application idea -- anti theft system

[Stroller]

On 13 Oct 2007, at 00:09, Derek Pressnall wrote:

> I have an idea for a simple alarm application.  The idea is that if
> you leave your phone sitting at your desk plugged in charging, then
> you can activate an app that will play an alrarm sound as soon as the
> devices is unplugged (with a popup keypad to enter a disarm code).
>
> A variant would use the gps to determine if the phone has moved more
> than a few feet from where you left it.

I can think of lots of other ways to implement anti-theft measures in  
this phone.

IMO if I'm too far away from the phone to notice someone nicking it  
then I'm unlikely to hear it making an alarm sound.

I would have it instead check http://mywebsite.com/theft.txt and if  
it doesn't get a 404 (i.e. you only put the file there when the phone  
has been stolen) then have it email you its GPS position.

It briefly occurred to me to have this theft function trigger a  
program that periodically switches off the microphone & speaker,  
calls 999, and reads out a prerecorded "this phone has been stolen"  
message a couple of times. Festival could be used to read out the co- 
ordinates to the call operator. However, it would take so few false  
alarms - generated by end-users "checking that it works" - to  
completely negate the value of this system that it should probably  
never be implemented.

Stroller.