprocessor etc we can make use of them to track the phone down with good accuracy.There are lot of applications present in the market but we will be creating one which will overcome some of the drawbacks in the mobile tracking applications already present.

1.2 BASIC CONCEPT: Our project aims to create an ANDROID application which will track down the phone wherever it is.This application will be installed on the phone and will give the exact coordinates of the phone.Users will be able to activate the application from a online server by sending an activation key through an sms. When activated the cellphone will use the get coordinates/ location from a location provider which can be a gps or wifi.(in case gps functionality is not working). The coordinates will be forwarded to the online web server and the location will be displayed using a embedded Google map. Sim change detection and beep alert are other features which wil be included in this.

Android based mobile tracker

In sim change detection as soon as anybody changes the sim in the cellphone then sim no will be forwarded to the server. Beep alert has been included which will be used to give a sound alert along with a message.Suppose we just dropped the cellphone in the nearby bushes ,then this sound will help us to know where it is. This project is based on tracking of mobile phone in various scenarious.The various functionality and roles of actors are given below :User: Every user who has to use this application has to create an account online.A specific activation will be sent via an sms to the mobile phone to activate the application.Once the application gets activated the app will start working and will use inbuilt gps navigation system to zero in on the phones coordinates. Inbuilt GPS : The GPS system will use the satellites to get the coordinates of the phone.After this the coordinates will be sent to the web server.This will approximately tell the phones location to the user.

Android based mobile tracker

System purpose: The proposed software product will be deployed in mobile phones using android OS for tracking down a cellphone remotely.Using this system the cellphone user will be able to get the exact location of his lost mobile through an online website. System scope: The system will be deployed as an application on Android which will effectively enable the user to utilise the inbulit gps capablities of android phones and hence recover the phone. All the phones specifications like the battery status,sim change detection and others can be monitored remotely.

1.3 APPLICATION: The developed software will be deployed on individual on phones and could be used as and when the situation demands.

Android based mobile tracker

This application will be highly useful for people who have important data with them on their mobile or have expensive phones.This will help in saving thousands of money.

2. LITERATURE SURVEY: In this section we are going to discuss the various pros and cons of the above mentioned software already present in the market and put forth our idea for development of another more developed application.

2.1.ANTI DROID THEFT

Android based mobile tracker

Add extra to security to your phone if it is lost or stolen. Track its location and take pictures on the internet through the Anti Droid Theft. Anti Droid Theft is one of the oldest and most popular anti theft apps used to secure your phone by using GPS tracking and other security features. It was created by ZOBO TECHNOLOGIES .

PROS:
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Android based mobile tracker

1.View position of phone using GPS 2.Track changes to SIM card / phone numbers CONS: 1. Needs password protect to uninstall app or make app hidden. 2.No backup facility. 3.Time duration between GPS updates is very long. 4.Doesnt use wifi to find coordinates in case GPS is not working.

2.2 MOBILE DEFENSE

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Founded in early 2007, Mobile Defense has quickly become leaders in both personal and enterprise mobile security. Mobile Defense was founded by Stuart Saunders and Ken Adair. Between the two of them they have over three decades of combined software development experience and have led large mobile initiatives in banking, security, and device management. Mobile Defense was inspired by their experience securing mobile devices for F500 executives and institutional traders. Mobile Defense was the first security solution for Google Android devices, originally developed as a contender in the first Google Android Developer Challenge. Over the years our products have grown and evolved to keep pace with rapidly changing mobile technology.

PROS: 1. Find your phone if lost or stolen from Mobile Defenses website. 2. Remotely lock your phone. 3. Send alerts to your phone with alarm sound and security pin. 4. Once successfully installed, the app is not detected on the phone.

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CONS: 1.No remote wipe. 2.Presently working only in U.S.Work is in progress to get it in other countries. 3.When you sign up for an account theres a waitlist before the user can register himself/herself. 4. This is a Beta version and it is expected that the service will have premium charges at some future date.

2.3 WATCHDROID LITE

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Android based mobile tracker

PROS: 1.Get your phone position (by network or GPS) 2.Retrieve current SIM information 3.Make it ringing even if the ringer is off CONS: 1.Drains battery power very early.Uses 5% batter powery. 2.Remote wipeout is not there. 3.Battery manager is absent. 4.For pro version price is very high.

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3. PROJECT STATEMENT

Most android based free phone trackers available on the internet are not very reliable as they dont offer an accurate reading of the coordinates. The aim of this project is to design an application for phone tracking that uses the established principles for calculating accurate gps readings and other features that are not usually available on other applications.

Challenges in Determining User Location Obtaining user location from a mobile device can be complicated. There are several reasons why a location reading (regardless of the source) can contain errors and be inaccurate. Some sources of error in the user location include:

Multitude of location sources GPS, Cell-ID, and Wi-Fi can each provide a clue to users location. Determining which to use and trust is a matter of trade-offs in accuracy, speed, and batteryefficiency.

User movement
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Because the user location changes, you must account for movement by re-estimating user location every so often.

Varying accuracy Location estimates coming from each location source are not consistent in their accuracy. A location obtained 10 seconds ago from one source might be more accurate than the newest location from another or same source.

Defining a Model for the Best Performance Location-based applications are now commonplace, but due to the less than optimal accuracy, user movement, the multitude of methods to obtain the location, and the desire to conserve battery, getting user location is complicated. To overcome the obstacles of obtaining a good user location while preserving battery power, you must define a consistent model that specifies how your application obtains the user location. This model includes when you start and stop listening for updates and when to use cached location data. Flow for obtaining user location Here's the typical flow of procedures for obtaining the user location: 1. Start application. 2. Sometime later, start listening for updates from desired location providers.

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3. Maintain a "current best estimate" of location by filtering out new, but less accurate fixes. 4. Stop listening for location updates. 5. Take advantage of the last best location estimate. Figure 1 demonstrates this model in a timeline that visualizes the period in which an application is listening for location updates and the events that occur during that time.

Figure 1. A timeline representing the window in which an application listens for location updates.

1.Deciding when to start listening for updates You might want to start listening for location updates as soon as your application starts, or only after users activate a certain feature. Be aware that long windows of listening for location fixes can consume a lot of battery power, but short periods might not allow for sufficient accuracy.
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2.Maintaining a current best estimate You might expect that the most recent location fix is the most accurate. However, because the accuracy of a location fix varies, the most recent fix is not always the best. You should include logic for choosing location fixes based on several criteria. The criteria also varies depending on the use-cases of the application and field testing. Here are a few steps you can take to validate the accuracy of a location fix:

Check if the location retrieved is significantly newer than the previous estimate. Check if the accuracy claimed by the location is better or worse than the previous estimate. Check which provider the new location is from and determine if you trust it more.

3.Adjusting the model to save battery and data exchange As you test your application, you might find that your model for providing good location and good performance needs some adjustment. Here are some things you might change to find a good balance between the two.

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4.Reduce the size of the window A smaller window in which you listen for location updates means less interaction with GPS and network location services, thus, preserving battery life. But it also allows for fewer locations from which to choose a best estimate. 5.Set the location providers to return updates less frequently Reducing the rate at which new updates appear during the window can also improve battery efficiency, but at the cost of accuracy.

6.Restrict a set of providers Depending on the environment where your application is used or the desired level of accuracy, you might choose to use only the Network Location Provider or only GPS, instead of both. Interacting with only one of the services reduces battery usage at a potential cost of accuracy.

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4. SOFTWARE REQUIREMENT SPECIFICATION 4.1 USE CASE DIAGRAM

FIGURE 2

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4.2 DATA FLOW DIAGRAMS

FIGURE 3

FIGURE 4
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FIGURE 5

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FIGURE 6

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Technology Used: JAVA,PHP Hardware specification: Intel Dual Core @ 2.2 Ghz or Higher 2GB RAM 128MB Shared System Graphics Memory Software Specification: For Development ANDROID SDK/ECLIPSE ( JAVA PLATFORM) For execution ANDROID EMULATOR (FOR TESTING)

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5.Time Line Chart:

1.Learning technologies: The various technologies used in are PHP,java and android SDK and emulator and this will take around 2 months.

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2.Requirement gathering: All the information about the project ,the literature survey and various other knowledge will be gathered in about 20 days.

3.Implementation: The implementation of the whole project,making the application,connecting the app with web server and etc will take approx. 3 months. 4.Using and testing: For using and testing the project ,it will take 10 days .

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References 1.http://developer.android.com/index.html 2.android-developers.blogspot.com/ 3.www.linuxtopia.org/online_books/android/devguide/in dex.m4. www.scribd.com/doc/14757121/Android-TheDevelopers-Guide

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